“I dinna see, but I think they went back to that old castle.”
Roderick gave the signal for everyone to dismount. Once he was on the ground, he took his son aside. “Can ye tell me where the secret passage is located?” Michael nodded and told him everything his father wanted to know.
“What are we going to do?” Galen asked.
“Michael, I want ye to return to Black Dawn with Galen.”
“No,da. I dinna want to lose ye again.” Michael wrapped his arms around his father’s neck. “And Lady Siena – she said she is my mother. I dinna want to lose her either.”
Roderick pried the lad’s arm from around his neck. “Ye’ll no lose me ever again, but I have to go and find Lady Siena, and I need to ken that ye are safe so that I dinna worry about you.”
“Nobody will ever get ye again,” Galen promised. “Ye can ride with me since ye are probably tired.”
Roderick hugged his son once last time and told him he loved him. He felt something in the child’s jacket. “What is this?” He reached in the jacket and pulled out a bunny.
“Lady Siena brought me my rabbit.”
Roderick felt his throat closing and he had to clear his voice to say, “’Twas nice of Siena. Ye take care of yer rabbit.” He placed Michael on Galen’s horse.
“A word, Galen.”
“Take five men and dinna let Michael out of yer sight for one minute until I return.”
“He’ll be in good hands.”
“Something else, brother.” Roderick leaned in and whispered something which made Galen nod, then smiled. “It’s about time, brother.”
Roderick and the rest of his men rode to Balan Castle.
Sometimes to get rid of evil it needed to be jerked out root and stem.
Chapter 18
They rode hard to Balan Castle but stopped at the edge of the forest just overlooking the castle.
“We stop here tonight,” Roderick ordered. The men and horses needed to rest while he thought about his plan to rescue Siena.
He was going to give her a piece of his mind once he made sure she was once again safe. She should have waited for him. Instead, she put herself in grave danger. Then he said a prayer that she was safe, and she wouldn’t object when he killed her father. The son of a bitch had held his son for a year. That thought made Roderick’s hands shake. The man was responsible for injustice to his clan. They needed their revenge, too.
At the first light of day, Roderick took three men with him to find the secret passage Michael told him about. The rest of his men were to circle the castle and wait for them to open the main gate. No sense in getting some of his men killed breaching the walls when it could be avoided.
Michael had given good directions for finding the wall and warning him to take a flint with him to light the torch. In no time they were running down the torchlit tunnel knocking cobwebs out of their way as they climbed the stairs to the door. Roderick shoved on the door and the chest slipped enough so that they could get into the room.
Immediately Roderick saw his son’s blanket, so this is where Michael had been held. Roderick bent over and picked up the blanket and tucked it in his belt. A cold fury seeped through his veins. The mon would pay, but for now, he needed to stay focused.
“Let us make our way to the front gate so our lads can come in an easy way.” Luckily the castle’s men were still sleeping and the guards at the gate were easily taken down with little noise.
The gate was opened, and the Scots swept into the courtyard and fanned out, but many stayed on the outside and surrounded the castle close enough to help if needed.
They were ready.
* * *
Cinge had just crawledout of his bed when he heard someone banging on his door.Blast it was early, he thought and then yelled, “Enter.” He grabbed his pants and slipped them on.
David, his first in command, rushed into the room. “Milord, there are Scots in the courtyard! Laird Scott is there also.”
“Kill them and be done with it.”
