“I hid it under his tunic. Kelvan tried to touch it, but it burned his hand. It does not matter how much I warn him, he continues. Just like he did with Grant, and that wee lad burned his skin ferociously. Foolish K learned not to make that wee laddie angry. Now he needs to learn to leave John alone.”
Alasdair had to smile at the lass who’d been along on the worst ordeals. “Will we ever stop needing you, Lia?”
“Jake says aye. He sent me to you.”
“Jake? Jake who?”
“Your sire. John Alexander Grant. You look much like him.”
Alasdair’s eyes misted, though he had to wager that it was probably something in the chamber, not his emotions. Not the fact that he missed his mother and father every day of his life, or that it pained him to think that his parents had never met his wife or their bairns.
Neither he nor Aline had living parents, so their children hadn’t had the luxury of grandparents to spoil them.
“But your grandfather spoiled them whenever he could,” Lia whispered.
“I didn’t say that. I was thinking it.”
“I could hear it. Some thoughts are so important that they carry to me.”
“What else can you do, Lia? Will you untie us so I can get us out of here?”
Lia sighed and untied the mitts on her hands, folding them in her lap. “Some things I am instructed to do, and others I’m not.”
“So, you untied your hands? Release me, please.”
“But I don’t have the key.”
“Find it? I’m guessing you can.”
Lia chuckled. “I will when I’m told to find it.”
“I don’t understand. I want John to be safe.”
“John will be safe. You will never have to worry about your son. He is a chosen one to bear the weight of the sapphire sword, and with Grant, they will have powers that even you won’t understand. But there is time before that happens. For now, we must be patient.”
“Why?”
“If I set you free and you untie your son and remove him from here, what would happen next?”
“I would find a way to walk away.”
“And …”
“And what?”
“Kelvan and Glenna would still be free and alive to haunt and taunt you more. Steal more bairns. Stab more elders.”
He was having a difficult time trying to reason with a lass younger than John who had the power to do what she wished. Sitting there with her hands folded, Lia appeared to be in complete control of the situation. Why the hell wouldn’t she set the two of them free and escort them out of this hellhole? “If you got us out of here, we would come back for them. And for Kyla. Where is she?”
“She is staying in a chamber in another area. You won’t find her without help. And I don’t know where she is yet.”
Alasdair felt like he was talking in circles. If she would just unlock the chains, he would get John away. They could return for Kyla later.
“But they would move again.”
He was beginning to understand. Something else needed to happen. Uncle Connor needed to bring the forces of Clan Grant down upon these evildoers, or the suffering would continue. “Can you read all my thoughts?”
“Nay, only the ones that are sent to me.”
