“Why not?”
“I was brought up in foster care, without my parents, I mean.”
“Did they no tell you where you were from?”
“I asked but no one seemed to know. It was like I appeared from nowhere as far as they were concerned. I never understood it but I learned to live with it.”
“You’re from the Highlands, I would swear to it.”
“Maybe I am. Who knows? Not that it matters.”
“Where’s home now then? Where do you want this key to send you?”
“Far from here.”
“By tomorrow night we might both be dead. You might as well tell me.”
She sighed, turning onto her side and looking at him. “Just a caveat. This is going to sound insane, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I’m from the future.”
“You’re from the future?”
“Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like I’m crazy. I swear, I’ve come back in time. I don’t know why, I just know the key brought me here and I get the strangest feeling it did it for a reason. You don’t believe me, do you?”
Eddard thought he’d kept the skepticism from his face but clearly not. “I believe you believe that’s true.”
“You sound like a politician. Look, I’ll prove it to you.”
“How?”
“When we get the key, I’ll show you through the door to my time.”
“Then we need not argue now, future lass.”
“I know it sounds crazy, okay? If someone said it to me, I’d think they were crazy. I think I’m crazy but dreams don’t last this long. This is real, isn’t it? I’m really here?”
“Aye.”
“What? Why are you looking like that?”
“Like what?”
She leaned closer. He could feel her breath on his face. “Like you’re not really here. Like your mind’s far away.”
“I’m thinking about tomorrow.”
“You don’t think we can do this, do you? Convince them I’m Morag, I mean.”
He was silent for a moment, taking a swig from the leather flask before speaking. “I was supposed to protect her. I was meant to be guarding the door the night she went missing. It’s my fault all this happened, all the pain the clan is going through. It’s all because of me.”
“That was twenty years ago, wasn’t it? How old were you then? Twelve? Fourteen? You were a child. It wasn’t your fault what happened.”
