In their lack of coordination, they crashedtogether from left and right. Wallace swung wildly at any who got too close.
“Stay with me,” he yelled over the noise. Groping behind him he felt for Natalie but she was not there. Where had she gone?
“I must thank you,” a voice called out. At once the attacking men froze, turning as one to look in the direction of the voice.
A man in a cowl was approaching, he had hold of Natalie, dragging her struggling form beside him. Wallace went to run at him but again the men swung their swords.
He fought valiantly, slicing left and right as the figure in the distance spoke up again. Somehow, despite the roars of pain from those he felled, he could hear perfectly the conversation taking place.
“She will take your place in the chains as we agreed,” the man in the cowl said. “You brought her all the way back to me and I am grateful. Now, girl. Give me the key.”
Wallace felt something digging into the back of his waistband. He dipped his free hand behind him and then smiled.
The men attacking him had stopped attacking at the sound of the word, “Key.” They were all looking the other way, craning for a look at thefamous key their master had been so desperate to find.
Wallace took his chance, slipping between them and quietly moving backward. None of them noticed, they were too entranced by what was happening over at the far side of the valley.
“Where is the key?” the man snapped. “Give it to me.”
“I do not have it,” Natalie replied before she screamed, “Run Wallace!”
He ran, sprinting up the side of the mountain and then dipping behind a huge boulder. When he peered out he could see the barefoot man’s army looking for him. None had spotted his escape.
He could see Natalie being screamed at by the barefoot man. His demands for the key were becoming all the more violent.
Wallace prayed the answer did indeed lie within the door in the rock. What had Scarlett told him? That he would find what he needed most in the world behind it. What could that be? His father? His clan? A dozen armed men to fight off that army down there?
He slipped from rock to rock, keeping out of sight of the men in the valley. Soon he could no longer hear anything but the wind as he continuedto climb, the mountainside becoming steeper and steeper until he was clambering up a sheer cliff.
He reached up and stretched, jumping for the edge high above. He made it, just, his fingers catching and almost slipping but then finding a grip somewhere. He hauled himself up.
There was the rock Scarlett must have meant. In the middle of it was a wooden door that looked completely out of place.
He took out the key from his waistband. When had she sneaked it in there? He guessed while they were under attack. She was brave to think so clearly while in such danger.
Sliding the key into the lock, he took a deep breath before turning it. He gasped at the sight on the other side.
The door opened out into the middle of the valley. Right in front of him was Natalie, her back to him. The barefoot man was a few feet away, berating one of his men. “He has the key. He was right here. He can’t have gotten far. Find him or I will have your head left here for the wolves to enjoy.”
He had only a second before the barefoot man turned and saw him. Leaning through the doorway he grabbed Natalie by the shoulder, yanking herbackward through the door before she knew what was happening.
The barefoot man spun around to find himself looking at the empty space where she had been standing just moments before. She was gone.
13
The barefoot man was glad he had personally come down from the castle. His initial thought had been to remain in the tower and let the key come to him.
He had listened to the reports from his scouts, the messages on the pigeons coming in thick and fast while he worked out exactly where Wallace and Natalie had gone.
He didn’t eat. He didn’t sleep. He just impatiently waited for news. Then the old hag casually dropped into the conversation that the two of them were hiding out on Knife Island. It was enough to make his blood boil. She couldn’t have told him that earlier?
It wasn’t fair for the balances to be tippedagainst him after so he had worked so hard and waited so patiently.
It had taken it out of him to send Wallace’s spirit forward in time. It wasn’t something that could be conjured lightly out of the air. Dark magic like that was draining.
It had been worth it to know that his chance was getting closer, that the key was getting closer. Soon his father would be free and together they would rule the world. Father and son.
The churches would close. The abbeys would empty. There was little point praying to a faraway God in the sky when a God on earth was in charge. Even with the cheating fools attempting to help them, he was going to win.
