“We seek to speak with your chief,” Callum declared.
A cluster gathered in haste at a threadbare encampment. Not even a fire lit. Skinny. It was as skinny as those warriors with gaunt faces surrounding them. Their eyes sunk into their skulls with visible shadows under them even if it had yet to turn dark overhead.Odd. They… they looked starved.
The familiar terse frame belonging to Chief MacHarris appeared through the haunted-looking faces with hard expressions.
Sword in hand, the chief eyed them. “Explain yourself, Sir Callum, in utmost haste.”
“I believe we have both been wronged.”
The chief’s dry laugh filled the grove. “We? How could one such as yourself ever be wronged? Pray tell.”
“We seek to speak with you in private,” Callum answered solemnly.
“Then you shall continue to ‘seek’ for I do not speak with a captain in the royal guard who wipes his arse with a gilded linen.” He looked at Nella. “Pardon, my lady.” The chief was mindful of Nella; perhaps not all was lost.
“I wish to speak with you not as captain of the royal guard but as once a chief myself to one of the Highlands’ most powerful clans. One chief unto another. What say you?”
MacHarris shuffled his weight a moment before he raised his hand toward the fallen log he had been sitting upon a moment before. Callum threw his leg over Luss’s hind end then sought Nella who set her palms upon his shoulders. Her feet gently met the ground as he locked eyes with her a moment. Aye, she was safest beside him even in the depths of hell where he may have just taken them.
The three strode toward the more secluded place with Sir Brayden and Lord Kolson flanking them. “I take it somehow you managed the feat in escaping Lord MacMardan’s grasp thus your appearance before me,” MacHarris stated when they paused at the fallen timber. “However, you shall not leave here so easily forthwith. ’Tis a matter of great importance that you remain here. A purpose one such as yourself would not easily understand.”
“I believe you are mistaken upon that consideration. For when I held the post of chief before bequeathing it to my brother, I knew very well the weight it bore onto one’s shoulders,” Callum countered, then explained, “Lord MacMardan nae longer lives.” MacHarris’s dark gaze broadened. “Slain by his own mercenary.”
“Sèidrich?”
“The very mercenary.” Callum nodded. “We are now hunted by Sèidrich and the gallowglass under his charge. In the essence of time, I shall come straight to the point. MacMardan never intended to stay true to the accord he had struck with you about feeding your clan and we have proof of this deceit in MacMardan’s own hand.” He looked at Nella, who pulled the parchment from the satchel then handed it to the northern isle’s chief.
Once done reading, the chief crumpled the parchment in his fist. MacHarris glared at Holger first. “Our granary was emptied three years past by Northmen, such as you, who invaded our isle’s shores with their fleet sailing for Largs. Being of a proud clan we did not seek King Alexander’s aid at first.” His dark gaze met Callum’s with anguish riding his words. “Alas, the burden became too great to carry when harvest after harvest was found lacking by those we depend on for trade. We traveled unto Stirling. The eve we arrived at an inn a lord in good standing with King Alexander was there in the common room. The lord summoned me to his table. I considered him untrustworthy. Sitting in the corner, a hood on his cloak pulled up so only a shadow appeared where a face should have been, with another warrior flanking him, and both refused to even give their names. He laid coin down for a meal and ale for my men and I. So, through happenstance I spoke with him upon our plight. My consideration changed sharply when this lord showed me the king’s signet and declared he would approach the king upon our behalf in a private manner befitting the request. He assured me if I went before the court there was nae chance we would find aid.”
“’Twas a falsity,” Brayden huffed angrily under his breath.
MacHarris continued. “After meeting with the king, the lord told me King Alexander did not take clan beggars into hiscourt. We were ordered from Stirling lest we be preyed upon by the royal guard.” He waved his hand toward Callum and Brayden. “During our journey home we came upon another. Wealthy and able to aid my clan….’
Nella breathed the name in anguish. “Lord MacMardan.”
The chief ruffled his onyx hair. “Aye, bitter at the crass treatment and knowin’ my clan would starve before winter was out, I agreed to his accord. The one where we now stand. Grains for the king’s life, a life who would take many of my own clan’s without a second glance.”
“MacHarris, King Alexander was never given the first glance,” Callum replied, “for this I am certain. Sir Brayden speaks true, ’twas lies cast at you. Those who were loyal to the crown during the Northmen’s siege he has only the highest respect for. Pray tell, did you ever speak with a knight hailed as Sir Sean?”
“Nae, only the shadow lord.”
“You believe Sir Sean is possibly innocent?” Brayden’s eyes grew wider while asking Callum, “Or Sir Sean formed an alliance with this lord from the court, and he betrayed his own brother as Keithen declared before his final breath?”
“My lady.” Callum looked toward Nella. “Was there ever any conversations regarding the brothers’ quarreling?”
“Nae.” She shook her head then added, “However, their sire forever favored Keithen. He considered Sir Sean was ill witted at never capturing the prize of captain once Sir James had turned traitor.”
“This would explain why Sir Sean never mentioned Keithen or his sire,” Brayden said.
“From all my wee brother, Aonghus, told me when he was at Stirling, Sir Sean and Sir James were inseparable at tasks. But once Largs was done, Sir Sean did all in his grasp to distance himself at being associated with the traitor. Sir Sean evenseemed embarrassed to have known him. In the common room at the inn would you describe the one sitting with this shadow lord?” Callum asked the chief.
“Tall, arrogant, face bonny as a lass, flaxen hair. All the tavern lassies were swooning about him as if he was well known to their bedchambers—”
Callum met Brayden’s look, and they both said at once, “Sir James.”
“That treacherous worm,” Brayden cursed in Gaelic.
Callum began pacing slightly. “So, Sir James must have approached this shadow lord, secretly albeit, on his own greedy ways after seeing Lord MacMardan’s list. The very same list of potential lords for the crown, which perished in the fire by Keithen’s hand. Sir James offered the crown to this shadow lord directly. The very same eve they spy you, Chief MacHarris, with the features of a MacCade brother, and a stronger plan takes root. Sir James was forever lazy. I can hear his voice now toward the shadow lord. ‘Allow Lord MacMardan to take on all the difficult tasks and risks in gathering weapons and men-at-arms. Then we will cut him free the final moment if nothing strikes amiss.’”
