Page 54 of Highland Storm

“There’s the dungeon,” whispered Hawke, looking up at the battlements to make sure the guards hadn’t spotted them. There didn’t seem to be a lot of the clan guarding the place, and he only hoped that most of them had gone to the coast to fight the English.

“Logan, stay here and cover our backs. Ethan, let’s get in and out quickly. With any luck, they’ll never know we were here until the mornin’.”

Hawke hurried to the dungeon door, his sword at the ready. Then he and Ethan quietly slipped inside.

“How do ye ken he’s in here?” whispered Ethan.

“I dinna ken for sure, but I thought it was a hell of a place to start lookin’ for prisoners.”

There was only one man guarding the door and Hawke knocked him out with little trouble.

“Ye didna kill him?” asked Ethan in surprise, since Hawke had a reputation of killing first and asking questions later.

“I’m tryin’ to quit,” Hawke said under his breath, taking the keys from the guard and opening the gate leading to the cells. He picked up a torch and headed inside. “Stay here and watch my back,” he told Ethan, in case anyone else entered the dungeon.

“Hurry,” said Ethan. “The sun will be risin’ soon.”

Holding the torch high to guide his way, it didn’t take him long to decipher that the cells were all empty except for one. He had thought it was the cell that held his grandfather but, to his surprise, two young women and a boy of about six years old occupied it instead.

“Who are ye?” asked the boy, looking up with big, hollow eyes. The three of them were gaunt and dirty. Hawke couldn’t imagine why anyone would imprison women and children.

“Who are ye, is the real question,” said Hawke. “And where are they keepin’ the prisoner, Ian MacKeefe?”

“Ye’re a MacKeefe,” said the girl with long, blond hair.

“Why do ye say that?” he asked, scanning the surroundings. The place was a typical dungeon with cold stone and an occasional rat running by. But the stench in here of feces and urine told him that these prisoners hadn’t even been given a pot to piss in. And by the looks of them, they’d barely been fed.

“Ye wear the same green and purple plaid of the prisoner,” said the girl.

“Ye’ve seen my grandda?” asked Hawke, his spine stiffening. “Where are they keepin’ him?”

“We dinna ken,” said the other girl who looked a little older. She had curly brown hair and big round eyes. “We saw him when they brought him to the castle, but then they threw us in here and we havena seen anyone except for the auld man that brings us bread and water.”

“Why are ye in here?”

“Euan took over the castle,” cried the boy. “He doesna like us.”

“But to imprison those of his own clan? And women and children, no less? Why?”

“Euan was waitin’ until our faither dies, but he has already taken control of the castle now,” said the first girl.

“He’s goin’ to ask ransom from the MacKeefes once they arrive and then he is goin’ to kill our da and us as well,” said the other girl.

“Please, help us,” cried the boy. “I dinna want to die.”

“Nay, I canna help ye, I’m sorry,” said Hawke. “I am here only to bring back our laird.” He turned to leave, not wanting to get involved. Two women and a boy were only going to slow him down and get him caught. He couldn’t concern himself with what the MacNabs did, and neither did he need more MacNabs traveling with him. Two was already too many.

“I want Phoebe,” whined the boy, crying aloud.

“Did ye say Phoebe?” Hawke stopped and turned around.

“She’s our sister,” said the blond. “Yer clan is holdin’ her prisoner. She has been like a mathair to our brathair, Miles, since our mathair died in child birth.”

“Then ye’re Elspeth and Agan,” he said.

“Aye,” said the girls in surprise.

“I’m Elspeth,” the darker-haired girl told him. “What is yer name?”