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We came up over the rise and the castle spread before us — broken, half-ruined., and that was our fault. One whole section of the outer wall had crumbled inward from our soldiers, stone and rubble still piled high. Men were already at work among the debris, hauling stones, clearing the worst of the collapse. The sound of hammers and shouted orders carried on the wind. Carts moved in and out. Smoke drifted from cook fires.

The king reined in. “… and ye did all of this, Laird Torin?”

Torin answered evenly, “The walls were stubborn, Sire, it took some work but we made them less so.”

Douglas said, “With what weapons? Speak plain.”

Torin gave only the barest details again — fire, stone, a blaze centered just so.

Douglas’s jaw worked. His horse stamped. The king’s questions grew sharper. “Men spoke of fire from the sky.”

“Aye, tis just flaming arrows, my men are adept.” Torin glanced at me. “I will speak more on it after. First, Lady Alexandria and I must go tae that hillside tae look for her missing jewelry box.”

Niall nodded. “I will send three men with ye. The king and Douglas and I will head tae the castle proper — I need tae see tae the weapons and our food stores.” He turned his horse, spoke to his men, and then he and the king and Douglas and most of the party rode away toward the main gates.

The other three men followed us, at a distance, as we rode directly toward the spot Uncle Ryan had called the extraction point. Torin climbed down from his horse and offered to help me down.

I gave him a look. “You can barely raise both arms. No, I don’t need help.”

I slid to the ground and only stumbled a little bit.

I smoothed my skirts down, saying, “This is the place, right?”

I scanned the area, slowly. “But there’s nothing.”

I saw a dark shape in the shadow of a tree a short distance away. “Wait... what’s that…?” I peered into the area, then rushed over and called back. “It’s a bag!” I picked it up, it was made of fine leather, the size of a messenger bag, and had my family’s coat of arms stamped on the side. It was packed with stuff.

I didn’t want to get my hopes up but I was really excited.

After peeking over my shoulder to make sure the guards weren’t watching, I opened the flap and pawed through. It was full of weapons and personal items, maybe belonging to an uncle: a handgun, boxes of ammunition, a notebook, a phone, a wallet, some pens, some money, I dug around looking for a vessel. Nothing.

I scanned the woods and saw a drone lying beside a hard case with its controls strewn around.

Torin was farther away, and the guards farther still, so I was talking to myself when I said, “I need to clean this up, can’t leave this lying around, what if a medieval man saw it?”

I looked over my shoulder to see Torin pull Dude from the saddlebag on the horse and place him on the ground.

I got the drone and its paraphernalia into the hard case and snapped it closed. And then putting the messenger bag across my shoulders I lugged the case over.

Torin called, “Ye need help?”

I blew dewy sweat from my forehead. “Nope, got it.” I dropped it all by the horses. “We need this, some of this will be handy, but no vessel.” I added, “I passed bloodstains on the dirt, there…”

Torin walked over and swiped his toes through the dirt turning the top layer over, while Dude sniffed all around.

I walked around kicking rocks and peering under small bushes. I made larger concentric circles while he climbed up on a boulder and crouched to look around with a different perspective. Finally I said, “Nothing.”

“Then we will look just outside sally port where I fought Rannald.”

We strapped the messenger bag and drone-case to Cathbarr’s saddle. I took my horse’s reins and Torin took Cathbarr’s, and we all walked toward the castle, our guards following.

From just outside the walls, the castle looked all beat to hell. There were men on horses riding through the gates and carts carrying goods headed in, empty carts going out. We passed the main gate and went around to the sally port to look.

Torin said, “Here is where I fought him…”

I scanned the dirt and then peered up on the walls. “We are so close to the castle, if it had been here on the ground it might have been seen, someone could have taken it.”

Torin said, “I fell here, and this is where I climbed on Cathbarr.”