Nature of the Beast Page 8

  “Aye, I see her. She frets o’er ye, I think,” she said.

  “I wish Berawald would hurry.”

  “So do I, loving. So do I. If only because the only place he told me to go after getting out of here is Cambrun, his clan’s keep. I have ne’er been there and dinnae ken them at all.”

  “They would help Berawald if he was in trouble.”

  “Which is exactly why I will do just as he told me to.” That and the fact that David was still in danger, but she would not add to her brother’s fear by saying so. “Now, we had best hush.”

  “But we are talking verra softly.”

  “E’en a whisper can carry a long way in places like these.”

  Evanna kept leading David along, thanking God that they could both see so well in the dark and wondering just how long this passage was. At times it narrowed and at other places she had to bend down to clear the low ceiling. She suspected Berawald nearly had to crawl through such places and that might be why he had not yet reached them. Such things would also slow down any enemy who followed them into the passage. They were also slowly climbing upward, which meant that they would come out somewhere above Berawald’s cave. She could only hope there were none of her enemies waiting up there for them.

  “The lady says someone is coming,” whispered David.

  Even as she turned, drawing her knife from the sheath she had strapped to her arm, she asked, “Ye can hear her?”

  “Aye. I decided to let her talk to me and so she does. She whispers in my head. She says Berawald comes.”

  “Thank God. I had begun to fear he had decided to face those men on his own.”

  A moment later Berawald appeared and Evanna sighed with relief as all the tight fear inside her eased. It was foolish, for they were still in a lot of danger, but seeing Berawald alive and unharmed gave her the strength to keep the fear of their enemy at bay. She idly wondered if David noticed how Berawald eased his body past the ghost, but the boy just smiled at him.

  “There are near to a dozen men searching for our wee bolt-hole,” Berawald said, keeping his voice soft. “With so many looking they may weel find it soon. We must keep moving.”

  She nodded and started moving along the passage again. Compared to how silently Berawald moved, Evanna began to think she sounded like a herd of oxen stomping over the rocky floor of the tunnel. He did not urge her to be any quieter, however, so she decided she must not be doing as poorly as she had feared.

  “Do ye think there are more outside the cave?” she asked.

  “There is a verra good chance there are, but we will worry about that if and when we meet up with them,” Berawald replied.

  “The sun hasnae set yet.”

  “I ken it, but it is close to the time it does so. If no one is outside when we reach the end of this passage, we will judge how bright the sun is before we step outside. We may have to hide in here for a wee while. After all, we gain naught by going out into it too soon and making ourselves too weak to run or fight.”

  “True enough. Is it Duncan?”

  “Aye. Ye didnae tell me ye had given him a good wounding. He was complaining about that.”

  Evanna grimaced. She could tell by the hard anger shading Berawald’s voice that Duncan had been bellowing out his usual threats. Trying to fulfill them had been his downfall the last time he had grabbed her. It had allowed her to stab him. Unfortunately, after being in the sun for so long that day, she had been too weak to take swift advantage of that and it had given him the chance to cut her with his sword.

  “He nearly caught me that time,” she said, “but he was alone so I still had a chance to save David. I took it.”

  Berawald could all too easily picture what had happened and it made him ache to kill Duncan. He admired Evanna’s courage and her skill with a blade, but he did not want her to have to depend on either for her safety. Not anymore. Whatever else happened, he would make sure that Duncan did not survive this time.

  When they finally reached the end of the passage, Berawald cursed. Even with all he had placed in front of the opening to hide it, the light seeping in told him that the sun had at least an hour before it had set enough for them to go outside. He could tolerate that last half hour of sunset without becoming too weak to fight, but he would become almost useless if he spent a full hour in it. He had been hoping that they would at least discover some thick, dark clouds had swept in to cover the sun.

  He moved as close to the opening as he dared and listened carefully. Assured that no one waited outside their bolt-hole yet, he waved Evanna and David back into the deep shadows. For a moment he considered sending Evanna and David ahead, for they could endure the late afternoon light, but he quickly cast that idea aside. The sun might not weaken them as it did him, but it would make them both all too visible to their enemies. He sat down, his back to the wall, and silently signaled for them to do the same.

  “How long do we wait?” Evanna asked as she sat down next to do him.

  “I can venture out in a half hour or so, when the sun is but peeking o’er the horizon,” Berawald replied, silently cursing the weakness that held him back and put them all in danger.

  “Then we will wait.” She took his hand in hers and closed her eyes, slowly caressing David’s soft curls when he settled down beside her and put his head in her lap. “I dinnae understand why they come now or came last night when they are so certain that we avoid the day because we are demons.”

  “Either they dinnae ken how the sun affects us, that it actually could be used as a weapon against us, or they are fools.”

  “’Tis probably a wee bit of both.”

  “Aye, and when Outsiders fight Outsiders, attacking in the dead of night can give the attacker a big advantage. These men may nay be able to change their ways.”

  “What will happen if they follow us to Cambrun?”

  “My kinsmen will kill them.”

  Evanna winced but did not protest. It would be a bloodbath if all of his kinsmen fought as Berawald did, yet she could feel no true remorse for what she might be leading Duncan and his men into. They had killed her parents and wanted to kill her and David. The only way to stop them was to kill them. She just hoped she did not have to watch.

  Nine

  “I think they have found the passage,” David whispered into Berawald’s ear.

  Berawald looked at David but did not ask the boy how he knew that. He could see the ghost pointing at the doorway out of the passage, silently ordering him to move. It took only one glance toward the opening to know the sun had not yet fully set, but he had no choice. He had to get David and Evanna away from here as soon as possible. He shook Evanna awake.

  “We go now,” he said as he helped her to her feet.

  “’Tis too early. The sun has nay set,” she protested as she tried to shake free of the weariness that gripped her so tightly. “Ye cannae go out there.”

  “I can and I must. ’Tis close to the time that it would be safest for me and we arenae so verra far from Cambrun.”

  “They have found your bolt-hole.”

  “Aye, and I willnae risk ye and David by trying to stand and fight or buy myself a wee bit more time ere I have to leave here. We leave now.”

  Evanna did not bother to argue with him. If it was just herself at risk, she would urge him to wait until the sun set or their enemies were too close; she would even fight as his side. There was David to think of, however. He could not fight and his life was as much at risk as hers and Berawald’s.

  She stood holding David’s hand as Berawald carefully but swiftly removed the brush and rocks from the opening and then looked around for any sign of their enemy. She winced as they all stepped outside and her fear for Berawald’s safety returned in full force. Although she and David could bear standing in the sun when it was so low in the sky, she knew that every minute Berawald stood in it his strength ebbed. There was not even a cloud in the sky to help shelter him. She all too clearly recalled how it felt to have the stren
gth slowly leave your body, and shuddered.

  They began to make their way down the small hillside. Evanna helped David over the uneven ground and kept looking toward the trees. At least there Berawald would be able to find some shelter from the sun, and she was determined to get there as quickly as possible. At this time of day any shadow, any piece of shade would be enough to give Berawald some protection and help him hold on to enough strength to fight if he had to.

  By the time they reached the shelter of the trees, Evanna was not sure she had the strength to go on, and this had nothing to do with the rapidly waning light of the sun. She was tired, tired to the bone. As she leaned against a big tree, she watched as Berawald stared up at the opening of his bolt-hole. She could barely see the place where it should be but knew that his eyesight was much sharper than hers.

  All her differences, the ones she had struggled to hide all her life and had caused the death of both of her parents, were pale shadows of the ones he had. Now, as they tried to outrun an enemy intent on killing them, she could see how those differences could easily be considered a gift. Right now those differences could very well be all that kept them alive.

  “There they are,” muttered Berawald, his hand tightening on the hilt of his sword. “Bastards.”

  “Do ye think they will ken which direction we are going in?” she asked as she straightened up and struggled to gather what few scraps of strength and willpower she had left.

  “I think it would be wise to assume that they do or can easily guess,” he replied. “Come, I ken ye are tired, but ’tis just a wee bit farther.”

  “I am nay so tired that I will do anything to let those men catch me, nay e’en a wee stumble.”

  Berawald nearly smiled at her words, for she was swaying on her feet, but he knew she meant what she said. “Good. If we move fast we can be safe inside the walls of Cambrun before they even discover which path we took.”

  Evanna truly doubted that but did not disagree. She could see that the hearty words had given David some much needed strength and courage. Still fighting to find enough of her own to keep on moving and fulfill her boast, Evanna started off in the direction Berawald pointed her in. She ignored the icy chills on the back of her neck that told her Duncan Beaton was stalking her. She suspected she would feel that chill even if Duncan were skipping through the vineyards in France and just happened to glance toward Scotland. Until the man was dead, she doubted she would ever feel truly safe.

  “There is Cambrun,” Berawald said nearly an hour later.

  Evanna stumbled to a halt and stared at the huge, dark castle. It appeared as if it had risen straight out of the solid rock that seemed to cover all the ground around it. She had not seen many castles in her time, but she had the suspicion that Cambrun had to be one of the most threatening ones in all of Scotland, perhaps in several other kingdoms as well. This was to be her haven? Safety and kindness were not the first things that leapt readily to her mind at the sight of that dark, foreboding pile of stone.

  “There is an awful lot of open ground to cover ere we reach the gates,” was all she could think to say.

  “Aye, but my kinsmen have sharp eyes and can move verra fast.”

  “So cry out verra loudly if ye think we are about to lose this race?”

  “A verra sound plan. Ready?”

  “As ready as I can be. I am a wee bit tired.”

  Berawald smiled at her and brushed a kiss over her forehead. “As am I. As is poor David. I will carry him from here on,” he said even as he picked David up into his arms.

  Evanna almost said something in protest of that plan, but one look at David made her bite back her words. The moment Berawald settled the boy in his grasp David rested his head against his broad shoulder and closed his eyes. He was exhausted and even though Berawald would be hindered some by carrying him, it was better than being slowed down even more by dragging a completely exhausted little boy along by the hand. She felt a little guilty for not noticing how weary the child had become, but her own blind determination to keep on going no matter how tired she was had held all of her attention.

  They had just reached the edge of the cleared area around the keep when a cry rose from behind them. Evanna turned to look behind her in horror as men began to rush at her and Berawald through the trees. She recognized the brutish figure of Duncan Beaton and reached for David. To her surprise Berawald shoved the child into her arms and pushed her in the direction of Cambrun.

  “Berawald, we must run,” she said.

  “Ye run and get the boy to safety,” he said, arming himself with a sword in one hand and a knife in the other.

  “But e’en with all your strength and speed ye cannae beat so many men all on your own.”

  “I willnae have to. I only need to hold them back until ye and the boy can get to safety. My kinsmen have already seen us and will soon join me.”

  “But—”

  “Trust me, Evanna. I will nay be alone for long. Now—run.”

  She gave him a fast, hard kiss and then began to run. It astonished her that she could find the strength to do so, but suspected it was the feel of her little brother’s trembling body in her arms that gave her that strength. He was terrified and this time he was too exhausted to try and run and hide without her assistance.

  The gates to Cambrun were close enough for her to see the heavy carvings on their iron-banded surface when she felt as if she could not run another step. Her whole body shook from the effort it took to keep on moving and she knew that at any moment her legs would simply collapse beneath her. When the gates to the keep opened and a horde of dark men rushed out, her mind told her to run in another direction, but her body simply did not have the strength to obey. She had the chilling feeling that she had just run from one death right into the arms of another.

  She tensed and held David more tightly when a tall, impossibly handsome man with golden eyes stopped right in front of her. Evanna had the wild thought that there did not appear to be such a thing as an ugly MacNachton. When he reached for David, she staggered back a step and drew her knife even though she knew she did not have the strength to stop him from doing whatever he wished to.

  “Be at ease, lass,” he said in a voice that was as golden and smooth as honey. “I mean ye no harm. I am Jankyn, Berawald’s cousin. He has told ye about me?”

  Relief swept through her and she almost fell to her knees. “Aye. Berawald needs help.”

  “Oh, he is getting quite a lot of it at the moment.”

  She shuffled around just enough so that she could look back to where she had left Berawald. One look was enough. Duncan and his men would never escape alive. All she cared about at the moment was that Berawald still stood, alive and apparently unharmed. She turned back to Jankyn.

  “That is good, for I really am too tired to go back and help him,” she said, and knew she was tired when the man’s beautiful smile did nothing at all to her.

  “Let me take the lad,” Jankyn said.

  “Thank ye. He almost made it here on his own.”

  The way the man took David into his arms and gently brushed a lock of hair from the boy’s brow made the last of Evanna’s doubts about him disappear. She was about to thank him for his help when he glanced behind her and began to reach for her. Even as his hand touched her arm a fiery pain ripped across her back. She clutched at his arm, hearing a chilling scream from behind her as she fought to stay on her feet. A little wildly she decided that Jankyn MacNachton had an admirable skill with curses as she heard him spitting out a whole river of them.

  “Curse it, lass, I should have seen him coming up behind ye,” he said. “How bad is it?” he asked the man who was standing behind her.

  “’Tisnae pretty. He swiped that cursed sword clear across her back. If I hadnae been already trying to pull him back he would have cut her in two.”

  The words being said in the deep raspy voice did not really sink into Evanna’s mind. She heard a movement behind her that told her whoeve
r the man was, he was about to move away from her back. If the wound was bad, Berawald would be able to see it from where he was and she could not allow that, not when he was in the midst of a battle.

  “Nay, dinnae move,” she said. “Dinnae move away from my back.”

  “I was going to lift ye up so we can take ye inside and see to that wound.”

  “Dinnae do that, either. Is Berawald still fighting?”

  “Aye,” replied Jankyn. “He is facing some hulking brute he is cursing and calling Duncan. He is the one that tried to cut ye in half from the front, is he?”

  Jankyn, she decided, was one of those men women probably adored even while they wanted to slap him. “Aye. Ye cannae let Berawald ken that I am wounded, nay while he still fights someone.”

  “Berawald could defeat that fat fool with both hands tied behind his back.”

  “Nay if he is distracted because he sees that something has happened to me. He had to walk in the sun for longer than he liked today. We had to leave the safety of his bolt-hole ere it had fully set and it took us a while to make it to the shelter of the trees. He may nay be at his full strength. E’en if he was, it wouldnae be a good idea to let him see that I am wounded until all of our enemies are dead or disarmed.”

  “Oh, there willnae be any disarming,” Jankyn said in a voice that sent chills down her spine and briefly interrupted the searing pain she was fighting against.

  “Then help me to walk into the keep and, whoe’er that is behind me, ye walk so that none can see what has happened to my back.”

  “’Tis Raibert,” came the raspy voice, “and we had best get moving then or ye willnae be able to get inside ere one of us has to carry ye.”

  Jankyn moved to her side and wrapped his arm around her waist. The strength he revealed as he nearly carried her to the door that way astonished Evanna. All the while they walked along as if she was not leaving a trail of blood along the ground, she heard him murmuring soft, comforting words to David. Her brother had obviously seen that she had been hurt and Jankyn appeared to be doing an excellent job of calming him down.