“Fine, but don’t do anything cool while I’m gone, like sword-fights or cattle-rustling, just boring stuff like cleaning up the mess the peasants left.”
Quentin, Fraoch and I moved to the tree line tae be a safe distance, while James, Zach, Emma and Ben stood in the middle of the clearing. Quentin called. “Go!”
James and Zach worked their vessels. They twisted and turned them. And then twisted and turned them.
Fraoch raised his weapon and turned his horse tae watch the woods.
Chef Zach said, “It’s not working boss!”
“Yours is nae workin’, Master James?”
“Nope, this ever happened before?”
“Once.” I told Quentin, “Watch our backs.” I dropped from m’horse, went to the middle of the clearing, and traded vessels with James. “Try this one.”
I jogged back tae m’horse but by the time I reached it I kent, my vessel wasna workin’ either.
Quentin said, “Shit, weapons up!”
Fraoch and Quentin aimed their weapons intae the woods.
I said, “Chef Zach get yer family on the ATV.” I drew m’gun tae guard the other direction.
There were some long tense moments.
Quentin asked, “Are you loaded?”
Chef Zach said, “Yep.”
Quentin said, “Magnus, head to the castle, Chef Zach, ride behind him, Fraoch, on guard.”
I turned m’horse to the end of the line and rode watchin’ in every direction. We rode cautiously through the woods, remained cautious at the tree line, then raced across the open fields tae the castle gates, yellin’, “Open the gates!”
We raced intae the courtyard where Campbells surrounded us. Sean asked, “I thought they were—?”
“Brother, there is someone comin’, we must—” My directions were drowned in the clamor for information, Quentin and James and I explaining at once.
Kaitlyn was pushing through the crowd, her eyes wide with worry. “What happened?”
“The vessels arna workin’ we must...”
“You tried them all?”
“The ones we carried with us, there are only two others.”
We pushed the crowd as the sounds of gates closing, men calling from place to place, ascending the walls — we had been cautious, guarded, but Sean was now putting the castle on high alert. Hayley rushed away to find her vessel and Kaitlyn passed me her own. I twisted it right there in the courtyard, because I could tell, twas nae workin’.
This had happened tae Kaitlyn and me years before. We had been stuck in this century until the whims of m’mother allowed us tae go home.
I said, “Come Kaitlyn.” She followed us as Quentin, James and I raced tae the top of the walls. Hayley and Fraoch met us there, with her vessel, also dead.
“What do we do, Mags?”
“Och, I dinna ken.” I added, “The vessels hae been turned off, so we are waitin’.”
Quentin lookin’ through the binoculars, searching the woods, said, “Shit, I wish I had gone for a lot more weapons.”
“I wish I had gone for m’army long afore now.”
Kaitlyn groaned. “But what if they turned off the vessels while you were gone? I can’t bear to think of it. At least we’re together.”
Fraoch said, “Twill be okay, we hae guns, we can protect the—”
Sean’s knuckles were tight on the hilt of his sword. “Ye daena ken, Fraoch — the weapons they will bring tae fight us, ye daena ken.”
I said tae Quentin, “Will ye make sure tae give Sean a gun?”
“Yeah boss, James and I got the rest of the weapons from Jimmy’s farm. I’ll make sure Sean and Liam are well-armed.”
“Good.”
Kaitlyn asked, “So what do we do, what’s the plan?”
“We hae tae wait. We hae tae double the guard, they need tae have the sights—”
“The night-vision goggles,” said Quentin.
“Aye, we must train them in the use. Dost we hae more radios?”
“I brought a few, we want some up on the walls. We need all our men to be able to speak to each other. Sean, when is the meeting with Lord Philip?”
“We will meet in four days.”
I said, “The truth of what is happenin’ will be revealed before it. Until we ken who is orchestratin’ this ordeal we winna ken how tae retaliate. We must remain alert.”
Tae Kaitlyn I said, “Will ye go tae the nursery and attend tae Isla and Archie? We hae tae attend tae weapons and war for a while, I winna be able tae leave the walls until later in the night.”
Ten - Kaitlyn
I spent the evening with the children, whispering worries with Emma. She and Zach had been ready to leave with Ben, and now she was the closest to tears I had ever seen her. She did find a wee bit of solace that we were all together, like two-percent solace.
The other ninety-eight-percent was pure panic. Someone had chased us all to the past and trapped us and we were probably surrounded. Whoever was doing it was fucking good at it. I doubted Emma and Zach could have hidden from them in the present day. She said more than once there was no way Zach could have protected his family alone.
We ate our meal in the protected confines of these rooms — consoled the babies, played with the toddlers, wished for social media to give us something to do.
Instagram would have been nice.
But mostly we worried. There were long moments when we were quiet and didn’t talk, waiting for the men to come relieve us with information.
Hayley was worried, but also pissed. Being in the nursery irritated her. I reminded her she could hang out in her room, or go to the kitchens, but she chose to stay with us, grumbling a great deal. She played a bit with the kids, then grumbled more. “Seriously, because I have two x-chromosomes I have to sit in the baby ward?”
“Yep,” this was the third time I had answered a variant of this question. “Because you have ovaries it’s assumed you are a keeper of the children, in literally every century.”
“You know that is some supreme bullshit. I don’t like kids. They’re fucking monsters.” She yelled across at Ben and Archie, “Except for you two, you guys are the bestest.” They glanced up from their game: pushing chairs apart, clamoring up one, flinging across to the other, then pushing them farther apart. They continued flinging and laughing.
I said, “What about Isla?”
She waved a hand exasperatedly. “She can’t understand a word I’m saying, and if she could she wouldn’t be at all offended. She would agree with me. You mark my words, she is going to be something cool, like a fireman or a president.”
“She’s in line for a throne. She might be a queen.”
“Yeah, but she has that kid in front of her. He’s a king for sure.”
Archie flung himself, very far, as far as he could, off-balance he landed with a crash, face first. He sat up dazedly, patted his nose, then got up to push the chairs farther apart.
Hayley continued, “Of course he might not survive.”
“Ugh, Hayley, he’s one of the loves of my life, don’t say that. But seriously, what’s up with two-year-olds crying like assholes when they’re tired, but brushing off a fall like that?”