He shook his head. “Nae. I canna...”
“Will you need to forfeit?”
“I hae never done that afore, but aye, I will forfeit.” He strode to the middle of the field to speak to John Stewart and end the match.
I returned to my chair. Mary of Guise asked, “Will Lord Magnus be able to continue the match?”
“No, he can’t, he’s forfeiting.” The older man refereeing their fight announced, “John Stewart is the winner!”
Applause rose from the crowd.
Magnus walked up to Mary of Guise and bowed before her. “My apologies for forfeitin’ the game, your highness. I found m’self unable tae continue.”
“Lord Magnus, you looked as if you were fighting a different battle than the one before you.”
Magnus, with his head bowed, said, “Aye, twas a battle from m’past. I was made tae fight tae the death as a crowd chanted m’name. That battle was playing afore me as if I was dreaming.”
Mary of Guise shook her head sadly. “Lord Magnus, I have felt this myself. Four years ago, at the siege of Haddington, I lost sixteen men around me. Sometimes when I close my eyes I relive the battle. It is difficult to try to rid my mind of that memory.” She smiled consolingly. “I understand. You are forgiven for not continuing the match.”
“Thank you, your highness.”
Magnus came and sat beside me. He tucked in around my arm and squeezed it tight.
I whispered, “I understand all of the reasons you couldn’t go on, and I just want you to know that I love you.”
“I love ye as well, thank ye for helping me find my breath again.”
“You’re welcome, we’re a team, you and I, we’re in this together. And the truth is, you no longer need to prove your sword-fighting skills. Practice fighting is a young man’s game. You have proven yourself, time, and time again. I think that from now on, you need only to throw that big rock in the air. That was fun.”
“You liked watchin’ me do that?”
“Aye, your muscles heaving? Huge fan.” I kissed his forehead. “I truly am your hugest fan.”
“I ken ye are. Somedays tis all that gets me through.” He added, “We begin the journey home tomorrow, are ye glad of it?”
I gave him a sad smile, the ‘home’ part was enough to make me wince. But he knew all the trouble of that word, he was living it with me. We didn’t have to mention it every time, it had been over six months — he knew. These days, except for the occasional bouts that welled up in my tears or his silence, we kept the sadness in the unspoken in-betweens.
I said, “Yes, but I’m glad to be anywhere as long as you’re there too.”
He nuzzled his forehead to my cheek and then we finished our embrace, straightened in our seats, and applauded as John Stewart received his prize.
Fifty-eight - Hayley
Hammond had ordered a hospital tent erected, and I was watching Fraoch get set up in a bed, when Quentin and James rushed across the fields from the clearing. “Miss anything?” Quentin called as he neared.
I stood at the edge of the tent. “You missed everything, fucking everything!”
Quentin said, “I had to get the family set up, they’re all safe, you’re welcome. Why’s Fraoch in a stretcher? You cool, Fraoch?”
“I am nae cool, Quentin—”
“He was beaten by Lady Mairead’s soldiers, he was threatened at gunpoint by Mags, he is not okay—”
“What the hell? Magnus was—?”
“On a murderous rampage... Look, just follow me. The doctor needs to get him settled.”
We stood off even farther to the side while the doctor placed equipment around Fraoch’s bed. Another man, who looked as if he had fallen from the walls, was brought in. They were expecting about eight people by the number of beds.
Quentin and James looked clean and fresh. “How long were you gone?”
“We took two days, long enough for a shower, expecting Katie, but she never showed. Magnus never came. So we returned. Don’t tell Magnus we didn’t wait a week.”
“Yeah about that...” I put my fists on my hips and blew hair off my forehead. “Right after you all left, like literally right after, like she was waiting for you to go, Lady Mairead had Fraoch arrested and beaten and dragged from the castle.”
“Why the fuck?”
“She said he was Magnus’s brother, before you ask, not by Lady Mairead, but by Donnan—”
Quentin’s eyes went big.
James said, “Who’s Donnan?”
Quentin said, “Magnus’s dad, fucking pay attention, he was a total dick, Katie had to kill him in self-defense, and the uncle of the guy who’s been attacking the castle for days on end.”
“Okay, okay, dude. Man, Mags has the worst fucking family.”
Quentin and I both huffed exasperatedly.
“I asked Katie to come help as you—”
James said, “Where is she by the way?”
I said, “Please let me talk, please, please oh please let me tell you what happened, so we can figure this out, okay?”
“Okay, go.”
So Katie and I were going to intervene with Lady Mairead when Bella stepped out of the woods—” I said to James, “In case you’re not up to speed on her, that’s Archie’s mom.”
“Mags’s mistress.”
I was about to say something when Quentin said, “Fucking cut the shit, James, you know the story, shut the fuck up.”
“Yeah, sorry, uncool.”
I said, “Bella came all violent at us, and I thought she was going to shoot me but then Katie stabbed her and killed her.”
Quentin said, “Holy shit.”
“Yeah, and then Bella’s vessel activated and Katie grabbed hold of it and time-jumped somewhere.”
“Fuck. Do we know where?”
“We do now, kind of, not really, but first I ran to the middle of the field, Lady Mairead was there, plus Roderick and Fraoch. Magnus had escaped from Roderick and was holding all of them at gunpoint. I threw myself on Fraoch because I thought Mags was going to kill him and—”
“Magnus wouldn’t kill him.”
“He shot Roderick, mid-sentence.”
“That guy was an ass though, he deserved it.”
Quentin said, “So where is Katie?”
“Apparently Lady Mairead activated some vessels remotely, sending them to the past, before the vessels originated. You remember that, right Quentin — before the vessels?”
“Yeah, I remember, how far past the date of the vessels?”
“Like no one knows, could be years.”
“What is Magnus going to do?”
“He already left, he went there to find her.”
“So they’re both in the past with no vessel?”
James said, “Wait, what’s happening? I’m trying to keep up but this shit—”
“Boss and Katie are in the past, before the vessels exist. That means they don’t have a vessel.”
“Shit. I don’t know much, but that doesn’t sound good.”