The Highlander’s Witch (27 page)

*     *     *

Body shaking in barely controlled fear, Skye rubbed her sore nipple.

“I swear that woman smirked before they took her away.” Skye muttered, trying to ignore the image of the man stripping her with his eyes.

They had huddled together throughout the night, Skye had done what she could to keep Anna warm without causing Riona to know she was using her gift and in the morning a man had come into their pen and hauled Riona out by her hair, but not before twisting Skye’s breast hard and saying he’d be back.

“Anna?” Skye asked while looking toward the area the Reivers had left.

“Aye?” Came the dejected response.

“Is Riona English?”

“Nay. She an her brother hail from the lowlands.”

There was a moment of silence as Skye mulled over her thoughts.

“I think they are English.” She turned to her friend, mouth pursed in thought.

“Why do ye think so?”

“Remember when I said Riona was outside your brother’s bedroom when I cast that spell?”

“Aye.”

“Something has been bugging me about her ever since and I remember it now. When she spoke to me, she spoke in English and there wasn’t a Scottish brogue.”

“That makes no sense. Why would she lie?”

“I don’t know.”

More silence.

Anna sighed heavily. “Ye ken that we won’t live for much longer, do ye no? They will have their fun with us an then we will be killed.”

Ignoring the bruised nipple, Skye sank down next to the dejected girl and wrapped her arms around her.

“No, Anna, I do not ken.”

Anna smiled ruefully. “I make flowers grow an ye heal, how is that goin to help us?”

“I can do more than heal, just get them close enough to touch and leave the rest to me. Besides you said you can make anything grow, not just flowers.”

“So?”

“Can you make the roots from that tree trunk grow, or maybe even the branches?”

“Aye, but to what end?”

“I don’t know, maybe nothing, maybe everything. But always good to know the extent of what we have at our disposal and what we don’t.”

“I suppose.”

Still scared to death, she looked determinedly at her friend as a tear rolled down the girl’s cheek.

“We will not go down without a fight.”

*     *     *

“Twas horrible!” Riona cried into Aiden’s chest, clinging to him as her tears wet his tunic.

“Do ye ken where ye were, lass?” Collin asked in barely controlled irritation.

“Nay, they kept us hooded. Twas no till we reached the camp did they remove the blindfolds.”

“What of Anna an Skye?”

Riona looked up at the hard face of the man she held onto and her lower lip trembled.

“Anna be fine, I warned them of yer fierceness if crossed. I doona think they will harm her because she be yer sister.”

Before Aiden could ask about Skye, she went back to wailing, her head pressed against his upper body.

“Poor Anna, what an awful experience an she was only thoughtful of others. I told her I be ruined, that men would turn from me in disgust thinkin I had been . . . been . . . raped.” She whispered the last word in dismay then looked up, eyes red and pleading. “What am I to do, Aiden?”

Aiden clenched his teeth and took the woman by the arms, trying hard to keep his calm.

“What of Skye?” He repeated slowly.

When all she did was burrow deeper, he pried the girl’s clutching hands from his arms and held her away, repeating his question.

Once again, her lips quivered.

“All she could think about was gettin me to ask those brutal men for a fire. Me!” She shivered and more tears coursed down her mottled cheeks. “As if what they did to me just from askin for Anna to be released instead of me was no enough.”

Aiden looked over at Finley who was pacing as if in deep thought.

Heaving a frustrated sigh, he placed her in the arms of her brother as he passed by and went behind the safety of his desk, his brows furrowed in contemplation.

They tried to get Riona to talk as soon as she returned with Keir but all she’d done was insist she be taken away posthaste, stating she was too fearful of being recaptured without the protection of his stronghold surrounding her.

They wasted a lot of time returning to the keep and now, even with her inside the safety of the gates, she was useless.

“Ye saw nothin to help us before it be too late?”

Riona looked like she was trying to think even as more tears fell but in the end, all she did was shake her head.

Aggravated at his inability to save Skye and his sister, Aiden braced his hands on the desk in front of him and lowered his head.

“Come, sister, think hard.”

Finley knew Riona’s antics were going to cost them a valuable foothold. Aiden gravitated towards strong-willed women not whimpering fools like Riona was behaving, and they had discussed this. She was destroying everything they had worked for with her caterwauling. He shook her firmly, his back to the men so they could not see as he glared at her meaningfully.

Riona scowled back at her brother before she realized what he was silently telling her to do.

“Wait.” She frowned angrily at Finley before she widened her eyes and stepped around him to slip back to Aiden’s side. “I do remember somethin.”

“Aye?”

She batted her eyes and clasped his arm. “It might be nothin, mind ye.”

“What be it, woman?” Collen and Aiden growled as one.

Riona pouted and her lower lip trembled.

Aiden straightened and took a deep breath before patting her hand encouragingly.

“What do ye remember, Riona?”

“Well.” She drew out the word and bit her lip in deep thought. “There was a path, well-worn mind ye, which the rogue’s took often, returnin with buckets of water.”

When Aiden stared at her without saying anything, she sighed and pouted. “I told ye it might no be anythin.”

Aiden looked over at Collin. “A stream?”

“Or an underground pool.” He shrugged in thought. “It could be many places. I will get with me men an look over the charts ye have.”

*     *     *

Skye and Anna stood with clasped hands as the setting sun illuminated the raiders’ return.

The leader’s face was flushed with fury as he looked at them while holding a badly beaten man.

Both of them knew it was not a good sign.

They watched as they carried the injured man into a tent, the leader following, casting one last fierce look their way before ducking under the flap.

Squeezing each other’s hands, they both weakly smiled encouragement to the other.

Sometime later, there came a commotion from the direction the group had arrived. Several men came through on horses while dragging another on foot behind with a rope. The rain from earlier making the captured man’s footing difficult at the pace the men had kept, mud spattered his body from when he’d probably been dragged earlier.

One of the men jumped off his horse and ran to the tent, calling out for their leader.

They watched him storm out and approach the captive, punching him in mid stride.

The man fell to his knees shaking his head.

Will grabbed his hair in a fist and another punch brought blood bursting from his nose.

“Tie him up. Ye two; grab the wenches and bring them here.” The flickering flames casting his face in an evil glow as he glanced their way. “I want them to watch him die.”

Two men approached with vicious looks on their faces and entered their small space.

Anna and Skye backed up in fear, not getting far before their hands were yanked before them and cruelly tied, a brutal pinch to their breasts causing whimpered shrieks as the men dragged them from their confinement, trembling in terror.

Slamming a pitchfork into the dry ground, the men lashed their bound hands around it.

Will grabbed Anna’s chin tightly. “Watch what happens to my enemies.”

He grinned maniacally before turning away.

Skye had a difficult time looking at the imprisoned man. Even with bruises swelling his face and wrists bleeding from chains, he stood tall and defiant. If only she could help, but there were too many of them and with Anna pregnant and unsure of her abilities it would only end in disaster.

Pulling a stick from the fire, the leader eyed it with a devilish look before turning to the bound man.

As Skye’s heart leapt to her throat, the man jabbed the branch into the captured man’s neck and pulled it back when the hostage fell to his knees.

The girls struggled to break free, Anna begging for mercy while Skye cried out for him to stop.

Jerking the prisoner to his feet, Will repeatedly jabbed him in his chest.

Skye was weeping, trying to break free from her bindings, her face swung over her shoulder to look into the fire, her mind ready to scream for her sister when her head was wrenched back around by the hair.

A fist smashed into her face causing her knees to buckle and her vision to recede. She grabbed onto the handle of the pitchfork and struggled to stand as she was hauled up by her hair.

Her vision slowly cleared and she found herself looking into the leader’s face while Anna wept next to her, unable to help.

“I told ye to watch.” The man snarled as spit flew from his mouth.

He stared at her hard making sure she understood his meaning before turning back to continue torturing the hostage.

They clutched each other’s fingers, watching through blurred eyes as the man was tortured, cringing when he began to scream as the pain became too much.

Anna threw up when they cut his tongue from his mouth as Skye sunk to her knees, her head crowded with the horrors they were forced to witness.

A lifetime later, they were released, Skye had long ago ran out of tears, her mind and body numb to the rough handling of the raiders as she was made to stand.

She had only one thought going through her head over the last hours.

She jerked her arm away as she looked over her shoulder at the murderer. “Be thankful I will not take so long to kill you.”

When pushed back into their cage, Skye stumbled, hearing the persecutor’s laughter following behind her.

They fell against the trunk, wrapping their arms around each other, weeping softly as Skye focused on the baby, making sure there had been no harm caused by the stress of the last few hours.

“His name was Rory.” Anna hiccupped through her tears.

Skye nodded and tried to comfort her friend.

“Rory was a brave man.”

Overcome by exhaustion, they fell asleep holding the other, their minds having suffered through too much.

Abruptly woken sometime later, Anna screeched and hit Will when he snatched Skye from her side.

“It’s okay, Anna, stop it, you must think of the baby.”

The man backhanded the pregnant girl causing her to fall on her hip, and then he threw back his head and roared.

“Do not be jealous me fair-haired gurl, ye be next once I have exhausted me lusts on this fine piece of flesh. Then me men shall have at her and ye will be mine.”

He eyed Anna with hatred. “Tis the least ye owe me for what yer brother did to me own kin.”

He tossed the struggling Skye over his boney shoulder and passed through the gates as another man locked it behind him.

Thrown to the ground, Skye lost her breath as her body slammed against a crate.

Before she could take a breath, he fell on top of her, his hands ripping at her clothes and groping her flesh.

Fear overwhelmed Skye and she lashed out, cursing him. A fist connected aimlessly at his shoulder before Will grabbed her wrists and slammed them down with brutal force above her head.

“I like a good fight, wench, but there be things that need doin soon so this first time we will be skippin the fun and tyin yer arse up.”

As he moved to get a better hold, she hauled off and slapped him feeling the cold course into her hand as she brought forth her powers.

He pushed her away with such force that she fell, her head hitting a container filled with water.

“Bloody bitch. That will be returned thrice-fold.” He snarled, rubbing his jaw.

Head spinning, Skye was unable to fight back as he grabbed her violently by the hair and dragged her to the center pole before binding her to it.

*     *     *

Collin looked up from the charts a group of them had been going over and frowned at his brother-by-marriage. “What be it? Ye be too distracted.”

“I ken there be somethin I be overlookin. Somethin Riona said.”

Finley had removed his protesting sister from the study once they found she had no more information to give them.

“Och, I dunno trust that woman.”