Scotland Highlands, 1484
Hidden behind a false panel, ten-year-old Calin MacLeod
covered his ears with sweaty palms. The screams echoing
throughout Brycen Castle were loud enough to loosen his teeth.
Lena Kinnon cried for mercy with every gut-wrenching
contraction, but didn’t receive the slightest morsel of
compassion from the many men present. Her position held no
dignity, sprawled atop the council table like a sacrificial
lamb. The wool of her soiled sark draped between her raised
knees and provided her little privacy. No one wiped her brow
or offered soothing words of comfort.
A woman was supposed to suffer during childbirth to pay for
the sins of Eve. Even at his young age, Calin knew the laws
of the church. He also knew Lena had already suffered more
than any woman in Clan Kinnon. The bruises speckling her
pale skin were evidence of the constant torture she endured
at the hands of her ruthless husband.
The sliver of space between the wooden planks where Calin
hid was no wider than the trunk of a sapling, but provided a
view of Da, Laird MacLeod, who stood against a stone
pilaster opposite Laird Kinnon. Da’s dark hair had grayed at
the temples over the recent months, and his face sagged in
weariness, but his rigid stance displayed his contained
rage. With his eyes narrowed, Da stroked the golden bull’s
head engraved into the signet ring he wore and glared at his
enemy.
Two pairs of MacLeod warriors flanked each side of Da, while
four Kinnon warriors surrounded Laird Baen Kinnon. All were
unarmed as was previously agreed upon by both lairds.
“Ye keep screamin’, wife. It’ll cleanse your black English
soul.” Laird Kinnon paced the council chamber, a sneer
twisting his pitted face.
Calin hated the chieftain of his neighboring clan as much as
Da did. Laird Kinnon was a cold-hearted demon. Anyone who
would beat his lady wife during her childbearing time walked
upon this earth with the devil’s black blood flowing through
his veins.
“Ye bear me another bitch and it will be your last.”
“Please, Baen, have ye no mercy? Send for the midwife,
please.” Lena gripped the sides of her belly and arched her
back.
Laird Kinnon slapped her across the face with an open palm.
Sweat sprayed over the tabletop. “Still your tongue, wife,
or I’ll cut it out.” He spread his arms wide, gesturing to
the many warriors present. “There be plenty o’ eager hands
awaitin’ to catch my male bairn as soon as ye free him from
your spoiled womb.”
Calin bit his tongue to avoid cursing the man as venomously
as Da always did. Calin had lived his whole life without a
mam to kiss his cheek or offer him praise. Over the past few
months, Lena had been like a mother to him. She was kind and
gentle and Laird Kinnon should burn in the deepest pit of
Hell for the way he abused his lady wife. Calin didn’t have
to be an aged warrior to know this was wrong. Lena’s child
was nothing more to Laird Kinnon than a binding contract.
A contract that affected Calin’s future. Which was precisely
why he’d disobeyed Da’s direct order not to follow him to
the Kinnon keep when word of Lena’s lying-in arrived. If
Lena bore a daughter, the babe would become his betrothed.
Calin and his friend, Kendrick Neish of Clan Kinnon, had
discovered the secluded compartment just two months past
after stumbling into the pitch-black caverns beneath the
castle. Since then, they had become privy to every council
meeting between their clans. They knew of war and how the
English wanted to reign over Scotland. Both had heard the
gruesome tales of entire villages being slaughtered. Neither
he nor Kendrick wanted their clans to suffer such a fate.
Calin knew they were supposed to be enemies, but they wanted
the same thing—an alliance.
For five hours, Calin had hugged his twisted limbs in the
narrow space while Lena labored in the corner. His arse
tingled, and his toes had gone numb hours before inside his
leather brogues. The dank odor of moldy floor rushes drifted
into his hiding place. A prayer floated into his ear.
“Fàilte dhut a Mhoire, tha thu lan de na gràsan . . .” In
the Gaelic tongue, Father Harrald prayed to the Blessed
Mother while he paced the edge of the chamber. The granite
beads of his rosary clattered with his every movement. The
young priest had been summoned to perform the baptism or to
administer Last Rites in the event this child didn’t
survive—as Lena’s previous three babes had not.
Lena pushed and Calin sucked in air.
He exhaled when she did. Her whole body convulsed, his
shivered. Wet ropes of black hair clung to her face and
neck. Propped on her elbows, her head fell back. Her mouth
opened, and she screamed in agony.
One of the warriors caught the babe just as it slid from
Lena’s body.
Calin held his breath awaiting the outcome.
“A lass, Laird Kinnon,” the old man announced grimly while
he held the babe by the ankles and slapped her rump. He then
laid her atop Lena’s quivering abdomen.
Lena pulled the crying child to her breast and stroked her
newborn skin. Relief washed over her face and tears spilled
over her cheeks when she smiled at Da. All would be well now.
“Seal off the hall and bring me the other child.” The cord
still attached his infant daughter to his wife when Laird
Kinnon commanded his seneschal. Dark eyes blazed with
contempt as he stared directly at Da. “Ye will ne’er hold
claim to my land. Nor will ye e’er touch my wife again.”
“I have ne’er wanted your land.” Da stepped closer to Lena.
“But ye dinnae deny touching my wife.”
Da glanced at Lena.
A dozen broad-shouldered men materialized from the darkened
recesses of Brycen Castle. Their weapons flickered beneath
golden wall torches. A raw-boned nursemaid, escorted by
another warrior, entered the chamber, her fear evident in
sunken wide eyes. In her arms, she held another babe
swaddled in striped wool, its fists swatted the air. With
trembling hands, she placed the babe in the crook of Laird
Kinnon’s arm.
Confused, Calin studied the exchange. Laird Kinnon had
agreed to unite their clans if Lena bore a daughter.
Laird Kinnon turned to his warriors. “Send their miserable
souls to the devil. All of them.” His tone was devoid of
mercy. Of compassion. Of any emotion except contempt.
He stepped out of the keep onto the stone rampart. “I have a
son!” he shouted.
The villagers of Dalkirth roared their approval while the
words echoed in Calin’s ears.
Nay! ’Tis a lie! He gawked in horror as the shadowed knights
charged his clansmen. Da’s devoted seneschal used a flaming
pitch-pine torch to defend the attack. His efforts were
futile. With one swing of a halberd, a Kinnon warrior
beheaded him. Another fiend slashed one of the MacLeod
warriors from gullet to navel. Fists clutched enemy plaid as
he fell to his knees.
Calin’s heart tripped. His hands flattened against the
panel. His nose pressed into the crack. Oh saints, help them!
The saints could no more help his kinsmen than the bits of
wood they used as shield and sword. The Kinnon warriors
buried the steel of their weapons into the MacLeods’ flesh,
spreading pools of dark blood over their crossbarred plaids.
Slaughtered before his eyes were Da’s most loyal kinsmen.
Calin’s stomach convulsed and saliva grew thick in his
mouth. He wanted to run and hide his eyes from the nightmare.
Standing amid the four fallen men, Da was trapped. His hand
slid to the empty scabbard at his hip. There was no weapon.
No claymore to defend himself against this preplanned
attack. Six Kinnons surrounded Da. He turned toward Lena.
Calin froze. Unshed tears scalded his eyes. Run, Da! he
screamed in his head, but instead, Da fell upon Lena. He
brushed the tears from her cheeks then pressed his lips to
hers.
A single warrior cast a shadow over Da like a demon cloaked
in black mist. Leather-clad hands gripped the hilt of a
battle-axe and raised the lethal weapon over his head. In
one thrust, he buried the steel between Da’s shoulders.
Lena screamed as his body slid off her and crumpled to the
floor.
Calin choked on the knot in his throat as the bloody
massacre branded an image in his mind. His pulse pounded in
his neck, making his cries hard to swallow. Terrified they
would find him, he splayed his violently shaking fingers
over his eyes, all the while chastising himself for
cowardice. His world went black, along with his mind, his
heart, his soul.
The dying groans of suffering drummed through his ears, but
the scream slicing through the air brought sight back to his
eyes.
Lena.
Shame flooded Calin as he watched the same warrior unsheathe
a black dirk from his stocking. He held Lena’s chin while he
slashed the sharp sgian dubh across her throat. With her
infant daughter nuzzling at her breast, Lena’s head fell to
the side, giving Calin one last look into crystal-blue eyes
before the terror in her face vanished along with her spirit.
The warrior’s leathered hand hovered over the nape of the
babe. His other hand held the weapon that would end her
short life. The coppery taste of blood pooled on Calin’s
tongue from where he bit the inside of his cheek.
Father Harrald dropped to his knees at the warrior’s feet.
“Save your soul and cease. Please, cease. I beg of ye. The
others had been baptized. She must be baptized.”
The Kinnon warrior hoisted the priest up by the hood of his
habit and pointed his dirk at one of the other warriors.
“Confess.” The clansmen gave their confessions one by one,
binding Father Harrald to clerical secrecy. After the last
warrior reconciled his sins, he shoved the priest toward
Lena. “Ye may proceed with the rites. Someone will return to
collect the babe.”
The men vanished into the shadows from whence they came.
The violent turn of events had Calin near to retching. He
gripped his churning gut with clenched fingers and stared at
the babe still nestled atop her dead mother’s bosom—daughter
to the demon who murdered his father, but also his
betrothed. He didn’t know whether to hate her or protect
her. He had nary a doubt her brief life would tragically end
in much the same way as Lena’s first three daughters.
The fire’s reflection flickered off the blade Father Harrald
used to sever the cord binding the babe to her mother. The
priest washed the remnants of birth from her skin and laid
her in a pile of linens next to Lena. His voice quavered
with the administration of blessed sacraments. “An tAthair,
An Mac, An Spiorad Naomh.” Signing the cross over the babe,
he blew breath upon her, and baptized her with holy oils.
Calin crawled from his hiding place, wiping the wetness from
his cheeks. He raked the patch of brown hair falling loosely
over his brow, while stepping over the blood and carnage.
Unable to tear his gaze from Da’s body, he let the sickly
sweet stench of death fill his nostrils and revive his
spirit with the promise of vengeance. The metallic acid
thickened in his throat, but he swallowed his fear, his
grief, his newfound hate. He had but one purpose now—avenge
his father’s death. And to do so, he needed the babe.
Father Harrald flinched. “Young Calin, ye must not be here.”
Ignoring the priest, Calin knelt at Da’s side. He brushed a
lock of graying hair from Da’s damp brow and willed him to
stand, but his skin paled as a pool of blood welled beneath
him. Calin bent to his ear. “Blood of my blood. I’ll not
fail ye, Da. I vow it.”
Father Harrald’s hand rested on Calin’s shoulder. “They’ll
murder ye, just as sure as they will the babe. Ye must go.”
“Father Harrald, ye will see that Da and these men are
returned to MacLeod soil. Get word to Uncle Kerk. Tell him I
am weel, and I’ll be home soon.” Calin wished his voice
didn’t falter. He needed to be a man, a warrior. He
swallowed hard then pulled the signet ring from Da’s limp
hand and set the engraved crest against a glowing ember in
the hearth.
Calin couldn’t meet the priest’s eyes. “An eye for an eye.
She’s the key to the alliance, and she belongs to me.” He
spoke with defiance as he handled the squirming babe. He
carried her to the hearth and set her atop a wooden basin.
Using a strip of heavy wool to retrieve the signet ring from
a hot coal, he rolled her onto her side and branded her
bottom with the MacLeod crest. She let out a shrill scream,
followed by shuddering sobs. He wrapped the babe in linens,
then secured her in Lena’s striped arisaid, fastening the
wool with her family brooch. He held her close and attempted
to coo her into submission. One day he would tell her about
her mam and how kind Lena had been to him.
So many questions stirred in Calin’s troubled mind, but one
in particular needed answering. “I know ye heard Da’s
confession a sennight past. I also know ye are bound by the
seal o’ the confessional, so I’ll understand if ye cannae
answer my question.”
“What’s your question, my son?” Father Harrald scanned the
entrance to the chamber.
“Da loved Lena.” Calin paused with his gaze fixed on the
newborn bundle. “Is this babe of my own blood?”
“Nay. Lena was swollen with her fourth child before she ever
met your da. Rest assured, your young bride is not your
sister. Now ye must go, quickly.”
Retrieving a torch from a wall bracket, Calin reentered the
nook. The babe whimpered against his chest. A tiny hand
swatted his chin. She was warm and smelled of innocence. He
glanced over his shoulder at Da’s body, his eyes lowered. He
should have done something. At least tried to stop them. He
was weak, spineless. A coward.
Calin’s eyes found Father Harrald, his skin gray with worry.
“What will ye tell them when they return for the babe?”
“I’ll tell them a warrior took her. ’Twill not be a
lie.”