“Got your gun in easy reach?” I asked.
Fletcher patted the shoulder holster beneath her leather jacket and nodded.
“Stick together, no matter what happens. We’ll need to move fast when we get there. If we can grab Finn and get out without engaging, that would be best, but I doubt that’ll happen. Dunnel says backup is on its way, but it's thirty minutes out, so we’re on our own for now.” I gripped her shoulder and turned her towards me, so she had to look at me. “I know you’re nervous, but I need you with me for this to work. Are you with me?”
Fletcher steeled her face, tugging the hem of her jacket straight as if it were armour, and then she nodded. “I’m with you.”
Fourteen
I led the way into the damp brush, forging a path at an angle until we were a few metres away from the road, which would hopefully help us hide from any lookouts at the entrance to the castle. It took a few minutes for my bruised muscles to warm up, but after that, it was almost as if I hadn’t just been in a car crash and a fight for my life. Fletcher and I walked in silence but for the rustle of our steps through the undergrowth, though I could feel her at my back, breathing quietly. She was a comforting presence even as the night closed in around us.
Ten minutes later, I spotted a small light in the distance, and I motioned for Fletcher to stop. We crouched down, and I squinted at the light, though there wasn’t much to see. It looked like a simple torch in a window, hanging a couple of metres in the air. There was no roof on the castle, so the torchlight poured out a small, square window and then puffed up into the air like the glow of a halo.
I could barely see Fletcher when I glanced over my shoulder at her, but she nodded and flashed me a thumbs up. We crept forward, bent double to lower our profile, though it wasn’t long before my back and knees began to ache.
The Castle of Old Wick stood at the very top of a hill, overlooking the ocean as it crashed against the base of the sharp cliff. The castle itself was small. A single tower with its top knocked off was all that remained, the rest of the structure tumbled away and lost long ago. I spotted one person moving in the yellow light of the torch, but I had no idea if they were alone. A part of me didn’t like the uncertainty of what we were about to walk into, but another part of me revelled in it. The danger awaiting us set my chest alight, and I picked up the pace, threading my way through the brush as silently as I could.
The road to our left curved almost all the way up to the castle entrance, ending at a gravel parking lot filled with two cars. A matching walkway replaced the road, leading right up to the castle. We stayed well away from the path though, preferring to circle around to the back of the structure. Fletcher tapped my shoulder as we got close and held up three fingers. I nodded in acknowledgement. I’d looked right at the lantern for a moment and wrecked my night vision, and it was coming back far too slowly for my liking.
We stopped behind a particularly robust bush, and now that we were closer, I could see the entire castle in the gleam of the torch. Most of the back wall was missing, fallen rocks leading up to the mostly intact floor. Four shadows sat around in a circle around the torch, seemingly at ease, and I frowned. Unless there was a basement door hidden somewhere, I couldn’t think where they might be keeping Finn.
I wanted to get as close as I could before they noticed us, so I lay down on the ground and began to army crawl towards the castle. It was hard and painful, and though my duster protected my elbows from getting damp, the moisture on the brush still soaked through the front of my shirt and pants as I wriggled my way along like some kind of gigantic worm. If I craned my neck back, I could just barely see the crew around the fire.
Halfway there, and they hadn’t noticed us yet. I struggled to keep my breath quiet. It wanted to rasp out of my lungs, but I fought it down and kept moving. I could hear the quiet torch-side conversation now, but the voices were merely a burble wafting through the air, and I couldn’t make out any of the words. I strained my ears anyway, hoping to pick up a clue for Finn’s whereabouts.
The light of their torch gently touched the brush around the castle in a small circle where it wasn’t broken up by the stone walls. I paused just outside the glow, hoping we were still far enough outside to remain unnoticed as I tipped my head towards the ground to hide the white of my face. I caught just a few bits of their conversation with my ear tilted towards the castle.
“... should be here by now.”
“Be patient. It’s not that late.”
“Late enough. It’s cold and damp out here. I want to go home.”
“We’ll go home when the job is done,” a man snapped.
I slowly turned my head to look back at Fletcher. She lay just to my right, watching for my signal. I slowly, quietly drew my gun and motioned for her to do the same. If we could do this without violence, we should try, though I wasn’t optimistic about our odds. She reached under her arm to find her own weapon, and then she nodded to me that she was ready.
I took a deep breath. Then another.
