Then, just as darkness fell like night across her vision, she was yanked up through the water, feeling it coursing down her as cold air chilled her skin. Gasping and coughing, her forearms thudded into the soft ground and she crouched, wheezing in gulps of air, her throat painfully raw. She tried to turn but felt the resistance of Murdo’s grasp.
“You can take me. But let her go or I swear on all that is holy, your life ends now.” Her father was standing before them, one of his eyes half shut by the swelling skin around it, a stream of blood splayed from a wound on his head, dripping down his face. He held a sword, pointing it at the pale skin of Murdo’s neck. “Do you really want to die by your own sword?”
Murdo thrust her to the ground. “The bastard’s not worth it,” he spat.
“Pa!” she said, the word grating her throat.
“Kaetha, go! Run!” He turned to glance over his shoulder. She had heard it too. One of Murdo’s men was not far off. “They’re coming for me. But you must get to safety.”
Pain and anger contorted her face. “Pa!”
“Run.” He didn’t need to shout, his tone was imperious enough.
She turned from him then and, drawing deep breaths, made her shaking legs take her away as swiftly as they could.
“Run,” he repeated. “Don’t look back.”
She didn’t turn to see him. She only saw the path ahead of her. The dirt. The stones. The trees. Everything shifting jaggedly as she fled.
EIGHTEEN
A Roof of Sky
Day was fading, as she emerged from the greyness of the woods. Light, like hope, was drawing away beyond the horizon.
Someone loomed before her, their face in shadow. As he reached out towards her, her eyes lit upon a sturdy looking stick, roughly the size of a spear. She seized it and spun around, jabbing it towards her attacker.
“Hell’s teeth! If you dislike me that much, tell me, don’t skewer me.”
“Donnan!” Kaetha dropped the stick and flung her arms around him.
“What happened to your face? And why are you all wet?”
“Donnan, they’ve got Pa.”
“What?”
“They’re after me too, I think. Pa told me to run.”
“Come on,” he said, taking her hand.
They ran across the common and, between rasping breaths, she explained what had happened to her father. At first, her words met with silence.
“And what happened to you?”
“Murdo—” her throat went dry and constricted as she remembered his hand on the back of her neck, forcing her down into the water. “Cut me like he did Finola. Tried to drown me.”
“Damn him. Damn him!” he said through clenched teeth.
“At least I’m alive, thanks to Pa. Though I’m sure Murdo will try to rectify that if he gets the chance. He saw, Donnan. He saw my magic at Cannasay.” Donnan went quiet. They kept running. “How did you find me, anyway?”
“We waited a while. Then Mairi and I got worried and went out looking for you. I went to the monastery and found Nannie and – Brother Gillespie.”
“I know. That was Murdo too.”
“I swear I’m going to kill him one of these days,” said Donnan.
“Not if I get the chance first.”
Kaetha leant on the table when they got back to the house, panting for breath. Mairi’s dog, Bairn, was sprawled by the fire, twitching in his sleep. Kintail was still nowhere to be seen. The fire crackled in the hearth and the cooking pot sat on the table, brimming with stew, beside four expectant bowls. It all appeared so normal here and yet everything had changed. Her father was gone – the one who held the household together, the one who gave her life meaning. Without him, none of this mattered.
She went straight into the pantry, moved a stack of crates and retrieved one of Hetty’s old canvas bags.
“When did you pack that?” asked Donnan.
“You know I was planning to leave Braddon.” She snatched the tinderbox from the shelf and stuffed it in her bag. “Just for different reasons.”
Donnan squinted at her. “You’ve not talked about going for so long. Were you going to be leaving soon? Were you going to tell me?”
“I was always going to go back to Roinmor to find out who was behind my mother’s murder, who was involved in the plot. Only now, my priority is getting to Pa.”
Donnan watched as she bundled up a blanket. “What can I do?”
“Look after yourself,” she said. “Watch out for our friends here as best you can.”
“I can’t watch over them as well as you.”
“Donnan—”
“I’m coming with you.”
“I have to go alone.” She stuffed some apples into the bag.
“No, you don’t.”
She jumped as the door flung open.
“There you are!” Mairi sighed. Kaetha kept the side of her face with the cut turned away from her. “Thank the heavens! Where’s Aedan?”
The words were so heavy, they stuck in Kaetha’s throat and she saw Mairi’s smile fade.
“Where is he?”
“Arrested,” managed Kaetha, “by Murdo Macomrag.”
“No.” A shocked laugh caught in Mairi’s throat. “Impossible. On what charge?”
“Treason. He’s been charged with treason.”
“No,” Mairi breathed, collapsing onto a stool. She stared up at Kaetha, as if expecting her to say that it was all a mistake, that he would be coming back home any moment. But Kaetha said nothing. Mairi wrapped her arms around herself and Donnan put a hand on her shoulder. “He wouldn’t do anything like that. How could he?”
“The thing is,” said Kaetha. “I think he did.” She found strength in her voice again. “But I don’t believe for one moment that what he
