well, Robbie. It would have been a damned shame to lose a good man like you to his blade. I'll report this to the chieftain."
Lachlan would tell Connor everything except what Sorely said about his mother and father. That was no one's business but his own.
* * *
"The MacLeods are coming," Connor called out, raising his arms. "'Tis time to raise the clan."
Every man, woman, and child in the castle was gathered around the blazing bonfire that had been built in the center of the castle yard for the ceremony of the crann tara.
Duncan, Ian, and Alex, the three men Connor trusted above all others, stood to his right, each holding a wooden cross. He thought of their wives and children and prayed the men would survive the battle ahead. To his left stood three of the young Trotternish warriors he and Lachlan had trained.
Duncan's eyes were fierce as he gave Connor the first wooden cross. "We fight to the death!" he shouted, and all the men cheered.
Connor held the cross in the bonfire until the dry wood caught flame, then he held it high for all to see it blaze against the afternoon sky. It hissed as he doused the flames in the waiting tub of sheep's blood. He raised the charred cross over his head again and shouted the MacDonald battle cry, "Fraoch Eilean!"
The castle yard reverberated with the deep voices of the men as they shouted it back. Finally, he motioned to Robbie, the first young warrior to his left, who had earned the honor by catching Hugh's spy.
"Let our men know the MacDonalds are gathering at the standing stone to fight!" Connor shouted, and Robbie took the charred cross from him and ran out the open gate.
Connor repeated the ceremony two more times, taking the crosses from Alex and Ian, and sending each of the young warriors to raise the men in a different part of the peninsula.
The crann tara was a call to every man, whether he be warrior, farmer, or shepherd, to gather at the designated rallying point, prepared to fight for the clan. Most of the clan's trained warriors came from Sleat and North Uist and were already at the castle. The crann tara would be a test of the confidence Connor's Trotternish clansmen had in him as chieftain, and he wondered how many of them would come.
When the ceremony was complete, the men shouted and raised their claymores. Connor saw the battle lust in their eyes, and he was glad to see they were ready to fight. The responsibility for the lives of these brave men fell on his shoulders.
He knew he would have found the burden easier to carry if Ilysa were here to send him off to war.
Chapter 42
In the glow of sunset, Connor and Ian lay flat on their bellies and watched the MacLeod warriors across the river. There were so many of them converging on the camp that they looked like a swarm of bees returning to the hive.
"Doesn't look good," Ian whispered. "Damn MacIain for getting himself killed."
"I fear I am leading our warriors to a slaughter," Connor said.
"Ye have no choice," Ian said. "If we let a force this size cross the river, we'll have no hope of getting them out."
"'Tis good we arrived before Beltane," Connor said. "I think Alastair will strike tomorrow, rather than wait another day."
When he and Ian returned to the standing stone, Connor's heart lifted at the sight of so many of his clansmen gathered on the far side of the hill. And all through the night, more men joined them.
When the day broke, bleak and damp, Connor stood in front of the assembled men. His gaze moved from the hardened warriors who had fought with his father, to the young men he and Lachlan had trained, to the farmers who carried scythes and axes as weapons. More men had come than he had hoped, and yet there were not nearly enough.
"These lands were granted to my grandfather, the first chieftain of the MacDonalds of Sleat, by his father, the Lord of the Isles. It falls to us to secure them for our children's children. Today, we will take our stand. The MacLeods will learn that they must pay in blood for each foot of our land they hope to claim."
The men raised their weapons in silent response so that the MacLeods would not hear the echo of their shouts in the river valley below.