She answered, “Yes, I’m headed to get what is rightfully mine.”
“Good girl.” He smacked her on the arse. She laughed as she climbed back into her vehicle and it drove away.
Roderick turned to me with an immense look of satisfaction.
I said, “Ye seem verra sure of yerself.”
“I am, I have you down on your knees. I have guns pointing at your wife and children. In two time periods actually, I am rather enjoying it.”
I shrugged. “Och, I would nae rejoice yet. Ye hae captured me before. Ye daena remember because I walked away. What ye need tae ask yerself is, what did I learn about ye? What do I ken of yer weaknesses?”
He faltered for a moment. Then said, “You are bluffing.”
I nodded my agreement. “It does sound like me tae bluff. I hadna realized, but now ye mention it, whenever I am captured I do tend tae bluff... Och, the stories I tell! All tae extend the time I am living. It has always worked for me tae do so, ye ken.”
He grabbed me by the back of my hair, yankin’ my head back, exposin’ m’throat. “You are nothing but a dead man, a ghost. Living in other times, when you’re really supposed to have lived and died here, the year you’re about to end.”
I continued, “But hae ye wondered on it, usurper? Maybe I hae been captured by ye before. Maybe I hae been kneeling in front of ye, my eyes at the level of yer wee cock, takin’ the size of ye as it were, as ye stood above me layin’ out your malevolent plans, also verra wee. Possibly I hae collected so much insight intae yer weaknesses that I hae the upper-hand... maybe. Hae ye seen Lady Mairead lately?”
He yanked my hair back even farther. “Where is your mother?”
“She daena tell me anythin’.”
He shoved me intae the dirt and kicked my side, over and over losin’ himself in kickin’ me. He kicked me so hard that I rolled and twisted and tried tae scramble away, but he continued kickin’ me with the guards standing close, wishin’ they could kick me as well.
Finally he grew tired from the effort of tryin’ tae kill me. He leaned against a pole and wiped his brow with a handkerchief.
Twas nae matter in any of it, I had gone past the pain. Twas somethin’ I had learned in my years of battlin’, how tae breathe, how tae pick a spot afore m’eyes and focus my rage there, tae lose the pain and concentrate on regaining my feet.
“Your wife and your son, the king, are listening to you take this beating, I am sure they are ready to negotiate with me.”
I said, “Kaitlyn! Daena give him anythin’, daena.”
Roderick laughed.
I remained lyin’ in the dirt, focusin’ past the pain, decidin’ how tae stand back up and fight.
Twenty-four — Kaitlyn
Lady Mairead had an army: tanks, drones, helicopters. They pulled up, stationing themselves along the outer wall of the castle. There was a conversation at the gates. I watched from the walls, relieved she was here, but also, not sure she was there for good reasons.
But when her army pulled around the castle, the earth rumbled and shook. They ended in front of the walls, creating a barrier between us and the enemy. The men on the walls cheered. Somehow they weren’t afraid of the high tech weapons, because it was clear: they were weapons, the kind that could protect us from the other weapons, and they were necessary.
If Magnus hadn’t been in the enemy camp we could have just kicked their asses, but instead we had rumbled into a stalemate.
But at least it would not become a siege.
Lady Mairead swept up the stairs and barged onto the parapet, wearing a dress fashioned for this time, but luxuriously made from the fabrics of Magnus’s kingdom and adorned expensively as if she were a badass queen.
I stepped forward, Fraoch beside me, Hayley stepping behind me, because Lady Mairead was furious and that was the kind of drama that needed supportive friends. I imagined she had been furious for about five-hundred years that day, plenty of time to build it up into a real raging shitstorm.
“Where is Magnus?!”
“He’s turned himself in.”
“Tae Roderick?!” She huffed. “I had hoped tae get here afore it happened. Roderick will be crowing like a rooster, as if he has won tae hae a king bow before him. Magnus had better kill him after this, tis all I