that foreign tongue he could not place. “They speak no language I’ve ever heard tell of.”
“Aye. And their dress… ‘tis odd, that.”
“Verra.”
The laird also wondered at the wench’s connection with the dark-haired mon who accompanied her. Were they brother and sister? Husband and wife? ‘Twould put him in the blackest of moods did their relationship turn out to be the latter. Out of the entirety of this most odd situation the only truth Angus knew for certain was that he wanted the foreign wench with a bedamned passion he’d never afore felt. He didn’t ken if ‘twas her beauty or bravery that made her so appealing—or mayhap both or something else altogether—yet there ‘twas.
“The venison is nigh unto cooked,” Colban said, sighing. This riddle obviously perplexed him as well. “The English didn’t touch our pouches whilst we were in the dungeon so I’ll gather the bread and cheese together.”
Angus nodded, his attention still snagged by the inexplicable threesome. They were sitting on the ground talking amongst themselves. He could but wish he kenned what they were saying.
“My name is Doctor Lewis Kincaid. I am—was—a professor of medicine at University of Oxford before we were invaded.”
“Then how is it you are able to communicate with the Highlanders?” Octavia asked.
“Ahh that.” Doctor Kincaid smiled. “Even as a lil bugger I was always quite the nerd. I enjoyed learning medieval languages in my spare time, though mostly Old English and Old Gaelic. I know a little Old Norse, but not enough to converse in.”
“Should we keep heading north?” James asked Octavia, turning the subject. “The further north we go, the colder it gets. The colder it gets, the less likely we are heading in the same direction as the Xenocann.”
“Good,” the doctor said. “They took my wife and children. I hope to never be obliged to see one again.”
“But James and I have to track it and kill it,” Octavia pointed out. “And we’re going to need you to act as a translator for situations such as the one we currently find ourselves in.”
“I can’t,” the doctor said quietly. “They kept dangling the promise of seeing my family over my head to keep me working in their bloody infirmary.” He sighed. “In my heart, I already knew they were dead. I just couldn’t bring myself to face the truth.”
“I’m sorry,” Octavia said. “I truly am.”
“But humankind needs you now, Dr. Kincaid.” This from James. “Do it for your family if nobody else. The sooner we catch and destroy the feeder, the less the number of fatalities.”
“How much harm can one Xenocann do?”
Octavia shrugged. “We found two bodies in the short amount of time we hunted for you.”
The professor sighed. He was also beginning to look resigned to his fate.
“Please,” Octavia said in hushed tones. “Help us.”
“I’ll think about it.” He frowned at the ground. “Tell me about yourselves first though.”
Octavia spent a good twenty to thirty minutes doing just that. She was honest with the doctor about everything, including the fact she and James were the sole survivors of SEAL Team 9. She gave him their ranks, told him of the admiral’s order to go into the portal on violet, and asked if he’d known where the portal would spit him out when he was shoved through it.
“I had a bit of a notion from eavesdropping on the traitors readying it for them,” Dr. Kincaid admitted, “but only a bit.”
“Do you know why they chose this particular time period to create a portal for?”
He shook his head. “No. I was not made privy to the feeders’ thoughts.”
“I suppose not,” Octavia mumbled. “I’m surprised you understood as much as you did, what with them not speaking English and all.”
The doctor’s eyebrows rose. “Oh they spoke English,” he announced, surprising her and James. “They were just careful not to converse in it in front of the majority of prisoners. With blokes like me, they had no choice but to reveal their knowledge. How else could they give me precise orders?”
Octavia glanced at James. “I’m glad I never told them what I thought of them then.”
He snorted at that. “I know. We’d be as dead as everybody else.”
Octavia’s ire rose. She knew it was a wasted emotion, but it was present just the same. “I underestimated them when I shouldn’t have. Of course they could speak English—probably other languages as well. How else would they have communicated with the human collaborators?” She shook her head. “I should have seen the signs.”
“They never spoke anything but that