The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,41
were in the sixteenth century? Did we ever talk of the number?”
I considered it for a moment. “I think so, once or twice. I’m sure we both would have agreed.”
He chewed his lip.
“I could nae remember. We looked in the vault and there were twenty. We conferred with the book and it listed twenty-three.”
“Where was the book?”
“Still in the back of the painting. Somehow it protected the number from bein’ overwritten.”
I said, “So when I put it in the back of the painting, it wasn’t such a bad thing after all?”
“Aye, I was mistaken. Ye were correct in it.”
“I want to gloat, but this is bleak right? Someone is stealing the vessels?”
He nodded. “Quentin mentioned another moment while we were away when Lady Mairead said somethin’ about the vessels and has now forgotten it.”
“Lady Mairead has never forgotten anything in her whole life.”
“Aye, someone is alterin’ time around her, she is becomin’ confused.”
“This sounds really dire. I’ve always counted on Lady Mairead being a professional at this.” I shook my head. “Ugh, really? Missing vessels?”
He shrugged. “Tis bleak, but it could be theft, it might also be someone borrowin’ them, or it could be a Kaitlyn or Magnus from another time attemptin’ tae right a wrong.”
My eyes went wide. “It could be us? I didn’t think of that. Why?”
“To keep them safe, tae keep us safe. It might be Archie, a grown man, a king, hiding them. Whoever tis, they are doin’ it in stealth. I might not hae kent it without the book.”
We sat there quietly for a moment. Thinking about things that might be beyond our ability to understand, but we needed to know desperately.
I finally said, “Two things may be true. Wait, scratch that, three things.”
“They are…?”
“The book might always have the right number in it. That would be cool, right? Twenty-three, it’s been the same for hundreds of years. Or the number of vessels might always be changing, but our memory is changing with it. Wouldn’t that be weird?”
“Aye, but I had a feeling the number was wrong. I hae always been secure afore that the number was right.”
“Me too, which brings me to the third thing that may be true. The number of vessels has always been stable before, but now somehow some are being stolen and the number in the vault, the number in the book, the number in our minds, are all inconsistent.”
I paused, then added, “The question would be, ‘Why? Why are the numbers unstable now… Why so sudden?’”
His brow drew down while he thought it through. “Perhaps Hammie is correct and this is all the effect of the Trailblazer.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I’m thinking he’s right, that would be… ugh. So we might have messed up the stable part of the timeline by being rescued? That really really sucks, I do not like the idea of that at all. Finding the book, counting the vessels, tracking them, there was a logic. I don’t like having the logic gone.”
“I daena like it either. In the logic there was a strength, an ability tae guard against chaos.”
“This is just absolute chaos now.”
“Aye, but also, tis a chaos of stealth. I am used tae the chaos of war, but this is slight and secretive. Tis verra worrisome.”
“What do we do about it?”
“There is naething tae do, except…” He looked at me, chewing his lip, cautiously. “I daena ken — could I go tae the past, tae the origin of the vessels and take them all—”
“To the origin and take them? All of them?” My eyes went wide. “Magnus, you can’t — that’s an awful idea, we don’t know what would happen, it… no, absolutely not.”
He nodded watching me speak, then agreed, “Aye, it might disrupt our lives.”
“Exactly. And disrupt is a pretty benign word for what might happen: death, loss, forgetting, disappearing. This is never the solution.”
He gave me a sad smile and put his hand back on my ankle. “I need tae speak tae ye on something. Twill sound like a command, but tis because tis difficult tae say.”
My eyes narrowed. “Sure?”
“With the vessels disappearing and Lady Mairead at the center of some trouble I daena understand, I will need tae return tae the kingdom. I canna stay away from the governance of Riaghalbane—”
“But I can’t—”
“Allow me tae finish, Kaitlyn. Ye are tae stay here, with the bairn while I go. I will spend time there and I will return and spend time here—”