The Wellspring (Kaitlyn and the Highlander #12) - Diana Knightley Page 0,75
starry sky above me, shining the heavens, and cold, freezing, brutal cold. I was shivering, but I dinna hae time tae build a fire or warm m’self. I had tae dig a hole. Forcin’ the shovel blade intae the frozen ground, forcing up the dirt, heaving it tae the side. I dug and dug, deep enough for a grave, down and down, through the dirt until dampness seeped in through the soil walls, dripping, then flowin’, filling the bottom. It overtook m’feet so I climbed the walls, but something pale, under the water, caught m’eye. I dipped in, the water now up tae my thighs, and pulled out a severed hand, pale in the moonlight.
I am sorry, I dinna mean for it tae happen.
The hand slipped from my fingers and the water poured in from the sides, a current pulling me under. I pulled m’self up the walls, hand over hand, as the water tried tae overtake me, up tae my neck, pulling me under.
I dragged my drenched body from the hole. Behind me a geyser shot taeward the sky.
I lay on the earth beside it, staring up at it, the fountain, with its crest against the dark night.
Twas illuminating.
But I couldna see for long. Every thing turned white, so bright it blinded me. I was buried, gasping for breath. I tried to push away what was holding me down, and it was bodies, bodies everywhere, I pushed them aside to sit up—
Forty-four - Kaitlyn
My eyes opened and I looked up at the trees thinking about this all too familiar torrent of pain. Quentin’s face above me. “You cool?”
I nodded. “Everyone else up already?”
James joked, “The Queen is the last one up, seems about normal.”
Quentin pulled me to my feet. “Let’s see if we can still get inside this annex. It still looks abandoned, which is good. Hammond and I are the only people besides Magnus who know about it.” He led us over to a large loading dock doors on a small cement fortress, nestled against a cliff wall. Quentin pulled camouflage netting from in front of it, then James and Fraoch guarded our backs while Quentin typed a long list of numbers into the keypad, “Here goes nothing.”
Indeed, it was nothing. “Wait, let me type it again, that might have been wrong.
I pressed my palm to the pad. The door slid open.
Quentin shrugged. “Awesome.”
“It’s good to be the queen.”
“And these guys are dumbasses. Number one rule, if you take the kingdom, take a fucking minute to remove the passwords.”
The overhead lights turned on and the video on the far wall began playing, a map of the kingdom, broken up with smaller inset videos, news reports and other things.
Fraoch said, “Och, tis bright,” he blinked his watering eyes.
James appraised the bunker. “Great kingdom, Katie, this your castle?”
Quentin said, “It’s a military bunker, moron.”
“So now what?”
Quentin felt around under a console table and a screen rose above it, like a hologram. Hammond’s face emerged.
James joked, “Is that Princess Leia, are we fighting the Imperial army?”
Quentin said, “Shut up dude this is serious, but also I asked the same thing.”
Hammond’s voice said, “Colonel Quentin, you are in the mountain annex?”
“Yes, we have a situation, Magnus is in the prison of—”
The video broke up, it looked like Hammond was talking, but...
Quentin said, “Hello? Hello? General Hammond?”
“—pinned down on the south below the WAD-lands...”
“General Hammond, did you just say WAD-lands?”
“....three armies, surprise attack... Will not be able to comply with troop request—”
The video feed ended. Quentin tried to get it started again then said, “Shit, we’re on our own.”
Hayley said, “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, pinned down below the WAD-lands means… it’s not good, he’s not able to send us troops.”
James asked, “So what next?”
“We commandeer this helicopter.”
James asked, “You know how to fly a helicopter?”
“How hard can it be?” Quentin added, “I kid, it’s mostly self-drive. I’ve flown one before.”
He tossed a box to Hayley, “You’re in charge of this.”
“What’s this?”
“The locator, we need to know where in the castle Magnus is being held.”
“Umm…”
“Figure it out. I don’t have time.”
“Yeah, yeah, I got it.”
He tossed a big ass gun to Fraoch and one to James. “Got it?”
“Aye.”
“Suit up in any gear you can find. We need to make sure Katie has a vest and a helmet.”
“I feel special.”
“You’re a target, it doesn’t make you special, it makes you vulnerable.”
“Yeah, of course.”
He looked down at the small videos projected above the tables, changing the information on the screen, checking it against the shifting glimmer of