The Wolf and the Highlander (Highland Wishes) (39 page)

Rage shot through Riggs’s limbs, but lying on the floor with his wrists still bound and his ankles chained to the wall, he was next to worthless.

Wait. The hot iron Bantus had dropped. Riggs twisted to find it lying beside the fallen king. He grabbed it, ignoring the heat of the handle, and pressed the business end into Reddick’s calf.

He howled and released Anya, who fell to her hands and knees and immediately crawled to cup Riggs’s face in her hands.

“Riggs!
Och,
Riggs!” Her reddened face appeared over him. So lovely, even though she’d nearly been choked to death. Her touch was like quenching water to the fire of his pain. But there was no time to savor her closeness.

Reddick had limped to a wall full of items Bantus had referred to as “toys” and pulled down a flogger tipped with nails and shards of glass. He had his gaze fixed on Anya.

“This is for killing my king!” he cried as he advanced. “You think you’re scarred now. Wait ’til I’m done with you!”

Red light flooded the dungeon. One of Ari’s magic doors opened, but it wasn’t Ari who charged through, sword aloft. It was Magnus. And behind him was a horde of crimson-kilted soldiers.

* * * *

Anya was still catching her breath from Reddick’s manhandling when he came at her wielding a flogger. She pushed away from Riggs to draw Reddick away. She could take a flogging, but Riggs had been abused more than enough tonight.
Och,
if the bruises and burn marks covering his torso weren’t bad enough, the gaping hole where his eyetooth used to be left her nigh speechless. Her poor wolf-man. Her poor pledgemate.

If she ever made it back to Chroina, she’d gut Ari personally for his treachery. Neil deserved just punishment, too. But first she had to survive Reddick and snatch those keys from his belt so she could free Riggs and the other women.

Before she could figure out how she might accomplish such impossible feats, the dungeon filled with a fearsome roar. She whipped around to see what had made the sound and came face to face with King Magnus, surrounded by a halo of red magic.

His eyes blazed with golden fire as they quickly took in the dungeon. She watched him catalog her presence, the blood on her sleeve, Riggs on
the floor, Bantus dead, Reddick snarling and charging her.

She threw herself to the floor, meaning to lay herself over Riggs to protect him from the fighting that was about to take place, but her wolf-man was quicker than she was.

He scooped her ’neath his battered body and made an impenetrable shield around her. The scents of blood and sweat surrounded her, but peeking through were the scents of pine and loyal dog and somat else that spoke to her on a visceral level. ’Twas some woodsy nuance to his musk that carried a hint of
her
. A sense of completion swelled in her breast.

He’
s more than a pledgemate, and you’ve kent it all along.

’Twas a knowledge so deep, it seemed she’d kent it from birth. Lifemate.

The sounds of running feet multiplied. There must have been dozens of soldiers spilling from the red oval. Most exited the dungeon, but several stayed to engage Reddick and Myre. Would the Maranner force be enough to overcome the one Bantus had been gathering in the great hall?

A body fell. Then another. Bantus’s two guards.

Riggs pushed himself up with a groan. “Anya? Are you all right?” He feathered his fingers over her head and shoulders. She rolled to face him. His hands found her face, awkwardly, for his bonds forced his wrists into an X. “You are well?”

“Aye, love. Aye. You?”

He nodded. His mouth opened in a grisly smile. He tongued the spot where his tooth had been. “I’ve been better, but I’ll heal.” His brow furrowed. “You can understand me?”

She sat up and opened her left hand. The fingers ached. She’d had a death grip on the bloody gemstone the whole time. “Magnus returned it.”

Riggs glanced over her shoulder. At Magnus. She kent ’twas him without turning by the approving twinkle in Riggs’s eye. Returning his attention to her, he raised his arms with a wince and lowered them again with her inside the circle of safety and brawn.
Och,
she’d never forget the sight of those arms flexing and bulging until the veins stood out and a bloody
beam
splintered to set him free.

She clung to him and buried her face in his neck. Tears of relief slipped from her eyes. “I
almost lost you,” she sobbed. “Again! Don’t you e’er give me reason to fear like that again.”

“I vow it.” He rained kisses over her head and face.

She was tempted to sacrifice her wits to this sweet relief, but this battle was not over. She turned in Riggs’s arms to find Magnus staring down at them with nostrils flared.

“
Och,
doona stand there like a jealous cuckold. I heard that bloody tyrant say he would have two-hundred five and twenty men in the great hall and that bloody traitor, Ari, was going to bring them through to Glendall within the hour.”

“I got a confession from him. My men are on their way to the great hall now. My guess is once they see Bantus’s head, they’ll desist.” He nodded to an aged but fit soldier, who raised an axe and brought it down to sever Bantus’s head from his body.

She swallowed, sickened, as the man lifted the head and carried it from the dungeon.

Magnus crouched to face her on a level. “I must see to the great hall, but first I would know this: did Bantus hurt you?”

“Nay. He tried, but thanks to Riggs, I slit his throat before he could do aught.”

“
You
slit his throat?”

She raised an eyebrow. How dare he doubt her?

He grinned and palmed her cheek. “Brave lady.”

Riggs’s arms tightened around her.

She remembered her sister. “Before you go, you must ken there are a dozen women down the way in a cell. Humans, like me. And if I’m no’ mistaken, your promised one is in there. I tried to tell you the woman in your portrait isna me. Now I ken for cert. ’Tis my sister. Her name is Seona, and she’s been in this horrid place for more than a year.” Her voice shook.

Riggs breathed a curse in her ear and rubbed his cheek on hers.

She drew strength from her lifemate. “Go, tend to what a conquering king must. But ken you this, those women arena well and will need much healing. Of body and of mind. Seona’s in no state to become anyone’s queen or bedmate or aught else. Do you understand?” Her voice had become steel, and she made no apology for lecturing a king.

Magnus’s jaw went rigid. Even through his thick beard, she saw the muscles work. He said naught, but rose slowly and strode from the dungeon with a curt nod to one of his guards.

The guard blocked the door to the dungeon, protecting them, while another swooped in with the keys from Reddick’s belt to unlock Riggs’s manacles. A third got the keys from Myre’s body and ran after Magnus, mayhap to free the women.

“Your sister,” Riggs said, cupping her face in both hands. “You found her?” Deep cuts in his
wrists bled freely. He’d suffered so much, yet his concern was for her.

“Aye,” she answered. But she feared the Seona she’d found was much different than the one she’d lost.

Fate had returned one thing to her that was as it should be: Riggs. As ever, he was steadfast, loyal, and bursting with love for her. She pressed her lips to his. “I’m sorry your uncle betrayed you.”

“It’s not me he betrayed, but Magnus. He’ll get what’s coming to him.”

“Aye.” She’d see to it, just as she’d see to it Ari suffered for what had happened to Riggs. “Now, where’s that tooth? Your body seems to heal everything else, why not that too?”

Anya rinsed Riggs’s tooth in a pot of heated water by the fire and slipped it back into its socket. It went in surprisingly easy, but it wiggled precariously.

“You’ll need to keep your tongue pressed to it, I suspect,” she said.

One of the guards standing watch over her and Riggs crouched down and inspected the tooth. “Seen a man lose a molar once and put it back in like that. It healed, but he had to bite down on a wad of linen for a week. Here.” He pulled a bandage from a sporran-like pouch he
wore next to his scabbard. After cutting a smaller strip, he rolled it and handed it to Riggs. “Clamp down on that and try not to move it.”

Riggs did so and nodded his thanks.

The guard helped Riggs stand then guided him to the bed. He inspected Riggs’s wrists. “Name’s Maedoc.” Broad-shouldered with gray in his beard, he had shrewd eyes that didn’t miss much and a kind manner about him. Jerking his thumb at the other two, he introduced them as well. Anya recognized them. Four guards remained always with Magnus, but she’d learned there were more than four who shared this duty. They did it in shifts. These must be his most trusted guards, and he’d left three of them with her and Riggs. ’Twas a great honor. These men were the best of the best, the most loyal of the loyal. Some of their fellows had been guarding her door when she’d been with Travis and Daly as well. Had any of them fallen? She started to ask, but Riggs spoke up.

“Tend to Anya first,” he said past the wad ’tween his
teeth.

“I’m no’ injured,” she protested. “You, on the other hand have fared better.” She motioned for Maedoc to continue.

He did so with a friendly crinkling of his eyes.

She missed the press of Riggs’s hand when Maedoc began bandaging his wrist, but she made herself useful by removing Riggs’s boots. Bruises darkened the skin of his ankles. They looked sore but didn’t require tending, so she reluctantly turned her attention to his torso. She’d been avoiding looking too closely, kenning she’d find evidence of things she never wanted to imagine happening to her lifemate.

Blackened burns from what must have been a fire poker dotted his skin. The edges of his days-old sword wound were red and swollen, as if someone had been prodding at it. Fresh blood trickled from the site, but not enough to truly worry her. It had to have been painful, though. Very painful. “I doona suppose ye have any salve in that pouch?” she asked Maedoc.

He shook his head. “We’ll get him fixed up in good time.”

’Twould have to be enough.

Where Riggs wasn’t burned, he was bruised. He’d been beaten with somat that left bruises of frighteningly uniform definition, a heavy stick or a mace? She refused to scan the wall of torture implements behind her. She didn’t need to ken what had done this to Riggs. If she dwelled on aught, it should be that Riggs lived, and he would heal.

“
Och,
Riggs, how did you break free? I’ve never seen such a feat of strength.” Not even by Metawuli, the strong man of Gravois’ camp. The glimpse of Riggs roaring and ripping that enormous eyehook from the beam high above would live forever in her memory. She’d wanted to gape like the Larnians, but she’d made herself look away and steal Reddick’s dagger. And good thing, too, since it had taken both her and Riggs to bring down that bloody despicable king.

“Wasn’t me,” he said, removing her hands from his body and pulling her to lie in his arms. His face was battered…again. His eyelids drooped with weariness. But he had a gleam in his eye
that proved he was with her, he loved her. “I called on Danu, and she answered.”

“You’re a believer now, aye?”

He grinned. The wad of linen made his cheek round. “Yeah. Batty as the king, I suppose.” He guided her head to his shoulder, and she was content to rest like that with him and trust Magnus’s guards to protect them.

While they waited for word on the battle, she inquired about Maedoc’s fellow guards, the ones she’d heard fighting when Travis had dragged her into the king’s chamber and then the tunnels.

The guard shook his head. Anger clouded his features. “There are twelve of us, yeah? The king’s Crescent Knights. Turns out one of us was a traitor. In bed with Breeding First.”

“Eogan,” spat the guard Maedoc had introduced as Drustan.

“Yeah. Eogan,” Maedoc said darkly. “Because of him, Justus is in hospital. Wounded badly. He’ll live, but it’ll irk him to be out of this fight. It were him and Eogan at your door, lady. Should have been two against two, but Eogan turned to make it three against one.”

“What happened to Eogan?” she asked.

“King Magnus had him imprisoned. He’ll deal justly with him later. And with Ari. Turns out some of the ladies were in on it too. Don’t envy the king’s decision on what to do with them.”

“What of Neil?” Riggs asked.

“You’re his nephew, yeah?”

Riggs nodded against the pillow.

Maedoc leaned in. “You know the pup Travis, yeah? He comes racing into the practice yard, where the king was lining up his men to stand firm against Breeding First, not knowing what they had planned, only that they had something going tonight. ‘They have Lady Anya!’ the pup shouts. ‘They have Lady Anya!’ Well, the king gets down on a knee and asks the pup to start at the beginning. ‘There’s no time,’ the lad says. He’s out of breath and beside himself. Can barely string two words together. That’s when Neil comes striding toward the king. ‘I’m in it, sire,’ Neil says. ‘But don’t want to be anymore. Ari’s about to send your lady through to Saroc.’ While the king sprints to the dungeon, Neil tells him all about how Ari’s been using this stone of his to go back and forth between Saroc and Chroina and using it to cross the veil into a different realm, one where women abound.” He shook his head.