Sneaks (10 page)

Two dead birds hung from ropes over the back of his horse. With a skill I’d admired in some of the cooks at the castle, he plucked the feathers from one, cut where it needed to be cut, took out the unnecessary parts and then set some meat over the fire on a makeshift spit.

I watched this in silence, fairly certain he was harmless. I didn’t, however, like the way I liked looking at him. Looking at him made me feel funny inside; swirly. I didn't want to not look at him. It was confusing. 

“Are ye hungry? Thirsty?” he said from beside his fire.

“I’m fine.”

“Dinna be so obstinate, lass. I’ve plenty of food and water. Ye dinna even have so much as a knife on ye. When’s the last time ye ate?”

“I’m not hungry.” I had my tools in my pocket but they wouldn’t help me hunt many animals.

“I’m not going to hurt ye. Ye’re out in the middle of nowhere with not a thing. Ye need some food and some water. If ye were from around here, ye’d ken who I was and ye’d ken I wasna dangerous. Plus ye wouldna talk so funny,” he said with a grin and a bite into some of the cooked bird.

“Who are you?”

“I’m the son of Laird Duncan.”

“Not possible.”

“Aye? Really?” he said, amused.

“I know the laird’s sons—two of them at least. You’re too old.

He looked perplexed. “I suppose I’m the age I’m supposed to be. I dinna understand how I could be too old.”

“What is your name?”

“Have something to eat, and I’ll tell ye my name.”

I stood and walked to the fire. He made me uncomfortable, but not because I was afraid of him.  

“Here.” He handed me a gourd full of water.

“Thanks.”

He smiled.

I drank lots of the water and ate some of the meat.  

“See, I told ye, ye were hungry,” he said.

“Yeah. Thanks again.” 

“Ye’re welcome.”

“I’ve eaten. Now, tell me your name. Please.”

“Ah, my name is MacCauley McCandlass Duncan . Yers?”

“Say that again.”

He did, slowly just in case I had a learning or hearing disability. 

“That’s not possible.”

“That mustna mean the same thing were ye come from as where I come from. It is most definitely possible.”

“Holy . . .” I said. “What year is it?”

“The year of our lord, seventeen hundred and sixty-six.”

“Holy . . ..”

“And that’s somethin’ else I dinna understand. What are ye being religious about?”

Sixteen years had passed since my last visit. So time travel was similar to dog years. For the one of mine that had gone by, there had been sixteen here.

“Crap.” I looked at his right forearm. Even with the shallow light from the fire, I could see the scars from the bite marks.

“Lass, are ye all right?”

I nodded and looked at Mac. He was sixteen, almost a man and now only a year younger than me.

“Tell me, how is everyone?”

“Who?”

“Your father, how is he?”

“Fine, I’ve not been home in a few days, but he was fine when I left.”

“No, I mean …” But how did I ask what I wanted to know. I wanted an accounting of what had happened over the last sixteen years. “Oh. Well, how’s your brother, Ian?”

“He’s fine too. So ye ken my family?”

“Yes, I do. But it’s been a long time since I’ve seen them.”

“How long?” he asked as though he thought he should remember me.

“A long time. Corc, Una?”

“Ye do ken them. All fine, I believe. Tell me, what is yer name?”

“Kally Bright. Nice to meet you Mac Duncan.” Again.

Mac’s eyes widened and he threw down his food. “That’s not funny, lass. Not funny at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“Who are ye?”

“I just told you.”

“No lass, ye just lied. Kally Bright was real and she would be older than ye. Are ye some sort of fairy witch then or just a liar?”

“No, I …” Before I could say another word, Mac lifted me up by my arms and pulled my hands behind my back. He didn’t hurt me, but he moved so quickly that I didn’t have a chance to reach for the pendant or my tools.

“Kally Bright saved my life, lass, and was one night carried away by the wolves. We dinna imitate her. Ever,” Mac said in my ear as he tied my hands together. “Ye’ll not make light of her, ye hear me?”

I wasn’t scared in the least. Actually, I wanted to laugh. He hadn’t hurt me and now I knew what they’d thought had happened. I was kind of honored that I’d turned into some sort memory of respect, however small it was.

He sat me back on the ground, and proceeded to clean up the camp. He mumbled to himself and I remained quiet, watching him move. He’d stop every once and a while and look at me with distaste and disbelief. 

“Ungrateful,” I mumbled quietly.

“What?”

“What if I am Kally Bright?”

“Ye’re not.”

“You wouldn’t remember me anyway. You were just a baby.”

“Ye’d be much, much older. Close to the age of my brother, Ian. Ye’re not that old.”

“Maybe I look younger than I am.”

He glared at me again. I didn’t look anywhere near thirty or the thirty-two I should logically be. I held my chin as proudly as I could manage with my hands behind my back and hoped his mind would play a trick on him.

“No, not possible,” he said.

“What if I told you the story of what happened that day, how and where I found you and what happened after that?”

He laughed. “’Tis legend enough throughout the land. Ye could have heard the story this morning.”

I liked hearing I was a legend again, but it was pretty unimportant at the moment.

“Fine. Then just take me to your father’s castle.”

“I plan on taking ye to the castle all right,” he began. He continued on in Gaelic. Now I wished I’d spent some time studying more of the basic words, but that had been the problem. Nothing about Gaelic seemed basic. It was all complicated and such an old language that it was difficult to find much information about it in my century. 

After the entire camp was packed, Mac lifted me off the ground and swung me over the horse. I’m sure I was still taller than most of the women he knew so my body probably didn’t move as agilely as he was accustomed to. I hoped I made it awkward for him, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“Ooch, aye,” he said, mesmerized at my footwear.

“You heard about the shoes, didn’t you?” I asked.

He tore his eyes away from my feet and looked in my eyes.

“See, I told you. I’m Kally Bright.”

Mac climbed aboard the horse, placing himself behind me.

“Ye’d better hope ye are,” he said in my ear before he kicked the horse forward.

*****

Riding horses had not become more comfortable over the last year or sixteen, whichever. By the time we reached the castle, the sun was rising and my body was in pain. Though Mac’s arms mostly held me on the horse, without the use of my hands, my leg muscles had to work a lot harder than before. 

Even from a distance, I recognized Una, carrying a basket of bread across the grounds and toward the drawbridge. The sight of her thin, energetic body and long stringy hair made me want to yell hello, but I didn’t.

“That’s Una,” I said.

“Aye.”

“See, I know people.”

“Right, lass. We’ll see.”

“Stop being such a jerk. You kidnapped me. I was okay by my boulder. If you’d just left me alone, I would have been fine.” My entire body hurt and the anger I should have felt earlier about being taken and tied was making its way out of my mouth.

Mac made some sort of growling sound in his throat.

As the stupid horse trotted across the bridge, I searched for someone else I knew, someone who might remember me. Everyone looked at me with the same curious distaste I remembered from my previous trip. But no one looked familiar.

“Mac, if you don’t get me off this horse and untie my hands right away, I am going to start screaming bloody-murder.”

“Ye think that will do ye good?”

“I couldn’t care less. You are being cruel and I am sick of it.”

I could feel him sit up straighter. He didn’t say anything, but stopped the horse when we were over the bridge and swung himself off. With abrupt movements, he helped me down and untied my hands.

“Now, come with me,” he said, his eyes slanted.

I put my fingers around the pendant. I was sore and angry and I wanted to go home, but with the daylight I could see better how much he really did look like his father, and how he really didn't. It was like he was the improved version. I was curious enough to want to look at him longer.

At the moment, there was nothing soft about his face, even his lips were straight and seemed cut from stone. His cheekbones would have been considered harsh on others, but on him they seemed to cut at just the right angle and just the right height. He had a bump on his nose that softened all the other sharpness. His eyes were such a color of blue that even though they should just look dark because the sun was behind him, they still shone both brightly and deeply. I didn’t remember his father’s eyes being so shocking. 

I looked up into those eyes as I pulled my fingers from the pendant and stretched and rubbed my wrists. I hadn’t been burned by the ropes, but it felt like I had.

I’d stay a little longer.  

“If ye please,” he said, mockingly, after I didn’t make any movement forward.

From across the courtyard and voice said, “Mac, who do ye have with ye?”

Una walked so quickly toward us that the bread in her basket bounced and her legs practically cut through her skirt.

She stopped in front of me and put the basket down. Except for a few gray hairs, she had not changed much.

“No, it can’t be. It can’t be ye,” she said as she touched my face.

“Hi, Una.”

“I dinna understand. It’s been many years and ye still look like ye looked.” I thought she might be frightened, but she just seemed amazed, perhaps in shock slightly.

“It’s a difficult story to explain – where I’ve been and why I don’t look older, but it is me.”

“Ye are magic?” she whispered in my ear.

“No, not really, but it might seem like it,” I whispered back in her ear. 

Una smiled, though the smile didn’t reach her eyes. She turned to Mac and put her hand on his arm.

“Perhaps it is ye’re fate to save the boy.”

“I didn’t …”

“She didn’t save me from anything, Una. I found her.” Mac hadn’t been impressed with Una’s recognition. “And she canna be who ye think she is.”

“Why?” Una asked.

“She’s no angelic and sweet.”

Una laughed. “Well, I’m not sure she ever was that, Mac. Ye’ve just heard the stories. Stories change over time. Some get better, some get worse. But this is the girl, my lad. This is the girl.”

I wanted to hug Una and stick my tongue out at Mac. Instead, I just smiled.

“It is good to see you,” I said to Una.

“Aye.” She pulled me into a hug. She smelled of freshly baked bread and lavender. Until that moment I didn’t know that particular combination of scents would always remind me of her. But they would. “Now, come in and let us find the laird. He’ll be wantin’ to talk to ye.” Her eyes suddenly darkened and her body stiffened. “I suppose Ian and Corc will want to see ye, too.”

“I’d love to see them,” I said. But her expression said they might not really want to see me. I couldn’t blame them. I didn’t know how I would explain myself, yet. I’d just have to figure it out.

Una glanced at Mac. “Bring her in, lad.” She turned with the familiar pulsating energy. She took off toward the castle entrance. Mac didn’t say anything as he purposefully looked away from my eyes and swept his hand forward in an angry, but gentlemanly maneuver.

I’d hoped for an apology but the gesture didn’t come close. Instead, those darned eyes of his blazed with his anger. I didn’t know him nearly well enough to point out that he didn’t have the right to look so mad. I wanted to say: maybe, shouldn’t you say you’re sorry? But I didn’t. Instead, I turned and followed Una into the castle. Mac followed me, but not closely. 

The inside of the castle had changed more than the outside. Actually, the inside was more worn than I would have thought Una would have allowed. Older was expected, but faded like it was, was a surprise. The whitewash that covered the walls showed splotches of the stone of the structure. Stale air mixed with herbs that wafted from the back kitchen. There were two large dogs snoring in front of the hearth of the unlit fireplace and I could smell them, too. The fireplace soot was thicker and blacker than I thought possible, even with the passing of sixteen years.

“We’ll go directly to him,” Una said from the top of the stairs. She sat the basket on a table and waited with her hands clasped together. I hurried up the stairs and Mac continued to follow behind, still silent except for his heavy footfalls.