CHAPTER 47
“Duncan will come for me now,” Brighde said, in a high voice. “Hector doesn’t need my grandmother now that the laird has given up.”
“When he comes, that will give us our opportunity to escape.” Sybil put her arm around the girl and nodded at Lùcas, who was more alert now, but still very weak.
They would have one chance, and that was all. Sybil had her blade, and they had searched the hut’s dirt floor until they found two small shards from a broken pot. They each had a weapon now, and they had surprise on their side.
She tensed as she heard someone sliding the wooden bar on the outside of the door.
“Just like we practiced,” she whispered to the others.
But when Big Duncan filled the open doorway, she knew they could never be ready. He was too big, too powerful, too skilled a warrior. Their weapons were pathetically tiny, Lùcas could barely stand, and Brighde was little more than a child. But they had to try.
They remained in their places on the floor, holding their hands behind their backs as if bound, waiting for Duncan to make the first move. Their plan was to wait until the last possible moment to launch their attack.
Duncan did not even look at Sybil and Lùcas. Without a moment’s pause, he pounced on Brighde like a starving wolf attacking a helpless lamb. Brighde screamed.
Fury surged through Sybil, obliterating all fear and any thought of their plan. She flew across the hut and landed on his back like a wild cat, driven by rage and the instinct to protect her own. Before he knew what hit him, she plunged her blade into the side of his neck.
Duncan bellowed and arched back. She clung to him with her legs and one arm around his enormous neck as she stabbed him again, this time in his back. All her efforts seemed to do was enrage him.
He spun, knocking her against the wall as he tried to shake her off. Oof! The breath went out of her as she hit the wall again, but she managed to hold on. But then he caught hold of the back of her gown and flipped her over his head, slamming her onto the floor on her back. She lay stunned, her vision sparked with stars.
Just before the beast of a man fell on top of her, she managed to roll to the side far enough to avoid his full weight. But she was trapped under his leg and arm.
“Run! Run!” she shouted to the others. The door was open. “Get help!”
She bit Duncan’s arm and wriggled out from under him while he cursed her. She stumbled to her feet and ran out the door after Brighde and Lùcas.
Duncan caught her around her knees and she fell in the tall grass. Duncan turned her over and leaned down, his hideous face distorted by rage. “You’re going to pay for this!”
She struggled against the enormous brute, but he had her pinned, and he was so heavy she could not move at all.
“Rory!” she screamed as Duncan started pulling up her skirts. “Rory!”
***
Rory lay flat on his belly watching the hut. He suspected Hector had moved Sybil out of the Fairburn Tower so he could make that show of letting Rory search the house. That must have amused the bastard. After riding away, Rory sneaked back and watched the tower house until he saw Duncan leave.
It was always Duncan who did Hector’s dirty work, so Rory followed him. He could not risk giving away his presence until he was sure this hut was where Sybil was being kept. He wouldn’t have a second chance, so he held his breath and waited while Duncan went inside the hut.
Rory heard a scream and took off running across the field toward the hut. A young man leaning on the shoulders of a lass scurried out of the hut. As Rory raced across the field, the pair saw him and waved frantically.
A moment later, Sybil ran out of the hut with Duncan right behind her. Duncan dropped her, and cold fury shot through Rory’s veins. As Sybil screamed his name, he barreled into Duncan.
As they rolled on the ground, Duncan slammed a heavy fist into Rory’s bruised side, where he’d cracked a rib in the river. The blinding pain just made Rory more furious. He rammed the heel of his hand up against Duncan’s nose and heard the satisfying snap of it breaking.
Rory sprang to his feet with his dirk in his hand. Duncan was quick for such a big man. He was standing almost as soon as Rory, with his infamous axe in his hand.
They circled each other. Big Duncan’s blood was up and he was accustomed to overpowering his opponents with little trouble.
“How’s your nose?” Rory taunted him. “Gives ye the devil of a headache, doesn’t it?”
When Duncan roared and swung his axe, Rory danced out of his reach, then swooped in and struck Duncan’s thigh with his blade. Duncan’s next swing was low, and Rory had to jump to avoid losing a leg. The next, Rory felt the wind in his hair as he ducked below the axe. In between Duncan’s swings, Rory cut the big man’s shoulder, his side, and his other leg.
Duncan was a mountain of a man, and none of the injuries Rory inflicted seemed to slow him down. Rory needed to end this before any of Hector’s other men came this way.
Before Duncan could recover from the next swing to bring his axe back again, Rory stepped in close and rammed his blade to the hilt up under Duncan’s breastbone.
Big Duncan of the Axe fell like a stone. Blood seeped from his mouth as he stared up in shocked surprise.
Sybil ran into Rory’s arms. He held her close and buried his face in her hair. He had come so close to losing her.
“I tried to be brave,” Sybil said against his chest, “but I was so afraid I’d never see you again.”
“You’re the bravest lass in all of Scotland.” He brushed her hair back and looked into his beloved’s violet eyes. “I’ll never let ye go.”
When the pair who had run out of the hut joined them, Rory was relieved to see that the young man was Malcolm’s missing grandson, Lùcas. He was injured, but they did not have far to go. Though he did not know her name, he recognized the girl as the wise woman’s granddaughter. He knew now why the woman had lied about his birth.
The girl went to stand over Duncan.
“Burn in hell,” she said, and spit in his eye.
A fitting end to an evil life.
“We’d better hurry now,” Rory said. “I have a boat to catch.”
“I’d go anywhere with you,” Sybil said, “but I hate to see you give up the chieftainship to Hector. Your clan needs ye here.”
“I’ve no intention of giving it up,” he said, and gave her a wink. “I told Hector I would leave. I never said I wouldn’t come back.”