Twenty-Nine
Taking his sword from where it was imbedded in the chest of his fallen adversary, James stood. Chest heaving from exertion, he looked around making certain none of them were breathing.
They’d wanted to take him.
Not kill him.
Not harm him.
But kidnap him.
He’d gotten that information from the last foe he’d felled- who had had an English accent.
An Englishman.
Moving that thought aside, James ran from the clearing, racing back to Katie. Fear spurned his feet faster than they’d ever went. He saw more dead men as he arrived.
“Katie!”
Fear made his voice hoarse.
“KATIE!”
Panic seized him, his heart accelerating to a panicked pace.
“Menzies!”
Looking around, he saw Alpin trying to gain to his feet. James strode towards him, lending a hand to hoist him up.
“Where is she?”
Alpin noted the panic on the other man’s face. “I doona know. They believed me dead and left. The leader hit her with her fist and carried her away.”
James growled. He looked to his left where a man was gurgling from the blood coming from his mouth.
He was wearing Kerr plaid.
Clenching his jaw, he walked purposefully over to the man, grabbed him by the shirt, and brought him upwards. Moving into the man’s face, nearly touching his nose with his, James sneered.
“Where. Is. My. Wife?”
The man smiled. James let go of his hold and allowed the man to fall backwards onto the hard ground. James was satisfied at the man’s grunt of pain. He placed his booted foot over the man’s chest wound.
“I willna ask again. I promise ye, that if ye make me wait for my answer, ye’ll wish for death to come soon. I will peel the skin off your flesh, pour spirits over ye, and set ye ablaze. Fitting, indeed, since ye will be well on yer journey to purgatory.”
The man’s laughter stopped as James spoke.
“I see that I now have yer attention.”
James nodded, his yellow eyes glinting with what the other man would describe as an unnatural light.
James pressed his foot down causing the man to howl in pain.
“The Marbhaiche.”
The man was asking if James was him, and his voice had a note of incredulity and awe as if he was unable to believe he was in the presence of the legend.
James noted that he wasn’t English. Some of the men who’d worn Kerr plaid had spoken with an English accent.
Jaw clenched, nostrils flared, James’s stare was hard.
“Aye.”
The other man sputtered as James increased the pressure on the wound.
“They t-t-toook…’errr.”
James growled. “Doona tell me what I already know.”
The other man coughed and James, again, increased the pressure.
“‘Twassss…. the Kerrs.”
James continued to apply pressure.
“Next, I will stand on yer chest! Tell. ME!”
“Their…k-k…keep.”
James removed his booted foot.
“K-kill….m-m…me.”
James spared him a brief glance. “Nay.”
The other man’s eyes widened.
“Suffer, as ye most deserve.”
James walked to their hut and was struck by its barrenness. His wife had added life to it. Now, it was a hallow, ugly shelter that held no appeal for him.
The beauty of it left with her.
His chest felt hollow.
James began grabbing more weapons and placing them on his body. He took his double scabbard and donned it on his back, placing inside his two broadswords. He’d left them behind not ever believing that their haven would have been intruded upon like this.
His mistake.
And he would not make another.
James turned suddenly, reaching back and unsheathing his swords. Legs braces apart, a sword in each hand, his eyes narrowed to where he heard the sound.
Four men came into the area he and Katie shared. Once they focused on him, James snarled.
“Ye are a bit late. Yer kinsmen have met their fates.”
Taking their swords in their hands, the one standing at the very end on the right began laughing.
“Hardly seems fair that it would be four men against one.”
The man next to him didn’t laugh but instead looked upon James with a fixed stare.
“‘Tis nay just a man, Rabbie. This is the Marbhaiche.”
Rabbie’s smile faltered as his eyes turned to James with a touch of hesitance and worry.
“Ye ken,” James’ brogue was thick and deep, reflecting his fury. His accent became more pronounced. The burr resonated around the men who looked at one another uneasily.
“I have this amassin’ rage inside o’ me. It begins at my feet an’ pools in my stomach. The flames move into my limbs, which itch to slay all before me. It is a fury so profound, I want to destroy all that I see.” He paused for a long moment.
“It happens when a mon’s wife, who is carryin’ their child, is taken from him.”
James looked at the men and roared a battle cry.
He moved forth with fury in his eyes. Movements precise and fierce, he slayed the first two immediately. The other two gained on him, but James turned quickly, divesting one of his sword, and then the other. Wanting the exertion, he threw both swords to the ground and ran straight into the men. They grunted as James made impact, dragging them to the ground.
The men were no match for James.
James’ fists collided with the men’s faces, their eyes swelling immediately. Elbowing one in the cheek, James’ hands wrapped around one’s throat until the man’s eyes turned into the back of his head. He twisted his hand to the right, snapping the man’s neck. James turned and began punching the other, blood seeping from the man’s mouth.
“What do the Kerrs seek with my wife?”
The man was barely coherent.
“M-marriage…p-pact…”
The bastard Kerr began a war and took his wife to enforce a rescinded marriage pact.
“I will kill him.”
“Y-ye c-cannn…tr-try. He has m-muchhh h-help.”
The man had the bollocks to laugh. James took the man’s head and twisted, stopping the foul sound of his laughter. Hearing a noise from one the of the men he’d thought was dead, James rose and walked over to him.
“Sh…she…w-will su-fferrr. H-he willll…mm-make cer-t-tain…”
When he began laughing, James kneeled over him and began punching his face until the man stopped moving. James’ hand touched the blood on the man’s face and streaked his own with it.
He channeled the days of old when he battled for his father’s gain. The savage beast within him pounded his chest with a fury and rage that could not be contained.
They dared to take his stòr from him.
His bairn with her.
The tumultuous rage was too much to contain within him.
The fear that his wife and unborn babe could be injured, churned within him, making him crazed. He looked up at the sky and roared. The veins on his neck were outlined and protruding.
Covered in the blood of his enemy, James stalked to Alpin who looked more than disturbed at James’ bloodied face.
“I didna believe that I’d be of much assistance.”
James nodded. “Ye would have kept me from fighting.”
“What d’ye wish to do?”
“They’ve succeeded in delaying me. They believe that I will hurry after Katie without a contingency.”
“Will ye?”
James’ eerie golden gaze fixed on Alpin’s.
Unnerving.
Especially through the red blood on his face.
Someone else’s blood.
Alpin shuddered.
“Ye will return and tell Connor and my father all that ye know. Tell them to send a contingency to the Kerr holding.”
“And ye? Will ye go after her without any men, as they expect ye to?”
“Walk into a den of wolves alone for my wife and bairn? Aye,” he nodded his head. “I would walk into purgatory and fall upon a sword for her. But ‘tis they who have to fear me.”
At Alpin’s doubtful gaze, James began walking, gathering his weapons.
“Wolves they may be, but beast am I.”