An hour later, Lily found herself in an archaic dress, sitting on the back of a white mare horse, the only vestige of her former clothes being her amethyst necklace. “Where are we going?”
“To see Alison,” Matthew’s sister answered.
“I know, but who is Alison?”
“She’s an old woman, but very wise. She will be able to tell us how you came to be here, and explain how we can get you to your home.”
“Okay,” Lily answered, apprehensive. After ten minutes of further riding, they arrived at a run-down shack on the shores of the Loch. A small, hunchbacked woman sat outside, peeling potatoes.
“Alison!” Matthew’s sister said loudly, causing the hunchbacked woman to look up.
“Marion!” she called, “what brings you to this side of the loch, child?”
“Lily,” Marion answered.
“Ahh,” the wizened old woman answered, looking at Lily. “I daresay that you are not comfortable, are you, child?” the woman said in perfect American English, the first that Lily had heard that day.
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand…” Lily answered, confused.
“I knew that you would be coming, Lily Rey.”
“How do you know my name?” Lily asked.
“I told you,” Marion interjected, “she would know where you came from and how you got here…and how to get you back.”
“Let me see the key,” Alison said.
“Key? What key?”
“You wear the key around your neck, my child.”
“You mean my necklace? It’s not a key!”
“Yes, child, a necklace and a key. Not to the doors you think of, but the key of time.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Didn’t your aunt tell you?”
“My aunt? Aunt Vonny? How do you know about her?”
“Yes, my dear…didn’t she tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“That the necklace you wear is a powerful talisman! It was blessed by my people to give extraordinary power…the power to control time and space. There is an incantation that will give you the ability to control the amulet.”
“Okay, can I have it?”
“Yes…but please know this: the amulet brought you here for a reason. If you do not fulfill your purpose, then it will have drastic consequences for you…and your family. And now, the incantation is this: ‘tempus imperium.’ If you grasp the amulet in both hands and say these words, a gateway will appear before you. You will need to focus on a specific date or situation, and when you walk through the gateway, you will be instantly transported to that time and place.”
“Can I tell anyone this?”
“Only the one to whom the necklace brought you, and the one from whom it sent you.”
“And who are they?” Lily asked, completely bewildered.
“Follow your heart, child…it will tell you. Now, if you are to prevent the dire consequences that I have warned you about, you need to return to Culcreuch now, or else you will have missed your opportunity. Also, you will need to stay with the one to whom you were sent, or you will fail. Never leave his sight.” Switching to the strange language once more, she turned to Marion and said, “Take her back to your home. She will know what she has to do, and when.”
“Thank you, Alison,” Marion answered, bowing before the ancient witch. “Lily, come…let us go.”
As they rode back around the Loch, Lily thought on what the old witch had told her. Who had the necklace sent her to? Who had it sent her from? The only thing that made any sense was that she was here for a reason, but even then, she didn’t know what the reason was. And it would have been great to hear some more about the consequences if she didn’t follow the instructions. What she needed was time to think, and to talk to someone she trusted. But who did she trust? Aunt Vonny was dead, and that left only Rose, but according to Alison, Rose was in another time entirely.
“What year is it?” she asked Marion, breaking the lengthy silence that had stretched between them whilst riding back to the castle.
“It is the year of our Lord, 1314. My father, Maurice Galbraith is the chief of our clan, and built our castle to be the seat of our clan twenty years ago, to keep us safe after King John was forced to abdicate his claim to the throne.”
“So who is the King now?” Lily asked as they slowed to a walk by the stable.
“King Robert I has been king for eight years.”
“Is he the one they call the Bruce?”
“Yes,” Marion answered. Lily (whose knowledge of Scottish history came only from a pamphlet she received in Glasgow when she had arrived the day before and the movie Braveheart) had a lapse in judgment, and said, “Isn’t he that cowardly traitor?”
“Traitor?!” came the booming voice of Matthew from inside the stable. “Robert the Bruce is a good man who has constantly had to fight off challenges to his kingship from pretenders to the throne! Ever since he took the throne, he has been fighting to secure our position! How dare anyone call him a traitor?!”
“I’m sorry…I was told that he had abandoned William Wallace at Falkirk, and that was how Wallace was captured…”
“No. That is not what happened. I fought side by side with Wallace, and he was certainly betrayed, but not by King Robert. The army of the king has lain siege to the royal castle at Stirling, and I will be riding to join him as a member of his personal guard.”
“I’m sorry; I must have been told wrong, please don’t be angry with me!”
“Matthew,” Marion interjected when he opened his mouth to retort, “Peace.”
“Fine,” he said, turning to his sister. “I need to get ready to ride for the ride to the field, so can you please help this young lady to find her way back to where she came from?”
“I can’t,” Lily interjected, a realization suddenly dawning upon her. “I can’t leave until I have done something.”
“What are you talking about?” Matthew asked.
“Walk with me for a few minutes,” Lily answered, turning and walking toward the water.
Matthew turned to his sister, and looked deeply into her eyes, as if asking if he should follow. “Go,” Marion answered the unspoken question.