WHILE GAVIN HELPED Catriona barricade her cottage against attack, Cailean went with the laird to cast a spell to reinforce the barrier. Kinley gathered all the old rags she could find, and soaked them with whiskey before stuffing them into empty baskets and crocks.

“Undead bombs. I light them, you throw them,” she explained to Gavin as she arranged them on the kitchen table. “Boom.” She turned around, inspecting the room. “All I need is something for fuses. Catriona, do you have any wicks or reeds?”

“The angelica stems I gathered might work if they were no’ soaking wet.” She looked unhappy as she took down a small box and opened the lid. “Would these do?”

Kinley frowned at the tiny scrolls. “Are these messages?”

She nodded. “I send them to Ennis and Senga by dove, through the portal.”

The laird’s wife gaped at her. “You can send animals into the future?”

“I must reach into the portal while I hold them, to make it open, and then think of my family, but aye.” She stared down at the scrolls and then at Kinley as she realized what the laird’s wife had in mind. “It’s so dark now. What if Uncle has done something to the portal, as he’s done with the spring?”

“I happen to have excellent night vision,” the laird’s wife said. “As for Daimh, he might know some tricks, but the sacred groves can move people through time. I’ll put my money on them.”

“Is there a portal near your clan’s stronghold?” Gavin asked her.

“Oh, yeah. Right next to it.” She grinned, and then frowned again. “Catriona doesn’t know where Dun Aran is.”

“You do,” Gavin pointed out. “You must be the one to release the dove into the portal, my lady.”

“And I’d have to get to the portal here before the undead arrive, which with the total eclipse going will be any minute.” Kinley bit her lower lip as she thought about it. “I don’t have to worry about disappearing. If I do this, Lachlan is going to kill me. But I’m druid kind, so I might reincarnate.” She nodded at Catriona. “I need a blank scroll, something to write with, a friendly dove, and the darkest cloak you’ve got.”

Once Kinley had written the message for the clan, Catriona gently attached it to the leg of the dove she brought in.

“Give me a moment, please,” she said to the laird’s wife, and then held the bird as she looked into its eyes for a long moment. The dove rubbed its head against her chin before it flew to Kinley, and tucked itself inside her bodice, where it nestled with a contented coo.

Gavin knew she might be their only chance to survive, and still hated the thought of sending her out alone. “I should go with you.”

“I have fire on demand, and you don’t, so you should stay here and be The Black Watch, Captain. Cat, you really know how to train your birds.” Kinley wrapped herself in the dark brown cloak Gavin had brought from Catriona’s trunk. “All right, I’m heading out. Cat, light some candles so you have them for the bombs if you need them before I get back. Also, don’t die while I’m gone. I’ll need you two to talk down my husband when he goes nuts about this. See you soon.”

Gavin watched her go from the window, and then looked back at his lover, who sat holding her head. “She’ll make it to the portal.”

“If Uncle hasnae blocked it off, like the spring, aye.” She raised her woeful face. “’Tis my fault you’ll die tonight. If I’d kept you in the future, you’d have lived a little longer. Mayhap they’d have found a cure, even.”

“I’d rather die tonight than spend one more second being eaten alive by that facking disease.” He saw her shoulders shake, and picked her up from the chair. Carrying her over to the hearth, he sat down by the fire with her on his lap. “I want to die here, with you in my arms. If ’tis now, then so be it. I’m planning on it when we’re both very old and gray and ready for the world after this. Where we go, we go together now, my love.”

“I cannae even promise you we shall reincarnate and find each other again.” She sighed. “My tribe never returned.”

“We couldnae be together in the future,” he reminded her as he tipped up her chin. “Then we found each other here.” He brushed his mouth over hers, and tasted the salt of her tears on her lips. “’Tis no’ an accident, or coincidence. I love you, Catriona, and now I ken that I will forever, in this life and beyond it, wherever we go. Nothing again will keep the two of us apart.”

“Three.” She took his hand and moved it to her flat belly. “I felt it the morning of the rainbow. The new life we made together grows inside me.”

“You’re pregnant?” Gavin felt as if she’d clubbed him over the head. “But so soon. How can you be sure?”

“My mother told me that a druidess feels the glow of life the moment we conceive a child,” she admitted. “I didnae ken what she meant until I felt our lad quicken inside me last night.” She caressed his hand. “If we live, he shall be the first of our bloodline. You can feel him, too, when you touch me.”

Gavin focused on her belly, and felt something warm his palm. He stared at her. “Our son did that?” When she nodded he almost laughed out loud, and then understood why she felt so wretched. His own stomach suddenly dropped as he remembered their situation. “I have to get you out of here. You can use the portal to go to Ennis and Senga. They’ll keep you and the baby safe.”

“I willnae run away from Uncle or the undead again.” She climbed off his lap and planted her hands on her hips. “I want my life with you, Gavin. Here, where we belong, with our son. Mayhap with other druid kind we might meet. We can build a new tribe, but first we must fight for it.”

A trilling sound came from the window, and Gavin saw Jester flutter down to perch there. The nestling’s all-black feathers now showed new white patches, and gray patches on his dark bill. His dull gray webbed feet had grown huge, while the triangle of skin around his bright eyes had taken on a touch of blue.

That was when he stood and saw what none of them had noticed. All around the cottage creatures sat patiently watching Catriona from the little nooks and niches they occupied. The hares and their leverets made a bumpy brown pile in the big basket by the hearth. The eiders had brought several friends. They sat with the female and the nest she’d made beside Cat’s kindling box. Two voles sat grooming a third under the table as their tiny young scampered about picking up stray grains from the floor. If she’d had a bathtub, Gavin probably would have seen the shark’s fin sticking up out of it.

“You’re wrong, love.” He stretched out his hand, and Jester flew in to perch on his forearm. “You’ve already a tribe built.”

“I reckon I do.” She came to caress the baby puffin’s scarred head. “I found his mother on the cliffs when I released him. She knew him by his scent. She’d waited for him, but now he’s come back.” She took in a quick breath as she looked around them and finally saw what he had. “They didnae scatter when the Romans came, but they fear the undead, Gavin.”

“Their love for you is stronger.” A plan began to come together in his head. “’Tis the answer to everything.” He transferred Jester to an armchair, and went to the hearth to pluck a sliver of charcoal from the embers’ edge. “Would you bring me a gathering sack?”

Catriona fetched the cloth bag, which Gavin cut apart at the seams and spread out on the table. He drew on it with the charcoal a rough outline of the island, and made an x over the position of the village. Then he handed her the sliver.

“Draw the barrier and the spring, please,” he said.

Catriona looked puzzled, but quickly added a curving line around the village and a smaller, irregular circle outside it for the spring.

That gave him enough familiar markers to add a rectangle for his cottage, wavy lines for the waterfall, and a circle for the grove portal.

“They willnae leave Danyel on the ship. They stole him as leverage to use against the druid and the laird. Where did Daimh breach the barrier the first time?” When she pointed to a spot close to the spring he nodded. “He wanted everyone in your village to see the undead marching in. He’ll likely do the same when they bring the boy to show him. Their full attention will be on Lachlan and Cailean, in fact. They’ll no’ even notice the animals.”

Her shoulders stiffened. “I’ll no’ send my friends to attack the undead. They’ll be torn apart.”

“No’ to attack,” he told her. “To deliver some gifts. Lachlan and I can hold them off from there, to give you time.” He explained the rest of his scheme.

Catriona shook her head. “It cannae be me. It must be you.” When he started to protest she pressed her fingertips against his mouth. “A warrior doesnae only fight, Gavin. He protects. Just as the Pritani protect the innocent from the undead. I cannae do that as well as you. I think none of us can.”

At that moment Lachlan and Cailean came into the cottage, and Gavin knew from the look on the laird’s face that their time had run out.

“The undead have come ashore and now surround the barrier,” Lachlan said. “Ovate Lusk has done his best to strengthen the spell wall, but they have Daimh Haral with them. ’Twill only be a matter of time before they break through.” He glanced around the cottage. “Where is Kinley?”