Page 11 of The Blue Viking

Old John nodded, his face flushing with anger. “Yea, and a miserable cur he was, too. The youngest brother of Duncan … younger by fifteen years, I would guess.”

Rurik had other questions he’d like to ask, but they could come later. For now, there was one that was foremost in his mind. “Who is your laird, then? Nay, do not tell me it is your mistress, Maire the Witch?” He refused to give her that gentler appellation, Maire of the Moors.

All the Campbell men burst out laughing.

“Females cannot be chieftains of our particular clan,” Old John explained, “though Lady Maire has done a fine job of holding all together till the laird can take over.”

Rurik was weary of all this vague talk and innuendo. With impatience, he demanded, “Then who in bloody hell is laird?”

The Campbell horsemen moved aside, right and left, leaving a path through their group. Riding up on a dappled gray mare was a fat monk with tonsured head and an enormous belly. Sitting in front of him on the horse was a filthy, ill-garbed, barefooted boy of little more than four winters. He was black-haired and green-eyed and soon demonstrated that he had the tongue of a seasoned seaman.

With a compelling bravado for one so young, the child proclaimed in a shrill voice, “I am the bloody hell laird.”

“Bhroinn, rachadh, gleede, chunnaic. Nay, that’s not it. Rachadh, gleede, bhroinn, bhroinn.” Maire exhaled loudly with frustration. “Why, oh, why can’t I remember the words of the spell? If only Cailleach were still here! I would have been out of this cage the first day.”

For the past two hours, ever since Nessa had left, Maire had been trying one witchly device after another … spells, curses, centering, circling, wind riding, visualizing, grounding, even body raising. None of them had worked… not even in the backward way they were wont to do sometimes when she got the rituals wrong.

Now she was left with her final alternative. Putting her palms together, she looked out at the gray skies. “Dearest God, please help me in my dire need.”

It was then that Maire saw the six Vikings. They were turning the bend at the bottom of the small mountain she called home, Beinne Breagha. Most alarming was the fact that her very own clansmen led the way.

Could this possibly be the answer to her prayer? If so, she was going to give up her witchly attempts and spend lots more time on her knees.

She thought of something else. So, this was Old John’s plan… the one Nessa had referred to. Her mouth thinned with displeasure. Well, she could not be angry with her loyal retainer. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and Old John must have believed there was hope with the Vikings. She had to trust in Old John. What else could she do?

A quick scan of the approaching group showed that her son was not with them… nor his monk caretaker. Maire breathed a sigh of relief. Thank the heavens that Old John had exercised the good sense to keep young Jamie hidden in the woods, out of danger, and the Viking’s presence.

Even as she noticed the Vikings in the distance, she saw a battered and bloody messenger rush up to the dozen or so MacNab men who’d been left to guard her keep. Almost immediately, the men gathered their weapons and other belongings and, cursing loudly and shaking their fists at her, scattered in the direction of the MacNab lands, like chaff in the wind. Duncan MacNab was a brave man when his opponents were weaker than he. At the least prospect of an equal adversary, however, he would scoot off, waiting for the chance to pounce when a back was turned or chicanery could be practiced.

She was not deceived by their hasty retreat, though. They would return … in greater numbers.

But, oh, it grated her pride sorely that it was this man, above all others—Rurik—who came to rescue her from the MacNabs … even if only temporarily. The callous brute had beaten her pride to the ground once before. She would not let him do it again… despite her ignominious position.

Maire sighed deeply, wondering if her lot would be any better with the Vikings than the MacNabs. She stood and held on to the cage bars, staring out over the Campbell land she loved so much. She tried to imagine seeing her home through the much-traveled Vikings’ eyes.

There were Campbells in Scotland who were rich and powerful. Maire’s family was of the poorer branch. Though built on stone foundations, her keep, which was referred to as a castle, was little more than a rambling, timber hill-fort perched atop a flattened earthen bank. Two concentric rings of walls and ditches surrounded the fortress, pierced by a single gateway. Beyond the “castle” walls was the village of a hundred wooden huts—wattle and daub with conical thatched roofs. Most of them were unoccupied and in a state of decay, but they bespoke a more prosperous time.

Afternoon was gone and eventide not yet upon them… a time referred to as the gloaming, when a mystical aura lay over the land, highlighting the rugged, stone-dotted land with its luxuriant blanket of lavender-colored heather. Visitors to the Scottish Highlands were wont to comment on what they perceived as its harshness but they were blind. There was so much beauty in this stark land it nigh brought tears to Maire’s eyes.

That was neither here nor there. She must concentrate on the Viking, and how to handle this new dilemma.

Even from her lofty perch in the cage, she had to admit that these Viking men, expertly guiding then-fine horses on the twisted path, were an impressive group. Though several appeared wounded from some recent fight—perhaps with the MacNabs—they all sat tall and proud, never once glancing with fear to the side, where the remnants of her Campbell followers were coming out of hiding, prepared to defend her honor and that of the clan.

But why should the Vikings be fearful? They were men in their prime … fierce warriors. Whereas all she had left of her clan were the old and the young, thanks to one war after another these past twenty years. Scotsmen were as bad as Vikings. They loved a good fight, and it mattered not if the enemy were Saxon, Viking, Frank, or fellow Scotsman.

If more women were permitted to be chieftains of the clans, this would not happen, in Maire’s opinion. Some clans did allow such, but her particular branch called for the leadership to pass through the males of the family. So all Maire could do was try to hold the clan together till her son could inherit.

What must these Vikings—some of whom she knew were highborn—think of her crumbling wood-and-stone keep? Or her poor guardsmen? Well, Maire refused to bow her head in shame. If her home was not as grand as it once had been, that was not her fault. As to her followers… ah, she was proud of them, one and all.

Old John was missing one arm, thanks to a surprise Saxon attack ten years past. Her father, Malcolm, had already been dead by then, but her brothers Donald and Angus had left John in charge whilst they went off fighting in Northumbria. Angus never came home that time and was buried in the cold earth of Northern England. Donald had caused her all kinds of problems since their father’s death … most importantly, betrothing her to the youngest of the neighboring MacNab clan, Kenneth MacNab. Donald Campbell had died last year, and her husband, Kenneth, just a few months ago. Maire could not regret either of their deaths, though she had thought she loved Kenneth at one time. Neither of her brothers had left any heirs.

Old John was leading the entourage, single file, up the pathway to her keep. His one good arm held a claymore at the ready as he glared at the passing countryside, on the alert for MacNab stragglers.

A short distance behind him rode Young John, who also surveyed the craggy landscape. Young John was only thirty years old, but he was blind in one eye. And he had a problem with dizziness. Often he keeled over without any warning.

A dozen or so others followed behind them. Another dozen of her “guardsmen” and crofters sprang up at various posts along the way. They had sentry duty along the pathway, as if they could stop the Vikings if they wanted to.

Her eyes skimmed over the Norsemen as they came closer, their horses clip-clopping over the wooden drawbridge as they passed through the gateway. She’d met some of them before, when she’d first encountered Rurik on a visit to her cousins in Glennfinnan.