Chapter 5 #2
Breana followed the voice to the bushes at the side of the path and almost cried out in shock. A woman lay there, pale and bleeding from a large wound at her side which she was clutching hard, trying to keep her lifeblood inside. Breana hurried to her, falling roughly to her knees at her side.
"What happened tae ye?" she asked desperately. "Who hurt ye?" She ripped off the bottom of her skirt, not really sure what she was doing except that she had to help with the bleeding. The woman didn't protest as Breana pressed the makeshift bandage against the wound.
"Treachery," the woman gasped. "Treachery."
Breana knew it was dangerous to try to move the woman, but she also knew she couldn't leave her here.
She would have to keep her talking, keep her awake, in order to get her back to the healers before it was too late.
She helped the woman to her feet, encouraging her to lean against her.
"Hold the bandage tae the wound," she instructed her, hoping that it was the right thing to do.
They moved through the forest, the woman staggering but conscious. "McKenzie," she muttered. "McKenzie."
Cold ice flooded Breana's veins. "Murtagh McKenzie?" she asked. Breana could see the walls of the castle ahead, so she forced herself to keep moving, even though the shock made her want to stand stock-still. "Are ye talkin' about…"
"Treachery…" the woman said again, then coughed. Blood leaked through the makeshift bandage and got on the remains of Breana's dress. The woman's legs gave out under her, and she stumbled. Breana managed to keep her up, but only just.
"No more talkin'," Breana assured her, trying to ignore the nausea and fear in her guts. "Let's get ye help."
"She's a spy. One of the White Sparrows, the people who Ferda went to find," Eoin explained to Breana. "And ye saved her life."
The two of them sat outside the council room, waiting to be called inside when the elders had all arrived.
As soon as Breana had passed the injured woman off to the healers, she'd hurried off to find Eoin, the only person she could think of at the moment.
She told him what the woman had said to her, and he'd urgently called for the council.
"I… I dinnae ken how I managed tae get her back here," Breana confessed.
The healers had told her the woman was going to be all right, which was a relief at least, but now all that Breana could think about was Maeve.
What had the spy meant by treachery? Had someone from the McKenzie clan somehow been the one to hurt her? Surely not.
"But ye did," Eoin told her. He put a hand on her arm, and only when he did that did Breana realize that she was shaking.
His skin felt comforting against hers, and she found herself breathing a little more steadily at his small gesture of comfort.
"Ye did, and now we have information we wouldnae have had otherwise, and she's gonnae live. "
"But what does it mean?" Breana asked, a tremor in her tone. "McKenzie…do ye really think…?"
"I dinnae ken," Eoin told her. He took her hand and squeezed it.
The elders arrived soon after, and Breana told the whole story once more, from the moment she'd heard the injured woman's voice to the words she'd said. As she spoke, she could hear her words jumbling up as her anxiety rose to the surface, urgency making it difficult to focus.
When she was finished, Hamish was the first to speak. "The spy—her name is Barbara—she is unconscious. We likely willnae get any further information from her any time soon. So it's vitally important ye tell us everythin' that she said."
"That is everythin'," Breana assured him. "Treachery. McKenzie. That's all she said." Her stomach tightened uncomfortably, and she felt like she was going to be sick. "Is Maeve in danger? How can we warn her? How can we help her?"
Kier rubbed at his thick beard, then shook his head.
"We dinnae have enough information tae go on.
Barbara may have meant any number of things by her warnin'.
If we're tae go in, swords raised, and it turns out there's been a mistake—we could have ruined everythin' before it's even started.
The McKenzie treaty is essential tae Cailean's plans. "
"Nae if he's a monster," Eoin argued. "Nae if his men injured this lass, our lass, presumably tae keep some dark secret. What if Cailean and his men are in danger? Are we tae just stand back and hope?"
"We're tae trust Cailean," Senan said, exchanging looks with the other three council members. "I believe he'll be able tae deal with whatever ploy Murtagh McKenzie throws his way. He's nae unaware, and he didnae go intae this a blind, trustin' fool. He'll be on his guard."
Ewan nodded. "We must trust our king, if he's tae rule us. If there's a threat—"
"There is a threat," Breana interrupted, unable to believe what she was hearing. "And Maeve is there! Deirdre, Darren, Fergus, all of the rest of them are there—nae just Cailean. He'll be distracted, tryin' tae protect them all. We need tae let them ken there's danger, or…"
"There will always be danger. Always," Kier told her, obviously trying to sound gentle while still being firm.
"This is war. We must trust Cailean and Maeve and the others tae face whatever threat Murtagh McKenzie poses.
If Barbara awakes and has further information, we'll act on it. Until then, we wait."
"We cannae just wait!" Breana protested. "We cannae—"
"We wait," Kier repeated firmly. "And we trust Cailean."
As soon as night fell, Breana snuck out of the castle, knowing that what she was about to do was foolish but also knowing that she had no other choice.
Her fear for Maeve was all-consuming, and she could not just sit idly by and wait around while her sister might be in danger.
She had only just gotten her back, and the idea that she might lose her again was completely unacceptable.
Most of the horses were asleep in the stable, and Breana had no idea which belonged to someone and which were just for all of the rebels, but she didn't have time to think about that now.
She walked along the row until she found a horse that was awake, and she took that as a sign that this was the one to get her where she needed to go.
She led the horse out of the stall, thanking God she'd learned to ride as a child, and attached her pack hastily to the saddle.
"Are ye stealin' that horse?" a voice asked from the shadows.
Breana yelped and spun around to face the corner from where the voice had come. Eoin came out from the shadows, his arms folded, an inscrutable expression on his face.
"I kent ye'd be here," he said. "I came tae wait. Ye're more like Maeve than ye think. She wouldnae have just waited, either." He shook his head. "Ye cannae just ride off alone."
"Please." Breana stepped toward him, pleading as she did.
Part of her wanted to back down as she had done her whole life, but she couldn't do that.
Not when Maeve's life was on the line. "Please understand.
I need tae go. I need tae warn me sister.
And it isnae just her—this whole rebellion will fall if we dinnae help Cailean.
None of us want that. Please, Eoin—dinnae try tae stop me. "
There was a crystalline silence, then Eoin sighed. "Nothin' I say is goin' tae stop ye, I suppose."
"Nothin'," she agreed.
He took a step toward her, looming over her. "I could stop ye. I could make ye stay, physically."
Breana took a breath, a newfound determination filling her. "Do it," she challenged. "And at the first opportunity, I'll slip away again. I am scared to death for me sister, and I willnae stop until I ken I've done everythin' I can tae keep her safe."
Eoin's expression finally cracked, and it relaxed into something like admiration. "I understand," he told her. "And I ken I cannae keep ye here. So, come on."
"What?"
"Come on," he repeated. "I'm comin' with ye."
Breana could barely believe what she was hearing. "I…ye dinnae have tae do that for me."
Eoin nodded. "I ken. Let's go."
He had a horse saddled in just a few minutes, and as the two of them rode out into the night, Breana's heart was hammering wildly in her chest. There was fear there, of course, but that wasn't all that it was. She couldn't stop thinking about the way that Eoin had looked at her.
For the first time, she'd believed that someone could see her.
For the first time, someone had looked at her not just with concern, but with admiration.
Like she was an equal. Like she was a partner.
For the first time in her whole life, those blue eyes had made her feel like she had found her place.
As though she'd finally found what she was looking for. And now, she needed to make sure she didn't lose it again.