Chapter 35 Torin
TORIN
It sounded like a cry. I raced down the hall tae find her, standin’ in the doorway — how had I not heard her approach? Her clothes were streaked with dirt and blood. There was blood on her pants. I rushed tae her. “Tis yer blood? Are ye covered in blood, Princess?”
Her hair was wild, there were bags hanging from her shoulders.
“I killed them! I got away, I killed them!” Her chest was heaving, her eyes blazing — och nae, she looked like she had been tae war.
She dropped the bags tae the porch.
I held her, kissing all over her face. “Nae, nae, I am sorry I dinna see them in the house, forgive me, we took too long, I dinna check the house. I should hae guarded ye better, I dinna mean tae put yer life in danger, I thought I could protect ye.”
She cried in my arms.
“I am sorry, I dinna mean tae, tis all my fault.”
Her arms went around my neck.
“How did ye get away?” I put her feet back on the floor.
“I woke up and my wrists were bound, but my bag was right in front of me. I was able to dig out the gun Ryan gave me.” She began tae act it out.
“I raised that gun and, bang bang bang, I shot all of them!” She looked down at her clothes, “One of the men grabbed my legs, I was clean. My clothes were clean. He was on me and… oh God, now there is blood everywhere.”
“Thank Heavens ye are alive, but twas my foolishness that almost got ye killed, I will never forgive myself.”
“Torin, my love, it’s okay, I got away— “
“Ye shouldna hae tae! I should hae been there. All for a shower and another meal. We dinna need tae come back for the horses!”
“But… we really needed the food and the horses, you’re about to fight a war, you have to have your horse.”
“Ye might hae been lost tae me forever.”
She brushed hair from her cheek with a filthy hand. “Well, I’m not. I shot them dead, or if not dead then I wounded them, they’re likely dead now, that’s a fact, and I stole their vessel, and—”
“Och nae, ye shouldna hae tae do it.”
“But I did, and I survived, now we have three vessels, damn, I’m badass.” She put her hands on her hips. “It was awesome. I had a gun in the bag, right there, and they didn’t take it, that was their mistake because I killed the hell out of them.”
She looked at me with wild eyes. “Come to find out I’m a terrible person, I am so amped up — is that okay, to be super excited and proud that I killed a bunch of men?”
“Aye, ye won a battle, ye are proud, ye hae a right tae be.”
“I grabbed bags from them, a vessel, and a flashlight to get home.”
“And ye gained spoils from the war, ye are a warrior.”
“Damn, that was awesome.”
I looked at her sadly. “Och, it sounds verra dangerous, so much could hae happened tae ye — how many men?”
“Like four men, Torin, four big men, I killed them and got away. God, I am badass.”
I smiled. “Four men!”
She looked down and seemed to catch sight of her hands. Then she looked down on her clothes and frowned. “I’m covered in blood.”
“Aye. Tis gruesome.”
“I need to get the blood off my hands, I can’t think.” She moved past me intae the kitchen, turnin’ the blazing lights on easily.
I noted the button she touched tae do it, I wouldna forget.
She ran her hands under the sink, scrubbing with soap. “Ugh, I can’t believe now we have to go fight another fight. That was plenty. I was way down the road, back there, I had to walk so far!”
“Aye, twas a verra close call, ye might hae died. Och, what would I hae done?”
She toweled off her hands. “You would have been desperately sad without me, Torin, but I am a hero — what happened here?”
She looked at my face. Her eyes seemed to really notice me. “What happened to you?”
“There was a loud explosion, mo leannan. M’ears are ringin’ from it.” I tugged at my earlobe.
“You look sunburnt.” She put some lotion in her palm, brought it close, and carefully rubbed it on my skin. “Feel better?”
“Aye, it does.”
“Those guys had a bomb or something? That makes me furious, what assholes! They bombed my childhood home? I’m glad they’re dead.”
“Och, ye sound verra heroic.” I brushed a clump of dirt from her shoulder.
She exhaled. “I don’t feel heroic, I mean, I do, I’m pretty proud I got away, but I think I might be in shock, you look like you’re in shock— “
“What is shock?”
“When you’ve been through something big and you’re carrying on as if you’re fine but you’re about to collapse. Your heart is racing and you’re confused.”
I nodded. “I was verra confused, I couldna figure out where ye were and how tae find ye, and…” I looked around at the room. “Couldna remember how tae turn on the lights. Ye were fightin’ for yer life and yer husband was unable tae turn on a lamp.”
“Aw, we are a mess.”
“Aye.”
She went into the laundry room. “I just remembered, I have sweats and a tee, right here in the dryer. I don’t even have to go upstairs, it’ll go faster.”
She pulled her clothes off and quickly changed, while saying, “Torin, you’ve rescued me like fifteen times.
If I take a true accounting, most of the time I’m just panicking while you do it.
This one time I had to rescue myself. I’m not holding it against you, at all.
Apparently, as a princess, danger is going to follow me.
I ought to know how to fight. That was the first time I shot a gun, it was wild. ”
I looked down my nose. “Think of how many times ye threatened me with that gun! Ye haena even shot it afore?”
She smiled. “I figured it out when I needed to.”
She shoved the clothes from her battle intae the washin’ machine and turned it on.
Dude jumped onto the table and sat licking his paws.
She asked, “You ready to go, Dude?”
I said, “I gave him some meat.”
She gave me a sweet frown. “You fed Dude?”
“Aye, we were tryin’ tae figure out what tae do, how tae save ye, so we discussed it while he had a meal.”
“That is awesome. I love you so much, please don’t sweat the ‘not turning on the lamps’ business, there are many things about your world that I don’t know how to do. We’re figuring this out. And when we’re in the kingdom we’re both out of time.”
“I am more out of time than ye, but I see what ye mean.”
She asked, “You look injured, are you going to be able to fight? How’s your shoulder?”
I rolled it around in the socket. “Twill be fine, I will rise tae the battle when called.”
“We are time travelers, you could rest up, go to the battle later, we can do that, I think?”
“Nae, there is a battle tae be fought, it must be fought, I will be ready. And we should go, I think.”
She locked up the doors, we gathered our bags and went out tae the paddock. The horses, still skittish, were millin’ at the far fence. I began looping ropes around their necks while Alexandria held the flashlight beam steady, her bags on her shoulders ready tae go.
As I cinched the first saddle, she said, “And now that I’ve proven myself, you know I can take care of myself, so when I go with you to the battle...”
My brow drew down.
Her eyes grew fierce. “You told me you weren’t going to leave me again.”
I yanked a strap tight. “Nae, ye will stay with yer Aunt Claray as ye did before. Tis the safest.”
She pouted.
I added, “Tis nae place for ye.”
“But you promised you wouldn’t leave me behind.”
I scoffed. “I meant after the battle.”
“So ‘I’m not going to leave you alone anymore’ means except for the very next day when I’m going to leave you to go…” She counted on her fingers. “Eight hundred years! You want to go eight hundred years without me!”
“If ye think ye will talk me intae takin’ ye tae a battlefield where near everyone I ken has already almost been killed, ye are sadly mistaken. What kind of husband dost ye take me for?”
“I can handle myself, I just proved it.”
“Nae, I am nae arguing with ye on it.”
She huffed. “But we’re stronger together!”
I shook my head, heaving a saddle ontae Lambo’s back. “Stronger? Nae, we canna be taegether every moment, Alexandria. Ye are goin’ tae be at m’side as I fight? Ye will get us both killed.”
“I won’t be right by your side, but when you go centuries away it’s terrible, I have no idea where you are and what you are doing!”
I shook my head. “Nae, Alexandria, ye think ye can take care of yerself because ye shot four fools? I hae seen ye cry more than any woman in the history of Alba, it inna a battlefield for tears.”
She crossed her arms with a huff. “Oh great, now you’re using that against me. That makes me furious. I cry, yes, I cry a lot, but you should call me Your Highness when you say something that mean, Albannach. I’m the Princess, show me some respect.”
“I will show ye respect, Princess, that demand is the most sensible thing ye hae ever said tae yer Torin, but I am also sworn tae protect ye.”
“If I am the princess, I have to go. I ought to see the battle, to understand what we’re fighting for. If something happens to Max, I will be queen, the people should know that I have seen with my own eyes the gravity of the battle.”
I snorted, buckling the girth. “The people will think I am mad for takin’ their princess intae battle, nae, I will tell ye all about it when I return. Ye will stay safe with Claray. Tis the end of it.”
She stomped her foot, the flashlight bobbing. “The end of it! No, Torin, absolutely not!”
I said, “Och nae.”
“Och nae is right, you don’t get to decide. I’m not some fragile thing you tuck away to convenience yourself. I just killed four men!”
I shook my head, “I am covered with scars and each one is a reason why ye canna come.”
“I can handle this, Torin. I will listen to you, I will stay out of the way. I promise I will be helpful. And if we have to flee, or jump, I’ll be right there, with you.
That’s the problem, you know, with the vessels.
If we’re pulled apart, how do we get back to each other?
If I hadn’t killed those guys they might have time jumped me away. ”
“Tis not a good example, we were taegether when ye were taken. Ye would be safe on the military base.”
“Torin, what if I lose you, what if something happens to you, and I don’t know what or why? We have to stay together. Please. I can demand it, as your Princess, but I’m asking as your wife, don’t leave me behind, let me come.”
I paused, hands on the saddle horn, staring at her in the beam’s glow.
She was right — against villains with the power of time travel we were weak and separation made it worse.
Twas difficult tae override my mind, tellin’ me she was safer surrounded by guards, not on the edge of a battlefield.
I would be weaker if I was worried about her, she might be used against me while I was tryin’ tae fight a war.
There were a hundred ways in which she was wrong
But she was right in one thing, separation brought on uncertainty. I couldna solve it if she were lost, if she were stolen — with all of time tae search, there was naething tae do but feed the cat and wonder how tae find her.
I said, “When I am in the past and ye are in the future, I ken ye are alive, that is a bit of a relief.”
“When I am in the future and you are in the past, I think you are dead. It breaks my heart. I really can’t bear it. I will do anything to not be separated from you again.”
I exhaled, long and defeated. “Och, ye drive a hard bargain, mo leannan. Aye… we go together. But ye stay behind the lines, and if I say run, ye run.”
She nodded, relief flooding her face. “Deal.” Then she cocked her head. “Are you mad at me? This was our biggest fight, do you forgive me?”
“Aye it has been our biggest fight, ye fought a war then came home and picked a battle with me.”
She scoffed. “I suppose I did.”
“But I daena mind, ye ought tae speak yer mind if we are goin’ tae survive this, but ye also must listen, mo leannan, sometimes.
What ye ken of war can fit in yer pocket, with the gun ye dinna ken how tae shoot.
What I ken of war can fortify the walls of a castle.
And might, if people will just listen tae me, win a throne. ”
“Yeah, I know, you’re right. Thank you for listening to me and taking my thoughts into account.”
I said, “And ye forgive me?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Thank ye, I winna allow ye tae get taken again.” I picked up Dude and placed him in her arms and once we were all gathered and holding on, I twisted the vessel.
Pain filled my body, the storm rose around us, and swallowed us whole, carrying us tae Max and her uncles and the battle that beckoned.