Chapter 5 #3
Where the earlier battle had taken place, the selkie males lay on the ground, yelling and struggling, their wrists and ankles bound, their weapons gone.
"What the devil happened?" Brodie had never known this to take place in a skirmish. Using his dirk, he cut the ropes. "Where are your weapons?"
"Stolen by the wind," one of them said.
What? Mayhap he had misheard. But he didn't have time to figure it out now. He severed the remaining ropes and freed the warriors.
"We must stop the bastards! They're almost to the galleys!" Brodie raced toward the miscreants, the selkie males following him.
Who the hell was the leader of this gang of savages, and which clan was it? In the torchlight, he had seen no one he recognized. They wore various plaids and no identification, no plant badges on their tams.
The ruffians were handing off the females to those on board and shoving the galleys into the water.
"Shift!" Brodie threw down his weapons, drew the sealskin from his sporran, and unbuckled his belt. His plaid fell to the sand. After rushing into the cold surf, he slid on the sealskin and transformed into a seal. The selkie warriors followed his lead.
They had to stop the bastards.
***
HEARING ROUGH SHOUTS, screams, and the clashes of battle approaching, Elsea peered over the galley's hull into the night.
Torches blazed in the distance, their flames blown sideways in the wind.
The women's screams lanced through her own heart.
Her pulse thudded like a drum in her ears as shadowy, nightmarish figures rushed through the faint moonlight.
"Dear God, help me," she breathed. What could she do for the women?
Talnaroch and his clansmen dashed forward, carrying the squirming women over their shoulders, their glinting swords still in hand. Some of the females were naked, and others wore thin white smocks. Hands and feet bound, they shrieked and struggled against their captors.
Such barbaric demons! Ice scraped through Elsea's veins, and her chest constricted.
"Give me strength," she prayed quietly. She crouched low, still hidden by the sail. Hands sweaty, she fumbled for the sgian dubh on her forearm and withdrew it.
"Put them in the galleys and prepare to launch!" Talnaroch yelled. "Hurry!"
A few of the men leapt on board and reached down to lift the victims.
"Guard them!" Talnaroch ordered. "The selkie bastards are coming!"
What a savage animal Talnaroch was! She wished she could stab him now.
A few feet in front of her, a knave deposited a screaming woman on the floor between the thwarts, then reached down for another.
Wiping the tears from her own eyes, Elsea crouched.
She eased back into her hiding place beneath the sail, just as a man turned in her direction.
He crammed a bound female in beside her.
The selkie twisted and writhed, emitting a haunting wail and sobbing.
A moment later, the man tossed another selkie on them.
Her sharp elbow jabbed into Elsea's ribs.
"Ow," she grunted between clenched teeth, but no one noticed amid all the screams and cries.
Elsea couldn't see them well in the gloom, but their icy terror seeped into her. She had to calm herself if she intended to help free these women.
"Row!" Talnaroch ordered from some distance away.
The galley jolted as the men shoved it from the sand and into the water, then leapt on board.
A brute with horrible body odor dropped to the thwart near her head.
The leader yelled row over and over at a quick pace, and this man, breathing hard, struggled to match the tempo, the wooden oar thunking against the hull.
"Raise the sail!" the same man commanded.
The stinking swine beside her yanked the sail off her. She held her breath, expecting to be discovered at any moment. She peeped out from beneath her cloak's hood. The men were looking skyward, working on the sail. Besides that, 'twas so dark they couldn't see her, covered in the black cloak.
The wind caught the sail, propelling them eastward toward the mainland.
Moments later, the warriors whooped and howled in celebration as they passed around a bottle. Mayhap they would get so drunk they wouldn't notice when she followed through with her plans.
Though 'twas night, the moon provided a little light.
She inched forward and severed the bindings on the selkies' wrists and ankles. Her sharp blade easily cut through the thin ropes. Within a trice, she had two of the females released. They watched her with wide eyes.
"Will you help me swim to shore if I have to jump overboard?" she whispered in Gaelic, quiet as a breath.
One nodded.
She was glad the selkie understood her words. "Wait until I release everyone."
Using stealth, she freed another.
While most of the men were in the front half of the galley, drinking whisky, she slipped forward and sliced the bindings of the two captives in front of the next thwart.
She then crawled forward to release two more.
Almost done. She was cutting the last one's ropes when a man shouted and kicked Elsea backward.
She fell. Pain reverberated through her head, and the world around her vanished.