Chapter 20
The MacLeod Defense
The torches went out among the trees.
Alistair stayed at the low wall of the east passage, watching the dark where Malcolm's men had been seen. The silence after the first warning had method in it. No horse whinnied. No weapon struck stone. Whoever was coming knew the value of hiding every sound.
Graeme crouched beside him.
"We counted twelve lights before they went out."
"There were men without torches."
"There always are."
Dugald held the south passage with six MacLeods. Others covered the north slope and the buildings where the women, children, and old people waited. Alistair had fewer men than he wanted and more wounded than he could lose.
Behind him, the smaller house stayed lit. Diana moved between the table and the shelves, checking everything she had prepared with Iain. Eliza was at the door with the shovel in her hands, as easy with it as Graeme appeared to be with the sword.
Alistair found Diana's eyes.
She did not ask him to leave the line, and she did not pretend the binding under the léine had stopped being a problem.
She raised two fingers and pointed them at her own eyes.
I am watching.
He turned back to the wood.
The first shot came from the east side.
The ball hit the stone less than an arm's length from Graeme. The second came almost at the same time, higher, and a man at the barrier went down backward.
"Cover!" Alistair ordered.
The MacLeods ducked behind cover. Another volley crossed the passage, tearing wood off the overturned cart and hitting the ground where two men had been seconds before.
Graeme dragged the wounded man behind the wall.
"Shoulder."
"Take him to Diana."
"I can fight," the man protested.
"Then fight to stay alive."
Graeme handed him to Eliza, who took him to the smaller house.
Malcolm's men appeared among the pines, using the trunks for cover. They came on in short groups, firing before they changed position. Alistair waited for the first to reach the line of stones marked out during the council.
"Now."
The MacLeods answered.
Two men fell. The rest split, working toward the sides of the passage. Graeme commanded the left line. Alistair held the center, giving short orders and saving powder.
The defense held the first advance.
The second came up the south slope.
Dugald answered with the signal of three whistles.
Eliza had taken on the carrying of messages between the smaller house, the chapel, and the outer barriers. She recognized Dugald's call and was gone before Alistair had to look for her.
"Reinforce Dugald with two men from the chapel," he said. "Tell him to hold the barrier and not to pursue if they fall back."
She nodded.
Graeme caught her arm as she went by.
"Stay behind the stones."
"I was intending to run in front of the shots, but thank you for the advice."
"Eliza."
"Behind the stones."
She pulled free and disappeared along the covered way between the buildings.
Another shot came from the wood. A MacLeod dropped to his knees, hit in the thigh. The man beside him pulled him back.
Alistair watched the flash between the trunks. Too low for the shot that had taken the shoulder. The ball that wounded the first man had come from somewhere else.
"There are men above us," Graeme said.
"We haven't seen the flash yet."
"We will when they fire again."
They did not.
The next shot took a fighting man by the cart, going in near the collarbone. He fell without a sound.
Alistair called two men to carry him. The east line lost ground with every withdrawal, though the attackers had still not crossed the wall.
Eliza came back by the covered way.
"Dugald has the two men. He says the attack in the south is too weak."
"A distraction."
"That was the word he used, along with others less suitable for children."
A boy came out of the smaller house.
"Laird, Fraser asks that you come to her."
Alistair looked at the wood.
"I can't leave the line."
"She said she needs to know where the wounded were standing when they were hit."
Graeme took his position at the opening.
"Go. Before she comes for the answer herself."
Alistair crossed the space between the wall and the smaller house bent low. A ball hit the roof. Another went wide into the slope.
Inside, the air smelled of spirits, blood, and crushed herbs. Iain was working on the first man's thigh. Diana was pressing a cloth to the chest of the man hit near the collarbone.
"Where was he?" she asked.
"By the cart, facing east."
"And the first one?"
"Behind the wall, two steps north."
She lifted the cloth only as far as she needed to.
"The ball went in above the collarbone and came down. In the other man it went in at the back of the shoulder and ran downward."
Alistair followed the direction her fingers showed.
"They came from above."
"From the side rise, not from the wood in front of the passage. The wounds have similar angles, though the men were standing in different positions."
Iain looked up.
"Men firing from the ground wound from the front. These are hitting over the cover."
Diana pressed the cloth down again.
"I do not know how many there are. I know where to look."
Alistair touched her arm once.
"That's enough."
He went out and found Eliza on the way.
"Take this to Graeme. Pull four men off the east line and go up the track behind the chapel. There are marksmen on the side rise. No one fires until they're taken from behind."
"And Dugald?"
"He'll hold the south passage. The attack there is meant to draw him forward."
Eliza repeated the orders without missing a word.
"Come back by the covered route."
"Graeme has already explained the usefulness of stones."
She ran.
Alistair took the center line again while Graeme gathered the four men. The partial withdrawal opened a visible gap. The attackers saw it and came on.
"Hold!" Alistair said.
A man on his right raised his weapon too early.
Alistair pushed the barrel down.
"Closer."
The first of them crossed the band of pines. When they reached open ground, the MacLeods fired.
Malcolm's line broke. Some went for cover; others kept coming. Alistair drew the sword when one of them came over the wall. He turned the first blow and used the weight of his left shoulder to throw the man against the cart. His wounded side objected and held.
Another attacker came in at the opening.
From the top of the slope, two shots answered.
This time they did not hit MacLeods.
A body rolled among the trees. Then another.
Graeme had reached the marksmen.
The advance lost its force.
Alistair pushed Malcolm's men back into the wood and ordered that no one follow. The lesson of the castle remained: seven dead and many wounded.
The south passage went quiet at almost the same time.
Dugald appeared between the buildings.
"They have fallen back."
"In the east too."
"They have not gone."
Alistair knew.
The attack had tested the barriers, the number of weapons, and the speed with which the MacLeods moved men. Malcolm knew every answer because he had fought beside them.
A voice came across the wood.
"Alistair!"
The men at the wall went still.
Malcolm stayed out of sight, and the distance was short.
"Do you still govern from behind stones?" he called.
Alistair did not answer.
"Penelope has reached the coast road. By dark tomorrow she will be on a ship to Ireland with your clan's map."
Graeme came down from the rise with blood on his sleeve that did not appear to be his.
"He wants you out."
"I know."
"If she sails, we lose the parchment."
Alistair looked at the buildings behind them. In the smaller house, Diana was closing wounds. Children were hidden between the chapel and the slope, and tired men defended a shelter that stood in place of a burned castle.
The map carried old routes and symbols that belonged to the MacLeods. Penelope could take it to Cork, sell it, or use it against them later.
Malcolm was in front of them now.
"Take six men!" he shouted from the wood. "Go after her. I will let you through the north passage."
Dugald let out a short laugh.
"Generous."
Malcolm went on.
"Every minute spent here increases the distance between you and what your father swore to protect."
The old instinct returned: look to the road, count horses, choose the fastest men. The habit offered a simple answer: chase the lost object, control the next threat, keep anyone else from deciding the fate of the clan.
A child cried inside the chapel.
The sound finished the choice.
Alistair came to the wall.
"My father taught me to protect people before stones and parchments."
The wood went quiet.
"Penelope has won," Malcolm answered.
"Penelope ran."
"With what was left of the MacLeod history."
"The history is behind me."
The men at the barrier heard it. No one raised a voice, and the line steadied.
Alistair turned to Graeme.
"Reinforce the rise. Dugald holds the south. Eliza takes Diana the number of wounded on the way. We don't pull a single man to chase Penelope while Malcolm threatens the shelter."
Graeme nodded.
"And the map?"
"It survived generations without us. It can wait one more night."
A single shot came from the wood, too far off to hit anyone. Then silence.
The dark began to lighten at the edges. Daybreak was still some way off, and the clouds were already losing part of their black.
Alistair went along the line, checking powder and positions. Graeme went back to the rise. Dugald strengthened the south passage with stones taken from an inner wall. Eliza crossed the shelter four times, carrying orders, water, and news of the wounded.
Diana came out of the smaller house only when the last steady man had been moved to the shed.
"Two need absolute rest," she said. "One will use his arm again if he has any judgment."
"Then we'll lose the arm," Graeme said as he passed.
"I can begin with yours."
He went on without answering.
Diana came over to Alistair.
"Has the bleeding come back?"
"No."
She touched the binding through the léine, checking the side without moving him out of position.
"Malcolm spoke about the map."
"You heard?"
"Everyone heard."
"Penelope means to take it to Ireland."
"And you stayed."
"This is my place."
She held his gaze.
"Yes."
A makeshift bell sounded on the north slope.
Once.
Then twice.
The signal was for a breach inside the perimeter.
Graeme shouted from above.
"The hunter's passage!"
Alistair turned.
The opening lay behind the old animal buildings, a narrow cut between rocks used years before by joint MacLeod and MacPherson patrols. Dugald had believed the winter slide closed it.
Malcolm knew the way as it had been before the stones.
Men appeared between the smaller house and the slope, already inside the defense.
At their head, sword in hand, Malcolm MacPherson found Alistair's eyes.
"Do you still remember this passage?"