It bled.
She caught her breath and laid her fingers against the side of his neck. A pulse, if a faint one. Faint and slow. She could count to ten between the beats.
Still, he was not yet gone.
“Leith. Leith!”
No response. His lashes, thick and brown, lay unmoving. The place to which he had retreated was far away.
She dragged him back onto the pallet, no easy task, since he was a big man and shifting him was very nearly beyond her. She got up and lit a torch from the rushlight with hands that shook so badly, she could barely accomplish it. She’d left the door ajar, yet still no one passed outside—suspicious in itself. Usually, the clansfolk had an instinct for any untoward happening.
People were keeping away.
She went back down on her knees beside Leith once again. At that moment, he was just a man in need. MacBeith or MacLeod did not matter. She laid aside the bolster—it belonged to someone, but she would worry about that later.
She whispered a prayer. Or perhaps it was a charm.
She did not possess her sister’s talent for magic, nay. But a healer often had to reach beyond herself. And any woman keeping a hearth might speak simple charms for the safety of all she held dear.
She wanted this man to live. She could not say why, save no one should die hated and alone.
He was not alone now.
Her basket lay nearly empty of supplies. She pawed through it, looting it mercilessly, peeled off the bloodied bandages, and replaced them.
He still bled.
While her hands worked, her mind wandered. Why had someone tried to smother him? A sharp dirk to the throat would have been more efficient and would have done the job far more easily.
And had Saerla Seen this? She’d Seen something without a doubt, and had warned Rhian to be careful. She had not told her to go and save Leith MacLeod’s life.
Perhaps she had not needed to. Because Rhian was here, her hands were stained red with the man’s blood.
And her compassion had been utterly and completely engaged.
Chapter Ten
It must bea dream. It had to be, because the next time Leith opened his eyes, filtered green light shone down upon him, and he was able to see. See his surroundings. He stood in a forest with trees stretching so high over his head that he could not glimpse their crowns. Birds flickered like jewels among the branches, which very nearly blotted out the sky.
A pleasant, enchanted place it seemed, but one where he felt dwarfed and altogether strange in himself. Aye, he’d had some odd dreams in the past, but none where he—
Was a young lad once more.
Bemused, he looked down at himself. Small, grubby hands, the nails rimmed with dirt. Bare, equally grubby knees and deer hide boots he’d nearly outgrown. Clothing messed and torn. How many times had his ma scolded him for ruining his clothing?
What if it wasn’t a dream? How had he come here? He struggled to remember, and concluded he’d been playing with his cousin Rory and their friend, Farlan. The three of them could most often be found together and usually had a braw time of it, save that Rory always had to be in charge. He made the decisions as to what games they would play—hunt the bloody MacBeiths being a favorite—and who would do what.
But Leith had never played here before, had never beheld such trees as these. And where were his companions?
“Rory!” he called out, and his voice held none of the deepness of the present day. It piped like that of a bird. Had he ever sounded like that?
Were Rory and Farlan playing a trick on him? Even Rory was never so cruel as to lead him out somewhere and then abandon him. How was he going to get home?
He must have got separated from his companions by accident. Many of the exploits into which Rory led them went bad. They frequently ventured into mischief and all got in trouble for it. Rory, along with Farlan, since he had no parents of his own, would have to answer to Leith’s Uncle Camraith, who at least was always, always fair.
Leith would answer to his own da, who Ma complained never took his transgressions seriously enough. Da would attempt to appear stern while he listened to an account of the misdeeds. In the end he would grin in sympathy and give Leith a wink Ma did not see.
He needed to find his fellow culprits now.
