Finally, Deryn stopped and pointed into the distance. “There it is. Torryn Keep.”
She followed his outstretched finger and gasped aloud. She thought Torryn Keep must be the name of a village or a town. But it wasn’t. Squatting at one end of the valley, surrounded on three sides by dense pine woodland, sat a castle.
“That’sTorryn’s Keep?” she asked incredulously.
He looked at her oddly. “Aye, of course it is. Dinna ye recognize yer own home?”
“It’s not my ho... oh, never mind. “If he was going to assume she lived in that castle and was trying to get home, just like he’d assumed Rodric must be her husband, she didn’t have the energy to put him straight. What mattered was that Rory was down there.
She marched off, not waiting for Deryn, but he caught her up in only a few strides, his black and white dog—Mara?—trotting by his side and the reluctant Surly bringing up the rear.
What an odd group they must look. A man dressed like some medieval farmer, a woman who looked like she’d jumped in a muddy pond, a sheepdog and a bad-tempered sheep who kept bleating angrily every time Deryn pulled his tether.
What a crazy day this was turning out to be.But it will all be okay as soon as I get to Rory, she told herself. She’d take him home, make his favorite tea, get Rodric arrested for kidnappingor something, and then after Rory had gone to bed, she would demolish the bottle of wine sitting in her fridge. Hell, after the day she’d had, she’d more than earned it.
The ground began to angle steeply downwards, and the going was muddy and treacherous. More than once Maddy found herself slipping and would have ended up on her backside had Deryn not steadied her each time. The ground seemed to give him no such problems and he marched confidently, seeming utterly at home in this wild land.
They reached the bottom of the hill and joined a road. Although ‘road’ was only a loose term for the muddy track that wound along the valley’s bottom towards the broad gates of Torryn Keep. Maddy found herself jogging along, eager to reach her destination. Deryn strode by her side, easily keeping pace with his long strides.
Torryn Keep looked like the kind of place that should be bustling with tourists although she couldn’t see any in evidence. It was still early in the season so perhaps it wasn’t open yet or perhaps the rain had kept them away. Either way, the huge gates were closed.
Maddy walked right up to them and pushed. They didn’t budge. She craned her head back to look up at the high walls and shouted, “Hello? Anyone home?”
There was no answer. Deryn stepped forward. He’d pulled his hood up, she noticed, hiding his hair and casting his face into shadow. He knocked on a smaller gate set into the large one. A shutter slid aside to reveal a small grille.
“What the bloody hell do ye want?” a voice demanded from the other side.
“I’ve brought the laird’s wife home,” Deryn announced. “So, open up and let us in. I’m sure yer lord wouldnae appreciate keeping her standing out here.”
“The laird’s wife? What are ye talking about? The laird doesnae have a—”
“Just open the damned door and give me my son!” Maddy yelled, hammering her fist against the gate.
The hatch slid shut with a thump. But a moment later there came a loud creaking as the smaller door set into the gate swung open.
“Now what’s all this about then?” said the guard.
Maddy pushed her way past him and into the wide courtyard beyond.
“Hey, come back here! Ye canna just go barging in there!”
“Looks like she already did,” Deryn replied with a wry smile. “And I suggest ye dinna get in her way.”
Maddy spun around, searching. Torryn Keep looked every inch the medieval castle. Bits of straw littered the cobbled courtyard, four horses were hitched to a post nearby eating hay from a manger, and small thatch-roofed buildings were butted up against the huge curtain wall.
To her left rose the bulk of the main keep, a square stone tower with battlements at the top and narrow windows like arrow slits.
“Rory!” she yelled. “Rory! Where is he? Where is my son?”
Deryn laid a hand on her arm. “This way, lass.” He turned towards the steps that led up to the doors of the square keep and Maddy followed. Mara and Surly were not with him, she noticed, and she guessed he’d left them outside the gates.
They took the steps quickly and found themselves in a wide entrance area. It was lined with flagstones and this too, had straw on the floor. It was dim, lit only by candles in sconces on the wall, and at the far end another door stood open, beyond which she could see a large room.
“No further, if ye please.” A burly highlander stood in front of her, holding a halberd which he was using to block her way.
“Who are ye and what is yer business here?” the man demanded.
“I’m looking for my s—” She cut off suddenly as she heard a child’s voice coming from up ahead. “Rory!”
