Once inside, Angus quickly located the winch. It was a large wooden wheel, with a thick chain connected to the gates. Angus, being the largest among the trio, took hold of the wheel while Emeric and Declan stood guard. With a grunt of effort, Angus began to turn the wheel. It creaked loudly under his strength, but slowly began to budge.
The mechanisms creaked and groaned, echoing eerily in the confined space. Angus grunted as he strained against decades of rust and disrepair. But soon, the wheel started to turn more smoothly as the gate mechanisms released their iron-hard grip. A low rumble vibrated through the stone walls as the massive gates began to open. He heard a cheer and the thump of many feet as the Mackintosh forces came pouring into the bailey.
Declan grinned at him. “We’ll show those MacDonald bastards now, eh?”
But Emeric felt no elation, only urgency. “I’ll see ye on the other side of this.”
Then he bolted to the door and ran to find Anna.
Chapter 25
Even here, far from the outer walls, Anna could hear the commotion. She could hear the Mackintosh warriors who’d come here. For her.
You are alone, the MacDonalds had told her.Nobody is coming for you.
But now she realized that wasn’t true. She wasn’t alone. Her friends had come for her. It was an exhilarating thought but it was obliterated by an even brighter one. If the Mackintosh were here, it could mean only one thing.
Emeric was alive.
Anna sent a prayer of thanks to any god, demi-god or deity that might be listening. Suddenly, she could breathe again. Suddenly, there was light in the world. Suddenly, there was hope.
Although, considering her present circumstances, it was a slim hope.
Her upper arms were hurting from where the two MacDonald guardsmen gripped them too tightly. They’d obviously learned their lesson as she’d already tried to escape twice on the way down here. One of the guards sported a split lip, the other a swelling around the eye that would turnblack in the next few hours, a testament to how hard she’d fought to break free.
But she’d failed.
As she’d broken free of her guards, Maria had merely flicked her wrist again, and Anna had gone crashing into the wall, insensate. After that, she barely had the strength left to fight.
“Where are you taking me?” she demanded. She’d asked this question several times already and she got the same answer as she had then: stony silence.
Laird Alexander and Lady Maria strode ahead of them, completely unperturbed both by Anna’s escape attempts and the Mackintosh warriors at their gates. Bastards. She’d teach them the error of that thinking before this was done.
They reached the end of the passage and came to a large, thick, door. Laird Alexander pulled it open and the guards marched Anna through. She found herself stepping into a room that was flooded with light from the many windows along its sides. No arrow-slits this time, but large windows filled with stained glass depicting scenes from the Bible. The MacDonald chapel.
At the far end of the chapel a priest in a long black smock waited by the altar with Duncan MacDonald standing by his side. Duncan held a pottery flagon in one hand from which he took a large swig.
“Ah! My bride approaches!” he cried, the words a little slurred. “Although from her expression ye would think it’s a funeral.” He laughed humorlessly. “Aren’t we just the happy couple?”
Maria gave him a withering look. “Straighten up will ye? This is yer wedding!”
