CHAPTER ONE
1682 – Kilkee, Ireland
“Why are we being brought here?” asked the woman in the cart. It was a wide, long cart being pulled by four oxen. Seventeen men and women were crammed into the cart, surrounded by wooden bars, locked with a steel bar.
“Shut ‘yer mouth,” snapped the guard.
“What is happening?” she whispered to a man beside her. He was much older, probably in his fifties at least. She was just a young girl, sixteen, with her life ahead of her.
Wandering the forests near her home, she was searching for berries to help her mother make a pie, when several men attacked her, dragging her to the cart. It was her worst nightmare. She just knew they would rape her. But they didn’t. They tied her to a nearby tree and then brought the cart around with several people inside.
It seemed they were making deliberate stops as they picked up different individuals. Young and old. Short and tall. Male and female. There was no rhyme or reason to any of it that she could see.
Up ahead was a dark, foreboding castle sitting on the edge of a cliff. The darkened towers made her fearful, the massive gate suddenly being lowered over the moat.
The old man leaned toward her.
“You must be quiet, lass. You might live longer if you are.”
“Might? I’ve done nothing wrong,” she whispered with tears in her eyes.
“Aye, aye,” he nodded. “But ‘tis a cruel and brutal master of this castle. He will not tolerate anyone looking at him, speaking to him, or denying him what he wants.”
“I don’t know him. I don’t know this place,” she cried. “I just want to go home. Me ‘mam will be worried for me.”
“Shhh,” he said wrapping a thin arm around her shoulder. “It’ll be alright now. Just don’t fight him.”
She stared at the muddy waters of a moat, her imagination taking her to places she didn’t want to be. What was in the dark water? What was in the dark castle? Was he really cruel and what did he want with her?
They passed the outer bailey, then the stables, the smell of manure nearly choking her. Passing through another set of smaller gates, they were now in the middle of the inner bailey.
The cart suddenly jerked to a halt and she pressed against the bars at the back of the cart. When the door was opened, they were ordered out one at a time, forced to stand in the center of the inner bailey.
She stared up at the imposing towers, the dark clouds and rain now making it more frightening than before. The elderly man who’d been so kind to her stood beside.
Hearing footsteps, she didn’t dare look up, heeding the old man’s advice. Then she heard the voice.
“He’s useless. Why waste my time?”
“I’m sorry, me Aire,” said the guard.
He stepped forward and with a thrust of his sword, the old man beside her was dead. She held in the scream she wanted to release, terrified that she would be next. She knew that an Aire was a clan chieftain or someone of influence. She didn’t dare go against him.
The words were repeated over and over. He or she was useless and then there was a pool of blood. One daring young man attempted to run but was brought down by a well-placed arrow to the back of his neck.
Daring to peek to the right and the left, she realized there were only four prisoners left. Herself, and three men.
“See if these four can last,” he chuckled. “If the lass doesn’t make it, you can have what’s left of her.”
****
“What’s that face for?” asked Luke staring at Cam and Eric.
“Do you remember a girl we went to high school with? Allison Broussard?” asked Eric.
“Yeah,” he nodded thinking deeply, trying to bring the face to the front of his memory. “What about her?”
“She called and left a message this morning. Her younger daughter, Aurora, was traveling through Ireland by herself, just sightseeing and disappeared. She asked if we would look into it for her,” said Eric.
