“What do you think we are here for?” Rose said calmly to her niece. “We all want to get Elise back, but we won’t help anyone by rushing over there before we know all the facts and have a proper plan in place.”
Jamie could see in their haunted expressions that the two MacFinnan spellweavers had taken Elise’s loss hard and blamed themselves for not being able to protect her. It was a sentiment Jamie understood all too well. He shared it.Heshould have been the one to protect Elise. But he’d failed in that as he’d failed in so much else.
His stomach twisted painfully, a combination of fear, anger, and guilt making him sick to his stomach. As Rose and Jenna began arguing again, he pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to clear his thoughts and calm the racing of his heart. He’d barely been able to think straight since Elise had been taken, and he’d contributed little to this council, merely listening as the others argued.
“Enough,” he said softly. When neither Jenna nor Rose took any notice and went right on bickering, he slammed his fist down on the table hard enough that the crack echoed through the room. “I said enough!”
Silence fell. Jenna and Rose turned to look at him in surprise. Jamie took a deep breath and gazed at the people seated around the table. Cailean and Arran were there, along with Cailean’s most trusted advisors, all adding their own opinions on how they ought to proceed against Islay.
Jenna and Rose resumed their seats. When he was sure he had everyone’s attention, he said. “I’ve heard what ye all have to say. Arran, I know ye are in favor of taking Skye’s fleet and laying siege to Dun Arach. Cailean, I hear ye when ye say we should land on Islay to the south and rouse the people as we movethrough the island, coming up on Dun Arach from inland. I hear all of ye.” He met everyone’s gaze one by one. “And I say that none of these plans will work.”
He held up a hand to forestall their storm of objections and continued speaking. “While the king’s soldiers hold Dun Arach and his fleet holds the harbor, Islay canna be retaken. We have to lure them out.”
Nobody spoke for a moment. Then Arran turned to him. “Ye mean to bait a trap? With what? They will expect such a ruse. They willnae leave their stronghold to chase Skye or Barra’s fleet. They dinna fear us enough for that. They’ll just sit tight and wait for us to come to them.”
Jamie nodded. “Aye, which is why it willnae be Skye or Barra’s fleet that attacks Islay. It will be Ulster’s.”
Uneasy muttering broke out around the table. The Kingdom of Ulster was their powerful western neighbor, and there had always been uneasy relations with them.
“Think about it,” Jamie continued, leaning forward and clasping his hands together on the table. “Who does King James fear more than any other? Ulster. That’s why he wants the Isles so badly—as a bulwark against them. So imagine his dismay when the unthinkable happens—an Ulster fleet attacks the Isles. Phillip will have no choice but to engage.”
Everyone glanced at each other, unsure where he was going with this. But now that the plan had become clear in his mind, he was certain of it. He just had to convince the others.
“I dinna understand,” Cailean said, shaking his head. “How do we get Ulster to attack Phillip’s forces?”
“We dinna,” Jamie replied. “We just make Phillipthinkthat’s who’s attacking.”
“And how do we do that?”
They had come to the crux of it now. Jamie met Cailean’s eyes. “Because ye and yer fleet, along with every fishing boat,scow or dinghy ye can convince to volunteer, will become Ulster’s fleet. Ye will fly Ulster flags from every mast and sail on a course that will bring ye to Islay from the west, from the direction of Ulster. When they see the flags ye are flying, Phillip will have no choice but to sail out to meet ye.”
Cailean grinned suddenly. “Did I not say I’d taught ye well? Better than well. Yer cunning surpasses me. Aye, he’ll fall for it. The minute he sees those Ulster flags his arse will tighten, that’s for sure.”
Jamie nodded and turned to address Arran. “And that’s where ye come in. Ye will take Skye’s fleet and anchor among the islets to the north of Islay, out of sight. As soon as Phillip takes the king’s fleet to engage Cailean, ye will strike from the rear, forcing them to fight on two fronts.”
Arran rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Aye, it could work—for a while. But it willnae take long for them to spot the ruse. As soon as they do, they’ll turn tail, flee back to Islay, and dig in.”
“They will,” Jamie agreed. “But I dinna need ye to hold them long. Just long enough to allow me to land a small force on Islay, retake Dun Arach and free Elise, then bring Islay’s fleet to yer aid. Then, caught between the three of us, we’ll destroy these bastards once and for all.”
It was a bold plan. Reckless. There was so much that could go wrong that he would never have considered it unless he was desperate. But hewasdesperate. So desperate that wild, reckless gambles were all that were left to him.
“Let’s do it,” Jenna said into the sudden silence. “I’m no War Weaver, but I’ll at least be able to use my power to keep Skye’s fleet out of sight.”
“And I’ll see what I can do about tilting the weather in our favor,” Rose added. “Get our ships into position quicker than we might otherwise. I’ll also set every seamstress on Barra toworking on making flags bearing Ulster’s colors, enough to outfit every ship we can field.”
Jamie nodded. He looked around at the faces gathered before him. He saw his own determination reflected back at him. He felt a swell of pride. These were people of the Isles.Hispeople. And he knew every one of them would die to defend their home.
“Ah, my friends,” he said softly. “The Kingdom of the Isles is well served while it has people like ye to defend it.” He rose to his feet, scraping back his chair. “All right. Ye all know what ye must do. Let’s get to it. We sail for Islay as soon as everything can be made ready.”
Elise, he thought.Hold on just a little longer.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Ye are noteven trying!” Phillip said.
“Of course I’m trying!” Elise snapped back. “It’s not like a switch, you know—I can’t just turn it on and off!”
They were standing in Dun Arach’s courtyard. Phillip had ordered it cleared while she practiced her War Weaving. This morning he’d had her focus on the instructions for a fire spell in one of his books on War Weaving, making her read and reread it until she could probably have recited it in her sleep. When he was happy that she’d memorized it correctly, he’d marched her out here, pointed at a haybale he’d had dragged into the center of the courtyard, and promptly instructed her to set it on fire.
