"They're nay in the barracks, m'laird," another of the underlings reported.
"Well, where the devil are they? In the stables?"
"Nay, they disappeared, along with several more."
"What?" Henry glanced around, squinting into the dim light of newly lit torches and seeing only half of his guards. "MacKenzie," he rasped under his breath. "Did he kill them all?"
His remaining men looked horrified, their big eyes searching out the darkened corners of the bailey.
"Don't just stand there! Search for the men." He turned to the beefy guard who had been in charge of Elspeth. He now stood rubbing the side of his head. "MacGirk, you go after MacKenzie and bring the wench back."
MacGirk's eyes flared wide and he slowly lowered his hand. "Me, m'laird? Alone?"
"Of course! He's one man. And you're one man. You'll not be outnumbered."
"Aye, but… 'twas like looking up at the grim reaper himself after he slammed me against the wall."
"You two go with him." Henry pointed to the recruits whose names he didn't recall. "Kill MacKenzie when you find him and bring the wench back to me alive!"
They looked none too happy about their new assignment. "Aye, m'laird."
MacGirk and the other two hastened toward the stables.
"The guards are here!" one of the manservants shouted, his voice echoing.
"Bring the torch," Henry ordered Campbell as they rushed toward the far corner of the keep.
Some of his best guards lay in a row, unmoving, including Balcot and Waldrop. Icy fear hung in the air.
"Are they all dead?" Henry screeched, then forced himself to calm down and breathe normally. Mayhap he had underestimated that damnable MacKenzie. How could one man create so much mayhem? Surely, he'd had others with him. At most, he'd only had two able-bodied guards back at Darby. His brother had been too injured to help him. Unless MacKenzie had somehow sent word for reinforcements.
"Two are dead," Campbell announced after checking all the men. "Balcot and Waldrop live."
Glad for that, Henry breathed a sigh of relief. They were both his right-hand men.
"Ashford is dead!" Galway yelled as he knelt in the darkness near the steps. "He must have been pushed over the balustrade."
Henry gritted his teeth and seethed curses. "How many men were with MacKenzie?"
"We only saw him in the hall," a new recruit said. "Mayhap more remained out here."
"Aye, that has to be it. He must have had help out here." But Henry had no inkling where the help came from, considering MacKenzie's forces had shrunk to nil.
"He bashed Balcot and Waldrop on the head." Campbell arose after examining the two. "They're addled but they should live."
"This can't be all of them." A chill sliding down his spine, Henry scanned the near-empty bailey. Devil take it. He did not fear MacKenzie.
"Parker and Ballantyne, who were guarding the entrance, are missing," Campbell said.
"Find them. Search around the castle." Henry had to know how many men were dead and how many could recover by the morn. He'd have to search out more soldiers in Aberdeen on the morrow.
The two injured men stirred and groaned in pain.
"My leg's broke, m'laird!" Balcot shouted.
"Does anyone know a healer in the area?" Henry scanned the small group around him.
"Aye, my mum," a stable lad of about fifteen summers said.
