Chapter Seventeen
"Anna's sister? Do you mean the blind lass?" Colin asked.
"Aye, if 'tis her." Neacal squinted into the distance at the well-armed soldiers approaching. Finally, he saw the female, resting facedown across the lap of one of the men on horseback, her hands and feet bound. He did not know what Lady Kristina looked like. He saw a bit of long blond hair, the same color as Anna's, escaping herarisaid. That didn't mean 'twas Anna's sister, but still, he felt gored.
Had to be her. Why would they bring anyone else?
The approaching forces fanned out. The archers took position and nocked their arrows.
Neacal gave the command for his own archers on the wall-walk to follow suit.
A large, ginger-haired man dragged the woman off the horse and she screamed again.
"Who is the lady?" Neacal yelled.
"I'm sure you must have guessed!" a man with shoulder-length black hair returned, a grin on his face. "Send my wife out to me and Lady Kristina will not be harmed."
Someone scrambled between Neacal and Colin.
He glanced around to find Anna, her face ashen.
"Kristina?" she yelled, her panicked breath coming hard and fast.
"Anna, is it really you?" her sister called.
"Aye. Release her at once, you blackguard!" Anna demanded, her voice hard with fury.
Blackburn laughed. "Lady Kristina wanted to travel with us to get you, my sweet. She misses her sister."
"Oh dear God," Anna whispered, tears in her eyes. "I'll have to go with him. I won't have a choice."
"Nay," Neacal growled. He would die before he'd give her up now.
"Blackburn will kill her, don't you see? He cares naught for her. He already blinded her and cut her face."
"We'll come out!" Neacal called out to the enemies. "Let's go," he murmured to Anna and Colin.
They followed him down the narrow winding steps inside the keep to the great hall.
"Damn the man," Anna muttered, wiping angry tears from her eyes. "When Kristina is away from him and safe again, I'll kill him."
"Nay, I'll do it," Neacal said, trying to keep his fury under control so he could think clearly. "And you're not going out to him."
"I have to! He'll kill her." Her anguished eyes pleaded with him.
"And what makes you think he won't beat you to within an inch of your life as punishment for running away and evading him all this time?"
She squeezed her eyes closed, a tear trailing down her face. "Regardless, I can't simply leave Kristina in his clutches."
"You won't have to," Colin said, a calculating look in his eyes.
"Do you have an idea?" Neacal asked.
"Someone disguised as me won't work, if that's what you're thinking," Anna said. "He likely won't even release Kristina. If I go with him, he'll bring her back with us to use as leverage against me for as long as I live."
"Saints!" Neacal said, grinding his teeth. What the hell were they going to do? If Colin had a plan, he wished he would spit it out.
Before he could, another guard rushed into the great hall. "Chief! Sleat and the MacRankins have returned and are coming up behind the MacCromars."
