Part 26 (1/2)
She smiled, taking grim satisfaction in the spark of apprehension she saw kindled in his eyes.
”We've got him!” shouted excited voices from outside. ”Make way-we've got the Falcon!”
It was Laird MacTier's turn to smile. ”Now, this is a fascinating turn of events, don't you think?”
Abruptly he released her.
Alarm streaked up Melantha's spine. Affecting only a modic.u.m of interest, she watched as several MacTier warriors stormed into the hall, roughly hauling not one but two captives.
When she saw that they were Colin and Daniel, her alarm turned to terror.
Laird MacTier walked slowly over to Colin, who was being restrained by two men. One of them she recognized as the fair-haired warrior who had led the recent attack on her holding. The other was Neill, who had been so chivalrous in his attentions when she first arrived.
”I have been waiting a long time for this moment, my outlaw friend,” Laird MacTier murmured.
He drew back his fist and rammed it hard into Colin's face.
Somehow Melantha stifled the cry in her throat. Anything she did to reveal her feelings for either Colin or Daniel could only put them at further risk. And so she forced herself to watch with rigid calm as Colin spat a scarlet stream upon the floor, spattering red droplets upon the finely st.i.tched leather of Laird MacTier's shoes. Then Colin raised his head to regard Laird MacTier once again.
”Is that how you welcome all your guests?” he enquired mildly. ”I must say, it isn't very gracious.”
”Oh, but you are not just any guest,” Laird MacTier said, enjoying his position of power over him. ”You are the man who has managed to vex me constantly by making a sport of stealing that which is mine. And now that you have been caught, I'm afraid you must be made to pay.”
He struck him hard in the face again, causing blood to spurt from Colin's nose.
”Stop it!” cried Daniel, fighting to escape the grip of the warriors who were holding him. ”Leave him alone!”
Colin shook his head, which had the effect of spreading the blood leaking from him across his cheeks, making his face look as if it had been beaten to a pulp.
Melantha clenched her fists, feeling her deliberately constructed calm begin to crumble.
”It seems your young friend does not relish the sight of you in pain,” remarked Laird MacTier archly as he unsheathed Derek's sword. ”That is a pity-I'm sure he is not going to enjoy what I am about to do to you now.”
”Kill me if it pleases you,” snarled Colin tautly, ”but at least have the decency to let the lad and the la.s.s leave.”
”I'm not going to kill you,” Laird MacTier informed him, testing the weight and balance of the heavy claymore in his hands. ”Not when we still have so much to talk about. You, my Falcon friend, have taken a great many things from me over the past few months, and I mean to find out exactly what you have done with them. All I'm doing at this moment is making it eminently clear to everyone in this hall that I do not take the crime of stealing lightly. After all,” he continued, moving behind Colin, ”stealing is a sin.”
He swung the heavy blade down with all his might, striking Colin on the back with the flat of it. It was a blow that would have felled any man, but with the severed muscles of Colin's back still in the painful stages of healing, the effect was devastating. He groaned in agony and fell to his knees, his head bent so that neither Daniel nor Melantha could see the depths of his suffering.
”Stop it!” cried Daniel, tears streaming down his face. ”Stop it-you b.l.o.o.d.y b.a.s.t.a.r.d!”
Outraged by his insolence, Laird MacTier moved to strike him.
”Leave him alone,” commanded Melantha, her voice like the lash of a whip. ”Or I swear to you, you'll never see any of your precious possessions again.”
Laird MacTier hesitated, disconcerted by the steely confidence with which she spoke. ”What are you talking about?”
”The man you have there is not the Falcon.”
”Is that so?” He skeptically c.o.c.ked one eyebrow. ”Then I suppose this sniveling lad is the one who has been plaguing me all these months?”
”No,” returned Melantha. Her expression was deadly serious. ”I am.”
Stunned surprise rippled through the great hall.
”Don't listen to her!” yelled Colin, staggering to his feet. ”I'm the Falcon!”
”No, he isn't,” Melantha countered, her gaze intent upon Laird MacTier. ”You may trust me, MacTier. I am the outlaw you seek.”
”She's mad!” protested Colin furiously. ”How could that thin slip of a la.s.s be the Falcon? For G.o.d's sake, just look at her! She could scarcely lift a bairn, never mind wield a sword! She's just saying this to try to save me-you mustn't listen to her!”
”No one has ever been able to describe the Falcon because he always wears a helmet,” continued Melantha calmly, ignoring Colin's outburst. ”That was because I had to keep the fact that I was a woman a secret.”
”I wear a b.l.o.o.d.y helmet because I want to keep my skull intact,” interjected Colin, growing even more adamant. ”Don't listen to her childish fantasies!”
”As you have already noticed, my hands bear the marks of years of swordplay,” she continued, lifting her callused palms for Laird MacTier's perusal. ”I have been trained in the use of a sword from the time I was six.”
”Every country wife has work-worn hands,” scoffed Colin, desperately trying to discredit her confession. ”It doesn't make them a dangerous outlaw, for G.o.d's sake!”
”But not every country wife bears the marks of an enemy's sword.” She jerked down the sleeve of her gown, revealing the jagged pink scar that snaked from her shoulder to her elbow. ”Surely one of your men returned to boast of managing to wound the elusive Falcon, MacTier?” she asked scornfully. ” 'Twas in the late spring and we had attacked a coach bearing a king's supply of silver goods and one overly fed priest. The guards a.s.sured us that the entire lot was on its way to you-”
Laird MacTier crossed to her within three strides. ”Where is it?” he demanded fiercely.
Melantha regarded him in confusion. ”Where is what?”
He slapped her with such force she was knocked to the floor.
”Don't give me a reason to finish off your gallant friend over there,” he warned, his eyes narrowed into dark slits of fury. ”If you truly are the Falcon, then you know exactly of what I am speaking.” He leaned down and whispered harshly, ”Where is the amulet?”
Melantha fought to clear her head from the dizziness his blow had caused. What was he talking about?
”Don't pretend you don't have it,” he snarled. ”That fool of a priest told me how you and your men threatened to disembowel him if he didn't turn it over to you. You knew he carried a sacred relic of great power-that was why you attacked the coach in the first place-wasn't it?” He kept his voice low, guarding his purpose from the rest of his clan.
He was speaking of the silver-and-emerald pendant, Melantha realized. The pendant Magnus had insisted she take for herself, instead of selling it or trading it in exchange for something useful like food or weapons. She had worn it constantly around her neck from that day forward. But the gown she had donned for her journey here had left the pendant exposed, and she had feared that either Laird MacTier or someone else within the clan might recognize it.
And so she had given it to Gillian to wear for safekeeping.
”It is hidden in a safe place some three days' journey from here,” she said evasively, realizing that producing it was the only way of appeasing Laird MacTier's anger and securing Colin and Daniel's freedom. ”Release these two, and they will retrieve it and bring it to you in exchange for our lives.”
Laird MacTier studied her a moment, debating whether or not to believe her. ”If you try to trick me, I swear to you, you will suffer beyond your worst imaginings,” he warned softly. He plunged his hand into her hair, painfully jerking her head up by its roots. ”Do you understand?”
”Yes,” said Melantha, wincing beneath his cruel grip.
He released his hold, leaving her crumpled at his feet as he rose to face his clan.
”The Falcon and I have come to an agreement,” he announced pleasantly. ”I have decided to release you tonight,” he said, speaking to Colin, ”so that you may go and retrieve a few items of mine that your leader was foolish enough to take. She will tell you exactly what it is I seek, and where you may find them. Bring them to me within six days, and then you and this angry young lad will be released unharmed.”