The Last Sunset (39 page)

“What did she say?”

“Think she said Camerons,” Andy yelled back.
Then he realised what he’d said. “…Camerons…?”

The vanguard had already reached the floor of
the glen. They were no longer featureless figures, but a band of ragged
warriors, their loins and torsos barely covered in threadbare tartan, their
broadswords held high in the air. Some had already caught up with the tail
enders. Swords gleamed like butchers’ cleavers in the pale sunshine. An
overweight soldier was brought to earth by the slash of a blade. A screaming
flurry of blows followed; the clansman moved on, his sword red to the hilt.

One after another, fleeing soldiers were hacked
to the ground. One body of redcoats dropped their weapons and threw their arms
in the air. The screaming swordsmen ran past, hunting down escapees. A second
group threw down their weapons and were also bypassed. Others fled westwards,
pursued by swarms of red broadswords. Within minutes hunters and hunted had
disappeared beyond the horizon.

Andy, Shawnee and Sam looked at each other as though
they’d glimpsed the hounds of hell. Sam was clutching the rifle so tightly his
knuckles had turned white.

“Who did y’say those guys were?”

“Camerons,” Andy breathed.

Women and children began to emerge from the
cottages, blinking in the afternoon light, their faces grimy and tear stained.
As soon as Ishbel’s mother and sister appeared she ran over to them.
Breathlessly she told her family what had happened. The news spread like
wildfire. Some people dropped to their knees, others held each other and wept.

Sam scratched the back of his head. “Aren’t the
Camerons supposed to be somewhere else fighting this bad-assed Cumberland guy?”

“Culloden,” Shawnee put in. Her euphoria had
subsided as soon as she’d seen the first redcoat being hacked to pieces. “The
Camerons shoulda been at Culloden today with the rest of Prince Charlie’s
army.”

“Y’don’t suppose them being here’s got something
to do with us, do yuh?” asked Sam.

“Duh,” she replied, her face pale and mocking.

A small body of Highlanders approached the
fortified village. While they were still some distance away Achnacon scrambled
over the wall and ran to meet them. He knelt before one of the men.

“Y’don’t suppose one of those guys is Bonnie
Prince Charlie?” Shawnee wondered, unconsciously touching her hair.

Sam was still trying to make sense of what had
happened. “D’y’suppose Jamie and the others reached Culloden before the battle
and brought these guys back?”

Andy shook his head. “No’ enough time… tae reach
there and back…”

Achnacon brought the new arrivals to Longholme’s
fortress. The clansfolk bowed and curtsied. Even Longholme lowered his head
sharply.

Shawnee was straining at the leash. “It’d be
rude not to go over there and introduce ourselves, don’t y’think?”

Now that the crisis was over Andy needed all his
strength to remain on his feet. “You two go on over… Ah’ll bide here a wee
while…”

Shawnee looked at the soldier and smiled that
little secret smile of hers. She caressed his lifeless right arm. “On second
thoughts, I think Sam and I will just bide here a wee while with you.”

Two of the Highlanders broke away from the crowd
and made their way along the battered passageway to the smaller fortress. They
were indistinguishable from the ragged warriors who’d roared down the hillsides
only minutes before. They were only a few yards away when Macmillan recognised
the red hair and ginger stubble of the foremost clansman.

“Jamie…”

“How’s it goin’, Corp?” said Macsorley, grinning.
He was about to embrace his N.C.O. when he saw the bandages around his chest.
“Ah see you guys’ve been through the wars.”

“Yeah, tell me about it,” grumbled Sam.

“It’s good to see yourselves again,” said the
other clansman.

“Colin?” Shawnee put in. “My God, is that you
under there?”

The young Highlander had acquired a phillamhor
since he’d left Glen Laragain three days earlier. As Shawnee threw her arms around
him a pink glow appeared through the grime on his face.

“Oh Colin, I don’t know how to tell y’this… I’m
so sorry…”

Gently he pulled himself free. “It’s all right,
I know about himself. If you could tell me where he is.”

Shawnee looked towards the cottage that had
become a front-line hospital. “Mary was with him right ’til the end. She’s
still there now. We’ll come along with you if y’like.”

Colin shook his head. “That’s all right. I’ll be
fine, thank you.”

He seemed oddly composed as he made his way towards
the cottage.

“How’d he know about Alistair?” Sam asked.

Jamie shook his head in wonder. “It was the
weirdest thing. Last night it was, he woke up… we’ve been sleeping rough, like…
and he was in tears. Ah mean great big tears rolling down his face. He told me
that Alistair had come tae him and told him… get this now… he’d told him that
he was tae be the last one laid tae rest, that he’d be proud tae stand his
watch over the others.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Jamie shrugged his shoulders. “No idea, but the
wee guy knew his brother wasnae gonnae make it.”

Shawnee sniffled softly. “D’you think maybe we
should go and see if he’s all right?”

“He’ll be fine,” said Jamie. “He’s grown up
quite a bit these past couple of days.”

“Not too much, I hope,” she murmured.

“Who’s the guy everybody’s bowing to?” Sam
asked.

“That’s Locheil; chief of the Camerons.”

“Cameron of Locheil,” Shawnee whispered. “My
God…”

Andy nodded towards the eastern entrance to the
glen. “…Where’s Laurel and Hardy?”

Jamie shook his head in disgust. “Half a day’s
march away. They couldnae keep up, so they were left behind. With any luck
they’ll wander intae a redcoat patrol. Probably the best thing that could
happen tae the Jacobite cause.”

“Not if they’ve still got the jimpy…”

Jamie shrugged his shoulders.

“So where did y’meet those other guys anyhow?”
asked Sam.

“Locheil’s and Keppoch’s men? They’re something
else, aren’t they? We met them yesterday morning at Invergarry. It’s as well
Rhona was there, they were all for taking no chances and slitting our throats.”

“…What were they doing at Invergarry yesterday?
Forty miles from Inverness… They shouldae been at Culloden…”

Jamie smiled knowingly. “D’ye remember the wee
laddies Achnacon sent tae Inverness? It seems by the time they reached the
Jacobite camp their story had become a wee bit garbled.”

“Y’mean like Chinese whispers?”

“Aye, something like that. The story they got
was; the redcoats were gonnae put the whole of Lochaber tae the sword…
Camerons, MacDonnells, Stewarts… Waste the whole country, ye know? So the local
boys decided that wasnae gonnae happen, and they just upped and came home
again.”

“Leaving their buddies to be slaughtered at
Culloden?”

The young soldier scratched the back of his
head. “Well, no, not exactly. Ye see, there’s been messengers galloping between
us and the main force. It seems Lord George Murray convinced Charlie not tae
risk a battle, but instead tae follow the Lochaber clans towards the west
coast.”

Andy groaned. “Ye mean the Jacobite army’s on
its way here; tae Lochaber?”

“Who’s Lord George Murray?” asked Sam.

Shawnee clapped her hands with excitement.
“We’ve done it! We’ve done it.
Oh my God!
”

“Who the hell is Lord George Murray?”

“He’s the equivalent to these guys of Robert E.
Lee.” Shawnee’s eyes were wide with wonder. “To these people, it’s like we’ve
prevented Gettysburg.”

Ishbel had returned to Andy’s side, attracted by
the rising excitement. Her intended, however, remained stubbornly unaffected by
it all.

“If the Jacobite army’s heading west… towards
Lochaber… then where’s Cumberland…?”

The expression on Jamie’s face was answer
enough. Andy groaned again. “Aw Gawd Almighty… if Charlie’s on his way here… they’ll
no’ be far behind…”

“Bonnie Prince Charlie’s on his way here?”
Shawnee’s eyes sparkled at the thought. Ishbel looked to Jamie for a
translation. Her eyes nearly popped from her head at what she was told.

“What Ah don’t understand,” Andy persisted, “is
why the rest o’ the army… followed the Lochaber clans west.”

Jamie was caught between the ladies’ excitement
and his N.C.O.’s relentless interrogation.

“It’s that Chinese whispers thing again,” he
replied, smiling at Shawnee and Ishbel.

“What d’ye mean?”

“Well, it’s like, they were led tae believe that
fresh forces had landed on the west coast, with amazing new weapons and
everything.”

Sam nodded his head. “That’s why they’ve moved
to the west. To link up with the troops they think’ve landed here… Boy, are
they gonna be sore when they find out.”

“That’s what Ah thought,” said Jamie, “so Ah had
tae tell them there was only a handful of us, like. They didnae seem all that
bothered. They were more interested in these weapons of ours.”

“How the hell did y’explain them?”

Jamie glanced apprehensively at his N.C.O.
“Well, obviously Ah had tae tell them about you, like.”

“What did ye have tae tell them about me?” said
Andy uneasily.

Jamie squirmed. “Ye know? About yer visions and
that… Ah mean, if Ah couldnae get through tae Achnacon Ah was hardly gonnae get
through tae that lot. Oh, and by the way, if anybody asks, you’re a Captain. Ah
didnae think they’d be impressed by a buckshee corporal.”

Andy groaned horribly. “Why d’ye keep doing this
tae me?”

“We haven’t really changed anything then, have
we?” Sam put in quietly. “I mean, if this bad-ass duke is on his way here with
his whole Limey army then what the hell have we achieved?”

“Are you for real?” said Shawnee. “Why don’t you
ask these people what they think we’ve achieved today.”

“Ah can think of a couple of thousand empty
graves on Culloden Moor,” said Jamie.

“Yeah, for now.”

“They’re alive Sam, and so are we. For now
that’s gotta be enough.”

“…And tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow we do what it takes. It's all any of
us can do.”

“But what if it’s not enough? What if no matter
what we do it all turns into the same rotten crap heap? The same mistakes… The
same red sky over this goddamn glen?”

“All we can do is flap our wings,” said Shawnee.
“If we can beat up a big enough storm, then who knows. As long as we’re alive
anything’s possible.”

Before the end of the day some of the younger
children began to make a game of the fear they’d so recently felt. They
collected some of the misshapen musket balls that littered the ground, as if
they were gathering hazelnuts. They ran between the walls, throwing the lead
bullets at each other, making little popping noises with their mouths.

The game came to an untidy end as one after
another the children came to a halt at the rear of the burnt-out barn.
Something was protruding from the tiny window. Something that looked and smelt
like the front portion of a barbecued calf, but also had the shape of a man.

None of the children could say for certain what
it was, but it made a grand target for their musket balls.

He awoke with a start, knowing
instantly that something was wrong. The air was so quiet that nature itself
seemed to be holding its breath. Clutching his rifle he peered over the lip of
the trenchworks into the valley below. He could see fresh fields of green and
gold, bordered by tangled hedgerows. He had no recollection of arriving in an
untouched sector of the front. Seeing an area so pure and unsullied had always
delighted and then saddened him, knowing it would soon be poisoned forever.

The landscape was familiar to him. He knew
every hillock and hollow, but in his mind’s eye he could see it, not draped in
a living carpet of yellow and green, but lifeless and shell-cratered, like the
surface of the moon. As he tried to draw the memory from his mind the image
faded as though it had been no more than imagination.

The sky was a perfect shade of blue, in
which clouds drifted by like ancient galleons. It reminded him of spring days
spent fishing the hill lochs of home, robbing the azure waters of their golden
treasure.

Everything was eerily quiet. The usual
intermittent firing had died away. Even the rumble of guns to the east had
fallen silent. He scanned the earthworks about him, and for the first time
realised he was on his own. To left and right there was no sign of friend or
foe. He also noticed the earthworks were curiously overgrown, as if they hadn’t
known shot, or shell, or clambering boots in a very long time. He felt no sense
of anxiety or alarm. Something had happened which he couldn’t bring to mind, as
if he was trying to recollect a brain injury with that part of the brain that
had been injured.