Betrayal in the Highlands (37 page)

Edmund did some quick calculations.

“How many were killed last night? How many bodies did you find?”

“Seven.”

The rhythmic thud of axes in the woods around Rood filled the forest-scented air.

“Seven,” Edmund repeated.

Abby brushed the drying tears from her cheek and pulled away from Pond. “What are you thinking?”

“I don’t think there are many left,” he replied, not quite sure he could believe it. He recounted. “Seven, plus these four, plus those killed by Fatty … and Gurding …”

You should have killed him outright. You’re going to regret letting him live.

What could a blind goblin do?

More than a dead one can.

“Maybe that’s why Gurding was alone,” Edmund said to himself.

“What?” Pond asked.

“I was wondering why Gurding was alone on the wall with me.” Edmund counted on his fingers a third time. “Maybe they don’t have many left after their raid last night.”

“But they could always get reinforcements, right?” Abby said. “I mean, you two told me there were thousands of them in the mountains.”

“Yes, but that would take time,” Edmund said. “Maybe a couple of months or more.”

“What about Kravel?” Pond asked. “Think you killed him with that stab wound to his neck?”

Edmund shook his head. “I doubt it. We would’ve found his body by now.”

Then where is that bastard? Why was Gurding alone?

“I’m missing something.” He considered the indigo sky through the canopy of leaves. Stars had begun to appear. Sunset was approaching. “We’d better go see what happened to our wagon and supplies.”

“We already got them,” Abby said, “while you slept.”

“And?”

Abby shrugged, as though adding one more piece of bad news wouldn’t change anything. “The horses were dead, my mare and the others. Their throats were slit.” A couple of fresh tears rolled down her cheek. She wiped them away. “But all of our gear was still there.”

“Well, that’s something,” Edmund said, trying to sound positive. He gave Fatty’s grave one last sad glance. “We’d better get inside the walls. It’s getting dark.”

“So you don’t think they’ll attack tonight?” Abby asked, following Edmund through the woods.

“I don’t know.”

“What about the magic users? Edith and the other two?”

“I don’t know.”

They approached a crew of men cutting down one of the last trees reaching over Rood’s wall.

“Get inside as soon as you finish with that one,” Edmund told them.

“Yes, sir!” they called back, axes swinging.

“So what do you think will happen?” Pond asked as they came within sight of the east gate. Bain and a company of well-armed men saluted Edmund as he passed. Somewhere nearby, a tree fell with a crash of splintering wood.

“I don’t know,” Edmund replied, not daring to hope for much. “I think we may have a bit of a respite, but the goblins will be back at some point, and we’ll need to be ready for them.”

They stepped through the gates.

Rood was a buzz of activity. All of the tents had been moved to what was once the Village Lawn. Trees felled from along the walls had been dragged into town and were being made into building materials. Men ran here and there, clearing debris. Some sang as they worked. Yet near the southern edge of town, one place seemed absent of movement. Edmund’s stride wavered. His searching gaze stopped on Molly’s poorly constructed house.

“Do you want us to go with you?” Pond asked.

You’ve been avoiding them for long enough. He needs to know he’s no longer in charge.

I’m sure he knows already.

Still, you need to be adult about this. You need to show him there are no hard feelings.

No hard feelings
…
I should have killed him.

And Molly?

He feared seeing her most of all.

She could get me to do anything she wanted
…

Could. Not now. Not anymore.

Edmund wanted a drink and a long sleep. But he and the rest of the men were going to be up all night, waiting for the goblins to return, and he couldn’t show weakness.

“Do you want us to go with you?” Pond asked again.

Shoulders bent, Edmund exhaled. “No. I’ll do it by myself.”

Chapter Forty-One

To keep spirits high, a great bonfire was being lit in Rood’s town square. The gates were manned by companies of well-armed, experienced soldiers, and the rising full moon was bright enough to fight by. Everybody was ready. Everybody except Edmund.

Standing in front of Molly and Norb’s bleak house, he sucked in a deep breath and, wiping his sweaty palms on his pants, looked down at Becky.

“Well, I suppose we should get this over with.”

Becky cocked her head at him. Edmund again examined the wobbly steps to the porch.

“Oh, for the love of the gods!” Abby cried, several strides behind him. “Just get it over with!”

Edmund turned. Next to Abby, Pond nodded his encouragement.

“I told you two I could do this by myself,” Edmund said.

“Yeah, well, we’re here to make sure you don’t do anything stupid,” Abby replied. “Now hurry up.”

Inhaling again, Edmund climbed the steps.

You can do this.

He tapped on the door with a single knuckle then waited.

“Oh, for crying out loud!” Abby stormed up the stairs, stomping footfalls shaking the rickety porch. She hammered on the front door. The warped wood buckled under her assault.

Nobody answered.

She hammered again.

Becky dug at the edge of the door.

She’s not here.

They left with the others. They left! Oh, this is perfect!

Finally able to breathe, Edmund peeked through the window.

His heart stopped.

Norb still lay on the floor of the front room, almost exactly where they’d left him the day before, but his head was now thrown back, throat slit from ear to ear.

“Damn it!” Edmund drove his shoulder into the door. It popped open with a crack. “Norb! Norb!”

But Norb didn’t move. The blood that had pooled about him had already turned thick and tacky. His pale body was as cold as wet clay.

“Norb!” Edmund knelt next to him.

Pond and Abby peered in from the front porch.

“He’s dead,” Abby said. “I’m pretty sure he’s not going to answer you.”

Edmund shouted for Molly.

Abby rolled her eyes.

Nobody answered.

If she’s dead
…

“Becky! Go find Molly! Okay, girl? Find her!”

Becky shot into the house and raced from room to room while Edmund searched for clues to Norb’s death.

“There are footprints in the blood over there.” Pond pointed toward the hallway. “Several different footprints by the look of it.”

Returning to the living room, Becky darted past Pond and Abby and out onto the front porch. She barked then looked back at Edmund.

Molly left?

So she must still be alive.

He glanced at the expensive furniture and antiques.

Why would she leave without packing? Or with Norb lying dead on the floor … ?

No. Not left—taken!

“What do you think happened?” Pond entered the house, careful not to step in the drying lake of blood. “Did Edith kill Norb so he couldn’t tell anybody else about what you know?”

Staring at the wound sliced expertly across the former Lord of the Highland’s neck, Edmund shook his head. “No. Kravel did this.” Becky barked again. “And he has Molly. That’s why he wasn’t on the wall with Gurding.”

“Well, that takes care of that!” Abby flopped down onto the ornate sofa. She coughed and waved the dust away from her face. “She deserves everything she gets. This town will be a lot better with her gone anyway.”

Torn, Edmund gazed at Becky, quivering in anticipation of the hunt.

“Ed …” Pond began, seeming to guess what Edmund was thinking. “Don’t! This isn’t your fault. Don’t even—”

“I have to.”

“Ed!”

“Pond,” Edmund said.

Abby stopped inspecting a crystal vase on a table by the sofa. “You’re not actually thinking of going after her, are you?” Seeing Edmund’s expression, she shouted, “Oh, come on!”

“Pond,” Edmund repeated.

“She doesn’t love you!” Abby yelled. “Don’t you get it? You’re nothing to her! You’re worse than nothing! You’re a toy! A plaything she can kick around whenever she needs you! Remember what she said?”

“Ed,” Pond said tenderly, “Abby’s right. It’s time to let her go. Do you really want somebody like that in your life? Forgive me for saying this, but … Molly’s a bitch.”

Listen to him!

Edmund stared down at Norb’s body. Dark blood had sunken into the expensive rug.

“It’s not that.”

“Ed, this isn’t your fault. Kravel was coming to get her regardless of whether or not you came back to Rood. Had we come a day later, she would have already been gone.”

Listen to him! Forget about Molly! You know she never cared for you. She treated you like crap your entire life, taking your gifts and leading you on
…

Becky barked again, nails clicking on the porch in her excitement.

“Ed,” Pond said again, pleading.

“Think!” Abby tapped her temple. “Think about everything that bitch did to you.”

Edmund studied the bloody footprints. “She’s only been gone a day, a day and a half at most.”

Shaking his head, Pond swore under his breath. “Fine! I’ll get some supplies.”

Abby shot to her feet. “What? I’m not going after that woman! Not after everything she’s done to you. Let her rot, that’s what I say. I’m not going.”

“No,” Edmund said quietly. “No, you’re not.” He put a hand on Pond’s shoulder. “And you’re not going either.”

“Ed!” they both shouted.

“She doesn’t love you,” Pond said. “You understand that, don’t you?”

“She never did!” Abby added.

Edmund stared outside. The huge bonfire blazed orange in the middle of town. Cheering men threw more logs on the leaping flames.

“It’s not that,” he said.

“Then what?” Pond asked. “Why are you doing this?”

“It’s not about … her.”

Hundreds of sparks swirled into the darkening sky.

“It’s …”

“What?” Abby demanded. “What is it? You’re afraid nobody else will love you? Is that it? You don’t want to grow old alone? What?”

Becky barked again, more insistent than before.

“It’s, it’s about … me,” Edmund said.

“You!” Abby cried. “You didn’t do a damned thing to deserve how she treated you. You treated her like a princess, and look how she repaid you!” She flung her hands toward the furniture. “She bought all this crap with your money! Your parents’ money!”

Edmund cringed inside. “What I mean is … what I’m trying to say …”

Pond and Abby were so livid they couldn’t look at him.

“I don’t want to be eighty years old, thinking about this,” Edmund explained. “I don’t want to be, to be haunted about what I should have done, like I am with Turd.”

“Turd?” Abby snorted. She turned to Pond. “What’s he talking about?”

“I need to forget about her, I know that.” Edmund sighed. “But I never will, not if this is how things end.”

Pond shook his head.

“Pond,” he said. “You know what will happen if they bring her back to the tower. They won’t kill her. They’ll keep her alive. They’ll keep her alive for a long, long time.”

“Who cares?” Abby shouted, but her tone had lost much of its anger. Perhaps she’d pictured what the goblins would do to a woman and how many things were worse than death.

“They only have a day’s lead,” Edmund said to Pond. “With a horse and with Becky tracking them, I could catch up by tomorrow night or the next day. Either way, I can get to her well before they reach the mountains. That’s all I want. I want to get her before Kravel brings her back.”

Pond peered out the window. “What about the men, Ed?” Everybody who wasn’t guarding the gates celebrated around the fire. “What about everybody who stayed? They’re expecting a battle soon. Many of them are preparing to die. But they’re willing to fight because they believe in you and what you told them Rood could be—someplace where they can make their own fortunes and control their own destinies. Are you just going to leave them, right before the goblins come?”

“They aren’t coming.”

“They don’t know that. These men are willing to face death for you. They deserve better than you running out on them like you did to me back in Long Ravine.”

This hit Edmund like a punch in the stomach.

He looked at the men singing by the bonfire. His place was here with them in the Highlands. He knew that deep in his heart. Still, he imagined Molly strapped to a bed in the High Cells, Kravel gloating over her naked body as she thrashed about helplessly. Year after year, she’d have to endure them. Year after year, without any hope of escape.

Pressure crushed down on him from all sides.

“They need you, Ed.”

“I know!”

Edmund collapsed into one of the luxurious chairs, head in his hands.

Molly versus all of these men
…

And Rood
…

He swore.

It’s not that easy being a lord, is it?

I’m not a lord!

You might as well be. You’re running this place. And whether you like it or not, you have responsibilities here.

“What are you going to do?” Pond asked.

Edmund glanced toward the bonfire and the men dancing around it, waving their weapons in the smoky air.

“I’ll stay here,” he said with the heaviness of a death sentence.

Pond and Abby relaxed. On the porch, Becky barked at the darkness growing in the east.

“But if the goblins don’t attack tonight,” Edmund said, “I’m going after her tomorrow morning.”

“Ed!” Pond cried.

“Pond. I have to do this. Don’t you understand? I have to. I don’t want to live with her blood on my hands. I have to at least try to do something—now, before Kravel reaches the mountains.”