The Raven's Moon (45 page)

"Is it?" Rowan asked. He reached inside his leather jack and withdrew a folded paper. "And what is this?"

"A warrant for your blasted arrest, I hope!"

"A letter in a Spanish code," Rowan explained patiently. "The translation is quite poetic. A lovely lady gathers red roses by the sea, it says, and watches for the raven's moon, when the white rose will blossom."

Simon snorted. "'Tis nonsense."

"Unless you understand what it signifies. And I do. I'll barter with you, Simon. My wife for this—" He slid his hand inside his jack again, and took out the black mirror.

Rowan saw shock register on Simon's face. "I do not know what that thing is," Simon said disdainfully. "I am done wi' games, Blackdrummond. Redeem yourself, or this will be reported to the council and the king. Fetch my guards and arrest those two scoundrels for spying!"

Rowan held out the stone. "Take it," he said. "Go on." He watched Simon evenly. The warden looked tempted to snatch it and run. But he smiled flatly.

"Why would I want that?"

"Just look at it, Simon," Mairi said.

Rowan nodded, knowing she tried to distract the warden so that the others could take him down.

He held it at an obliging angle so Simon could see the polished convex surface. A few dashes of rain washed the slick skin of the stone to a glistening, eerie, blackness.

Simon looked at it, then blinked and grew pale. Thunder crashed overhead and he glanced upward, clutching Mairi hard against him. He looked anxiously around, clearly frightened, as if he had seen something in the stone.

But Rowan was sure, now, that the warden was afraid of the approaching storm.

"Jehovah's wrath. We've got to get inside," Simon blurted. "Go on ahead."

"A moment," Rowan said casually. He had no desire to be on a roof in a lightning storm, but he would not give Simon a chance to get away so easily.

"If you do not want the stone," Rowan said, sliding it inside his jack, "perhaps you'll want what was found inside it." He displayed the folded paper, waggling his fingers as if he conjured it in a magic trick.

"What is that?" Simon barked. "Give it here."

"A writ from the Spanish government, signed by King Philip himself, promising the bearer payment in gold and free passage on any Spanish trading ship. And it has your name written on it, Simon."

Simon watched him, his eyes narrowed. Mairi clung to Simon's restraining arm, her eyes wide. Rowan could not risk meeting her gaze.

"So that is why you wanted the raven's moon," Rowan went on. "It was intended for you, but the ship wrecked."

Simon laughed. "Ridiculous. Why would I want that?"

Rowan heard the thunder rolling closer, and he wanted only to grab Mairi and carry her away to safety. But he nodded calmly to Simon. "My guess is that you made some agreement with the Spaniards, and planned to leave Scotland once you had gathered your fortune and completed your promise."

"Hah," Simon said. "Your brother and Mairi's planned such a thing. I am a warden. A king's man."

"Are you for the king—or for yourself? What did you promise in exchange for wealth and the chance to live out your days in a castle in a warmer climate, or perhaps in the New World?"

"Paradise," Mairi said suddenly. "You were looking for paradise, weren't you, Simon?"

Rowan did not understand what she meant, but he saw a flicker of acknowledgment in Simon's shifting, haunted eyes.

"What did you promise them, Simon?" he asked. "Access to the Middle March, so that they could bring in troops and cross the border to invade England?"

"That is pure fancy."

"You would have to be in league with agents in the East or West March for that. This ring of spies may be far larger than the privy council suspects."

Simon huffed a flat chuckle. "You're trying to conceal your own involvement. Your own plan."

"We have your name here," Rowan said, wiggling the paper. "I have already posted a message to the council by fast rider." He had not yet, but surely would. "Heckie is dead, but we will get Clem. I'm certain he knows about this. And he will not be pleased that you've killed his brother. I do not think you find loyalty from him."

"You cannot prove anything!" Thunder boomed, close and loud. Simon shifted toward the turret, dragging Mairi along.

"Stop!" Iain called as he and Alec stepped forward, pistols aimed at Simon. Rowan held up a detaining hand.

"You cannot prove any o' this!" Simon yelled. "You are the criminals here. Guards!" he bellowed.

"We have proof, Simon," Rowan said.

"There is none!"

"Heckie stole a gold medallion off me weeks ago. I saw it again in that box of gold that you claimed Iain took. But Iain and Alec took two large sacks o' gold from Heckie, not one casket."

"Liars. Sneakbaits."

"How did the piece Heckie stole make its way into a casket that you claim Iain and Alec took long before I was attacked?"

Simon was silent, watchful, his breath heaving.

"Heckie gave it to you later, after Iain was taken," Rowan continued."That may prove the link between you two. You turned that casket over to the English warden, claiming that was all you had recovered. But two large sacks were taken from the shipwreck. Where is the rest, Simon?"

"You are all art and part in this together," Simon said stubbornly. A stream of lightning flashed overhead. "Go ahead down those steps if you want the lass to live. Go!" He motioned toward Rowan. "You hold a gun, but I hold your wife. Go!"

The next blast of thunder seemed to shake the roof. Simon looked up in terror. Then he pushed Mairi roughly, suddenly, into Rowan, so that they both went down, and Simon ran.

As Alec and Iain took off after him, Rowan rolled to his feet, and helped Mairi up. She nodded that she was fine, and quickly Rowan moved across the roof after the others.

Simon ran toward the turret, Alec and Iain behind him. The door opened then, and Archie and Geordie stepped out, pistols in hand. Jock was behind them with several troopers at his back. Simon spun away, knocking heavily into Alec and Iain and scrambling to run past them in a panic.

The sky seemed to split open as lightning lit the dark clouds from within and thunder roared. A powerful blast of wind tore across the roof, and Rowan turned to push Mairi toward one of the guardhouses on the roof.

"Get inside!" he yelled, wanting her safe. "Go!"

She pulled open the door, fighting the wind, and Rowan turned away, now seeing Simon hurtling toward another turret. Sandie and Christie stepped out of that one, weapons ready.

Simon spun again, turned, stopped, turned again, and then dashed toward the parapet. Rowan ran, but stopped suddenly, uncertain what Simon intended to do.

Thunder cracked so hard that Rowan felt its reverberation in his body. The wind beat at him, whirled around him. He looked up to see clouds rolling menacingly over the moon. Lightning flashed inside the clouds like lantern light.

"Get inside!" he shouted to Iain and Alec. Beyond them, Simon hesitated at the parapet edge, staring upward.

"Simon!" Rowan yelled. "Inside!" He gestured toward the nearest turret, where Sandie and Christie stood, waving him toward them in the wild wind. Simon moved in their direction.

Rowan spun, looking for shelter. Mairi called, holding open the guardhouse. He ran.

Thunder cracked like cannon, and out of the black sky, a silvery shard of lightning cracked against the roof.

Running, Simon jerked and threw his arms upward. A cage of light slid over his helmet and breastplate and enveloped him in a glowing, fatal web. He hovered in the air—and fell.

Rowan stepped forward, then ran to Simon.

* * *

Leaning against the door of the chimney house, coughing from the lingering smoke, Mairi set a shaking hand to her face. She felt stunned, numb, her legs shaking.

Watching through the darkness and the storm, she saw Rowan and the others hovering around Simon, and then dragging his body toward shelter. Gasping, she slid downward to half kneel, exhausted. Thunder roared again, and she waited while the others tended to the warden. She knew he was dead—he could not have survived that.

After a moment, she got to her feet and stepped forward, but her foot caught a lance leaned against the wall, and she stumbled.

As she put a hand down to get up again, her fingers slipped into a crack between loose planks in the wooden floor. Something was underneath the board, she was certain of it.

She tugged on the board, pulled hard, and lifted an end of the plank, shifting it aside. The chimney house had been constructed over the pitched roof of the tower, and the wooden floor was a mere platform. Underneath the planks was empty space. Mairi reached into the blackness.

Not so empty, after all. Her hand closed on thick, coarse cloth, and she felt, inside that, something bulky and hard. She found a loose corner of the cloth and tugged.

Then she heard footsteps and looked up to see Rowan entering the little room. Mairi stood, moving toward him, and he held out his arms. She went into that safe, strong, enclosing circle, leaning her head against his chest.

Rowan held her, his lips against her hair, her brow, his hands steady on her back. She tilted her head and found his lips, kissed him, wrapped her arms around his neck.

Thunder sounded again, followed by lightning. Rowan looked down at her in the flickering whiteness.

"Mairi, Simon is—"

"I know," she whispered. "Come here." She took his hand and pulled him toward the open section of the floor, and knelt. He bent one knee and reached down, pulling the cloth aside.

"God have mercy," he said in a low voice. "This must be all of it. There's another sack beneath this one." He dug his fingers down, and Mairi heard a cool chinking sound.

Lightning poured its brilliance into the room as Rowan spilled a fortune in shining gold out of his hand. Then he tucked the coins back inside the sack.

"The English queen will get her Spanish gold after all," he said, looking at Mairi.

"And this will clear all of you of any charges."

"It should," he said. He took her hands and pulled her toward him, enveloped her in his embrace.

The thunder quieted and rain pattered the roof of the chimney house as Rowan held her. Mairi listened to the rhythms of the rain and the beat of his heart, and felt contentment warm her despite all that had happened earlier.

"Simon feared these storms meant the end of the world esd upon us," she murmured. "And the world ended—for him—just as he dreaded it would."

"Aye so." Rowan brushed a tousle of hair away from her forehead. "But you and I, my lass," he whispered, "our world is just beginning."

Mairi turned her face upward, smiling, closing her eyes as she felt his lips warm over her own. "It is," she murmured against his mouth. "Here and now."

Epilogue

"Be content, be content,

Be content wi me lady;

Now ye are my wedded wife

Until the day ye die, lady."

—"Rob Roy"

Rowan rested a hand on the cold, smooth stone of the medieval tomb sculpture, and looked at the lady's serene carved face. Like this lady, Maggie, too, was gone—yet he had never taken his farewell of her. He had come here now, meaning to release her as honorably as he could.

Not long ago, he had confronted Alec here, over this tomb. Filled with anger and hurt, he had discovered, after all, no betrayal. Rather, two people had loved him and his son, and had done their best to protect them. Now, drawing a breath, he felt humbled. Finally, he could let go what had haunted him.

Suddenly in the small, dark crypt, slender streams of sunlight sliced through the cracks in the masonry. The crypt, with its broken walls and dark shadows, would soon be rebuilt, as would all of Lincraig Castle. He had hired workmen to construct a new tower in the barnekin yard using the old stones.

The English queen had decided to reward him and Alec and Iain, too, for finding the missing Spanish gold—and for uncovering, through interrogating Clem Elliot, a chain of Scottish spies plotting with Spain against England. Elizabeth had sent Rowan a sum of gold that was enough to rebuild Lincraig and keep the Blackdrummond Scotts comfortable for a long time. Alec and Iain had a goodly sum each, as well.