Page 155 of Long Live the King

“He was verra concerned about it, Archie. He went tae go see if he can solve it. I told him I thought that ye were hearing it because he haena held ontae his throne, so he’s gone to secure it, tae take back Scotland for his own, then ye will see...” Lochie’s voice trailed off. Archie was just watching him, his body tense, his hands clamped tight.

“I am verra sorry, wee man.”

Archie said, “Nothing you can do though, this is what happens — a throne gets passed to a son, even if he doesn’t want it. I don’t want it. Not if Da dies.” He rolled over on his side, picked up the book and pressed it over his ear and closed his eyes tightly.

Lochie shook his head.

Then said to me, “I am sorry Kaitlyn, I wish I could set his mind quiet.”

“So what happened?”

“Fraoch and I spoke with Magnus at length about how we believe that all of this,” he gestured toward Archie, “is unsettled, because he gained a throne in the year 1290, but dinna hold it. He allowed it tae be usurped by Asgall. We were advisin’ Magnus, but at the time I dinna ken if he agreed, he was grumblin’ that I was disparagin’ him and his actions.”

I said, “Been there.”

“Aye, it dinna seem like he was takin’ our advice, but then we rescued Ash, and as we were fleeing, and I can’t stress this enough, we were being chased, Magnus said he was going to go take his throne. Tis a part of his plan tae fight Asgall.” He shook his head. “If he had known the state of his son, I think he would hae come home first, but he willcome home.”

“Thank you, Lochie, I’m really glad you got Ash back, I’ll come visit her once we figure this out. I can’t leave his side.”

“Daena worry on it, she will understand. Hayley is speaking with her now.”

“That’s good, she’ll be able to commiserate, she’s been trapped in the past before.”

CHAPTER 67 - ASH

BALLOCH CASTLE - GUEST CHAMBER

Hayley said, “So how are you doing?”

“The pain meds are wearing off, the soreness is coming back. I was just kidnapped, held for days,that’s going to need some therapy, and my surroundings look ancient... this is not normal.”

“You’re in the past.”

“So this is real? I’m not losing my mind?”

“This is absolutely real, you are not losing your mind. I was jumped into the past once, stuck, it was terrifying, but that’s how I met my husband so I guess it wasn’t all bad.”

“When did we invent time travel?”

“Someone else invented it, we’ve just stolen the tech, and now we’re using it.”

“Like...aliens?”

“I don’t know, honestly, could be. We sit up discussing it all the time, some of us think yes, aliens, but the vessels don’t take us off-planet.”

“Yeah, that’s weird.”

“The fact that it stays on-planet makes me think it’s a group of us from the future-future.”

“Or humans that descended from aliens in the past-past, the same alien-human-hybrid who built the pyramids.”

Hayley chuckled. “I can see you’ll be a good addition to our discussions. Zach will enjoy having someone in his camp.”

I said, “A question... when I was in the compound, Lochinvar sent a drone into the room, he asked if he should come now — what did he mean?”

She said, “I think he wasn’t sure when you got there, you might have been there for months, he might have wanted to try to rescue you earlier.”

I thought that through. “He could have done that?”

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