Page 59 of Highlander Redeemed
“Does he ken you are a Guardian?” Duncan asked quietly.
“Nay, but there is that to tell.” A suddenknowingcame over her that she realized had come to her when the Targe took her but that made itself clear to her only now. “There is more, Duncan.” She smiled down at him. “So much more! Da! Everyone, I have a story to tell you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
DUNCAN TRIED TOsit up as the council and other warriors gathered around, while Scotia tried to hold him down. In truth he would like nothing more than to stay just where they were, but he could feel the excitement vibrating through her.
“Do not move. You will open your stitches,” she said.
“I would like to sit up,” he insisted. “Can you help me?”
Before she could, Nicholas and Malcolm assisted him to rise enough to sit. Rowan had two men move a stone for him to lean back on, and when he was settled, Jeanette moved in to bandage his head, which explained the headache that started to pound as soon as he sat up.
Scotia stood beside him, waiting for him to be settled. He reached up and squeezed her hand. “Tell us.”
“Are you a Guardian?” Kenneth asked.
“I am well and truly a Guardian, that much was made clear. My gift isknowing—”
“’Twas more than simpleknowing,” Rowan said.
“Aye, but even that—” She realized confusion raced through the gathering, and knew she had to back up even more. “When I was chosen by the Targe stone myknowingbecame stronger, and I was filled with a barrage ofknowingsso great that it was hard to focus on any one of them, but IknewDuncan was in trouble so I followed thatknowingto him, but I could not see what was happening so I shared Jeanette’s gift—”
“There was no sharing,” Jeanette said. “You took it. It was as if I could only follow where you went with it, though I could see andknowall you did.”
“I did not mean to take it. I did not even know I could share it. We will have to experiment with that, sister.”
“We will,” Rowan said, making a point that there was another Guardian to include.
“As I said,” Scotia continued, “I used Jeanette’s gift to see Duncan just as he was shot. The archer who shot you”—she looked down at him—“was upon you, and in my fear for you I grabbed Rowan’s gift and directed it to throw the archer—”
“’Twas not a throw,” Rowan said, “she picked him up and hurled him away from you. Even I have not been able to do that.”
“Anyway, that was when theknowingcame to me that Uilliam was in trouble, too, so we created a barrier over you to keep you from further harm.”
“And then you hurled the soldiers away from me,” Uilliam said, a note of awe in his deep voice. “’Twas you who did that, aye?” he asked Scotia.
She nodded.
“You have taught her very well, Duncan,” Uilliam said.
Pride warmed Duncan.
Uilliam continued, “’Twas as if an invisible warrior fought beside me, anticipating the moves of each soldier as they came for me, and incapacitating each in turn. You three lassies make one very formidable weapon.”
There was quiet as Duncan watched that thought sink into each one there. Three Guardians, and one trained as a warrior who could combine all their gifts into a single weapon. Would Scotia be strong enough to control all that power without letting it overtake her? Clearly her training was not at an end, as he had thought. He would have to watch over her, teach her to claim her strength without letting it go to her head, or her heart.
Her heart was his, and he was not about to let it go.
“Did you leave them there?” Nicholas asked at last.
“Aye. ’Twas only me so I got out of there before any could rouse. When I made it to the meadow I heard the fighting and went to help. That’s when I found Duncan.”
“So the soldiers who lived will be able to report on what happened to Lord Sherwood.” Malcolm said what everyone was thinking.
Uilliam sighed and pulled on his beard. “Aye, they will. Our lads are pulling back to guard this camp. We did not have enough to chase down the soldiers who lived and keep enough numbers to attack the main force.”
Scotia cleared her throat, drawing Duncan’s and everyone else’s attention back to her.
