The Guardian by Diana Knightley

Thirteen - Hayley

When I saw Fraoch again I was so relieved I almost burst into tears, not really almost, I kind of did a little.

“What, ye canna be apart without thinkin’ one of us will die?”

“When you put it that way it does seem idiotic, but yeah, one of us will die, Fraoch. If I don’t see you, you might as well be dead. It’s not really all that healthy, but I’m calling it a trauma response. Every time you’re out of my sight some crazy shit goes down.”

“I ken, I feel it too, but here we are and we are solvin’ a problem.”

He took a thick leather rope-cinched sack and spread it out wide, then he and I both crouched beside the vessel. I held onto his arm, while he used the leather sack a little like a dog scooping bag, to quickly grab the vessel, maneuver it into the sack, jostle it to the bottom, and toss it away. We scrambled in the opposite direction.

“Och, twas scary.”

“True that.” I was still clinging to his arm.

We stared over at the lifeless sack lying in a mud puddle.

He said, “Next I hae tae get the sack intae this box.”

Quentin had sent a lead-lined safe box. We had no idea if the vessel would activate from within it, because we hadn’t been activating vessels or testing hypotheses. We knew vessel activation was a good way to be tracked and not being tracked was our only mission right now.

“To do that we need to be close, right?”

“Right ye are.”

We both took in a deep breath and approached the sack. We crouched down beside it and I held onto Fraoch’s arm again.

He scooped up the dripping, muddy sack and dropped it into the box, slammed the lid, and locked it with the combo lock.

We both backed away from it again, standing near a far fence, watching the chest.

I asked in a whisper, “Now what?”

“Now I am goin’ tae put it in this larger sack and tie it tae the saddle on Thor.”

We timidly approached the box.

I held the top of the large sack open.

Fraoch was about to use his foot to kick the box into the sack, when I said, “Wait! I have to hold your hand!”

“I daena think kicking a chest with a vessel inside is how we are meant tae time travel.”

“True, but there is literally always a first time with these things.”

I held one side of the sack in my teeth, the other side with my outstretched right hand, held Fraoch’s hand with my left hand, and mumbled, “Go.”

He kicked the heavy, muddy chest into the sack. Then grasped the ends of the rope and drew it closed. It lay limp in the mud and we stared down on it.

I said, “Well, now it just seems kinda like we were overreacting.”

“Aye.”

He said, “We ought tae load it ontae the horse and begin tae head back I think. I am nae sure when it will begin again.”

“If it starts, you cut it loose from your horse. If a storm rises above us, you cut it loose. If you hear it making a sound, if you feel it vibrating, you cut it loose.”

“Aye. I will carry m’sword in my teeth like this so tis at the ready.” He put his dirk in his teeth.

“Oh my god, Fraoch, I am swooning! You look like a pirate, and that is seriously a fantasy of mine, possibly because of Johnny Depp, a super sexy guy who acted like a pirate once in a movie.”

He sheathed his dirk again and pulled the sack to his back kinda like Santa Claus. “I hae nae idea what ye are talking about, but it sounds funny for ye tae hae a fantasy about a man with a dirk in his teeth — what is he tae do with the dirk? It sounds dangerous.”

“It is. I guess that’s part of the fantasy.”

“Och, I canna understand women. I tell ye, Hayley, if ye hae a man come toward ye with a dirk in his teeth, ye run the other direction, or ye shoot him. Daena wonder if he is a movie man, Johnny the Dip, first, ye run.”

I laughed as we trudged through the mud to the horses.

We strapped the sack to the side of his horse and mounted. “Dost ye want tae see m’village where I grew up?”

“Hell yeah I want to see where little Frookie was born, you bet I do.”

We rode further into the valley. Because the sky had cleared, villagers had emerged from their homes and headed out to their fields to get the day’s work done while the sun still shone. They were slogging through puddles, turning the animals out to graze, and gathering in groups to stare up at the sky, wondering if there would be... could be... more storms.

Fraoch and I continued on until we came to a cluster of homes near the village center. It was there that he said, “Hayley, that was where I once lived.”

The house was a low building with a wide thatched roof. There was an old woman sitting on a bench in front of the door.

I said, “Go ask her who lives here, maybe it’s your grandfather. She might be your grandmother.”

Fraoch looked from me up to the house and back to me, and then begrudgingly climbed down from his horse. I wasn’t forcing him to do anything, yet he was irritated at having to do it. I understood his mood, it was how I talked myself into hard things all the time. Step one: Get irritated at the person giving you the pep talk.

He said, “Here’s the dirk, if you have to cut the sack free from the horse.”

“Oh, I almost forgot about that.” I sat in an uncomfortable position with a blade close to the rope, ready to cut if necessary, while he trudged up to the croft.

A moment later an old man came around the corner to speak to him, then men crossed from the fields, gathering around Fraoch in discussion. Another man arrived until there were eight men in all.

The men were all much like Fraoch, wide shouldered, barrel chested, with ruddy complexions and red hair. Because of their size it was a little like a linebacker convention.

Their conversation lasted for so long that I lost feeling in my left leg and grew pretty irritable myself.

He returned to the horse after a while. “Och I am sorry, m’bhean ghlan, I hae just met m’grandfather. I couldna think straight. I was surrounded by ancestors, men I hadna seen before, though they were verra familiar. The auld man looked much like my grandfather, though he was my great-great grandfather, m’grandfather was younger than m’self.”

He swung up on his horse.

“Are we going to stay longer? Spend some time...?”

“Nae, I daena need tae. They are strangers, Hayley. Twas fun tae see them, but that was enough, besides they want tae work while the sun shines.” He rode his horse along the trail between the crofts. “Look, there, Hayley, this is where I used tae chase m’brother, up and down through the fields. And there,” he pointed. “There is the edge of the loch, where a young Fraoch, years from now, will tie his skiff tae the shore. Then he will carry his string of fish in tae shew his father in that verra house.”

He shielded his eyes and looked back at the house. Then out over the loch, his back straight, his gaze sure. I let him be quiet and think on things for a moment.

The loch was gorgeous, deep blue surrounded by deep green grass on both sides, the deep moisture-laden colors of a land right after a drenching rain. Florida looked like this often, color wise, but the undulating hills and mountains were nothing like Florida.

Finally he broke his trance. “Och, m’bhean, twas good tae bring ye here, do ye see it, where I come from?”

I said, “Aye.”