Dìlseachd - A Stolen Crown [Excerpt only] | NOW A PUBLISHED NOVEL

Chapter 3: A Growing Danger

FIONA awoke to the skirling of pipes. She sat up in surprise, her heart stirring with long-forgotten emotion; she must still be dreaming. It had been years since she had awakened to that sound. How she had missed it!

Throwing back the covers of her warm bed, she gasped as her bare feet met the icy stone floor. She stepped gingerly to the window, trying to discern who was playing. It must be very early in the morning, for the eastern sky paled towards dawn and fog lay in a thick curtain upon the ground, hiding all below. Still, she could not espy who was playing the lilting music.

Someone rapped on the door, startling her. A man's voice, muffled by the wood and strangely accented, called out, "Fiona! Get dressed quickly and meet me in the Great Hall." His words were followed by footsteps shuffling away, echoed by the thump of a wooden staff hitting the stone floor. It could be no other than Rhiada. No other man would dare come near her rooms, let alone one with a staff and a voice like his.

There was no use trying to understand what it was all about, for thinking would take far too long, and Rhiada seemed to think his plan was a matter of urgency.
Pushing away her sleep-befuddled confusion, Fiona dressed hurriedly. She tied off the loose plait she pulled her hair into, pausing to glance at her distorted reflection in the piece of polished bronze hanging on the wall. She looked presentable enough, she mused. Not that Rhiada would notice, anyway.

Closing the door behind her, she walked swiftly through the empty corridors, lit torches leading the way. The air was chill and damp, as always in draughty Caerloch, and she clenched her hands tight to keep from shivering.

The large, oaken doors of the Great Hall greeted her, and she glanced down the hallway before pushing against the heavy frame. The hinges, stiff with cold, squealed like a pig about to be slaughtered. Fiona froze where she stood, straining her ears to hear any sound that might indicate someone coming to inspect the cause of the sudden noise.

But she only heard Rhiada's voice saying gently, "There's nothing to fear. No one is awake yet except the servants. Come, there are several things that we need to talk about."

Fiona closed the door with more care than she had used to open it, before walking across the darkened hall.

Rhiada sat on one of the lower steps of the dais, no longer cloaked but dressed in the usual woollen tunic and breeks worn by those who were not Scots. Nonetheless, his boots were still caked in dried mud as if he never cleaned them. She wondered, with a smile, whether Lady Nuith would approve of such dirt upon her dais.

The early morning light shone cold and grey through the tall, narrow windows, a strange, uncertain gleam resting upon the ornaments of war and of the hunt hung upon the walls. The polished blades of swords, spears, as well as the metal inlaid on shields glittered in the pale dawn, sending a shiver down Fiona's spine.

No fire burned in the vast hearth, no heat to drive out the damp nor provide a warm, comforting light. The two long tables and benches running along either side of the wall cast elongated shadows on the floor, seeming more monstrous than they truly were. Fiona felt small and insignificant in this room, whose arched ceiling extended far above her head. Her footsteps, quiet though they were, echoed eerily in the waiting silence.

She had rarely been to this hall. Her father had never sent for her, and after her brother died, she had no reason to come of her own will. Lady Nuith likewise rarely called her here, and she had always taken her meals in her own room. To come now, at such an hour, for a reason yet unknown, and after she and Rhiada had whispered of rebellion last night.... This place seemed far more foreboding than she remembered.

When she reached the dais at last, Rhiada motioned her to sit next to him and she complied, staring at the strange bag he had slung over his shoulder. Was that the covered harp she had guessed it to be last night? Was she to receive her first lesson now, before breakfast?