"We know not."

"What is it?" Jessie asked groggily from the bed.

Torrin turned his head, hardly able to see her in the gray dawn light, but kept the door almost closed. "Naught to worry over. Go back to sleep and I'll take care of it."

"Nay. Tell me." She slid to the edge of the bed and grabbed a smock.

"We'll be out in a minute," Torrin told Conall.

The older man gave a brief nod and stepped away.

"Who's out there?"

"Your Uncle Conall."

"Blast," she muttered. "I didn't want him to find us together. What did he say?"

"They can't find Aiden."

"What? Nay!" She hastily jerked on her plaid arisaid and belted it. "Where do they think he is?"

"He didn't say." Torrin belted his own plaid about his waist and straightened it as best he could in the dim dawn light.

She hurried to the door, opened it and stepped into the corridor. Torrin followed.

"Uncle Conall, is Aiden gone?"

"Aye. His bodyguard reported it about a half hour ago. We searched the castle top to bottom."

"Do you think he slipped out to talk to Haldane?"

The corners of Conall's mouth slanted downward within his gray and red beard. "'Tis what some of us fear."

She released an exasperated breath. "The lad is daft! Haldane will use him as a hostage, just as he did me. Or kill him."

"Let's not be so cynical yet," Torrin said. "We'll go out and search for him. Haldane won't kill him right away. Like you said, he'll try to use him for leverage first."

"He thinks that because he and Haldane are brothers, and that they were close until last winter, that Haldane won't hurt him. He is so naïve."

"Aye, that he is," Conall said. "Without doubt, he thinks he can talk some sense into Haldane."

"He doesn't realize how much Haldane has changed. He's turned into a man who is a vicious killer."

Conall nodded, looking disgusted. "Your da is most likely turning in his tomb at the moment."

"I'll help organize a search party." Torrin headed down the corridor.

***

Haldane sat by the fire-pit outside a cave halfway up the side of a mountain, his stomach growling and his mouth watering as he watched the two rabbits roasting on a spit. Thank the saints Gil was gifted with a bow and arrow.

This cave was one of McMurdo's old hideouts and near impossible to get to over rocky, steep terrain. No wonder he'd evaded capture for years. The MacKays would never find them up here.

Haldane arose and paced across the rocky ground. The morning sun was glinting over Ben Hope in the distance and Loch Eriboll lay below, reflecting the blue and gold sky. This was a miserable place. He ground his teeth at having to hide out in these wild mountains. He should already be the MacKay chief. He should be living comfortably in Dunnakeil, sleeping in a featherbed each night, filling his belly with fine foods every day, and sitting by a warm fireplace in winter. 'Twas how he'd grown up and what his mother and father had wanted for him.

"Look who we found!" one of his men called out behind him.

Haldane turned and came face to face with his wee brother. Victory surged through him. Aiden would be an even better hostage than Jessie had been. He couldn't fight worth a damn and everyone in the clan loved him.

"We searched him for weapons and found none," MacDonald said.

Haldane grinned. "What are you doing here, Aiden?"

"I came to talk some sense into you, brother. What the devil do you think you're doing?" His green eyes glinted with ire, making Haldane want to laugh. Even though Aiden was two years older than Haldane, he was still skinny and small, like a lad. And unfortunately, he was as trusting as a child. Haldane felt sorry for him, and experienced a moment of remorse for what he would have to do.

"What I'm supposed to do," Haldane said. "What Mother and Father would've wanted me to do."

"Nay, you're mad. You're the youngest. You were never destined to be chief."

Annoyance twisted through Haldane. "Wee brother, you don't have the stones to be chief. Dirk is an imposter. And Jessie is a woman. I'm the only one left."

Aiden shook his head, his thin sandy hair blowing in the mountain breeze. "Are you still lying to yourself about Dirk? He is Da's oldest son. I remember him very clearly from before he disappeared."

"Nay." Haldane knew good and well Dirk was who he claimed to be, but he loved keeping up the pretense as his ma had always done. Besides, Dirk didn't deserve acknowledgement as a MacKay. "Dirk has to die. He murdered our mother, Aiden! Don't you remember?"

"He didn't murder her. He killed her in self-defense."

"Ha. That mountain of a man felt the need to kill our scrawny old mother in self-defense?"

"She poisoned Isobel and me and almost killed us both!"

"Not intentionally, not in your case anyway."

"Ma tried to have Dirk murdered several times. Don't you remember, she hired McMurdo to shove him off a cliff thirteen years ago?"

Haldane smirked and glanced aside at McMurdo. The man with the long gray hair and scarred, wrinkled face narrowed his black eyes, his menacing gaze moving back and forth between him and Aiden. 'Twas a sore point with him that he hadn't succeeded in a job he'd been paid a thousand pounds to accomplish.

"And 'tis a job he is determined to finish, aye, McMurdo?" Haldane asked.

He gave a brief nod and continued sharpening his sword.

"Nay," Aiden said, his eyes widening. "You're getting McMurdo to kill Dirk?"

"Of course. He's the best man for the job."

Studying Haldane, Aiden shook his head. "You've become just like Ma."

"If you mean canny and brilliant, aye." Haldane smiled. "I'm glad you came to visit me. Now, I can convince Erskine and the guards to open the gates."

"Wrong. They won't do it."

"Then you'll die, too, along with Dirk and anyone else who gets in my way."

"What happened to you, brother? You didn't used to be like this."

"I came to my senses. That's what." Fury rampaged through Haldane's veins. "If you'd had the gall to stand up and be chief as Ma wanted, I wouldn't have been forced to do this. I supported you. I would've helped you. But, nay. You wished to give it all up to Dirk."

"Dirk is the best chief this clan could possibly have. I'm not suited to it and neither are you."

"I'll be as great a chief as Da was."

"You are mad."

"Indeed!" Haldane grinned. "Madness suits me, does it not, McMurdo?"

He nodded.

Fear lit in Aiden's eyes when he watched McMurdo. Haldane was glad. He knew Aiden didn't fear him. But he should. He didn't want to kill Aiden, but if he was all that stood between Haldane and the chiefdom, he would do it.

In the meantime, he would use him to get inside the gates of Dunnakeil. No way in hell would Erskine, Jessie, and the rest of them allow Aiden to be killed.

"You should give it up, Haldane. You'll never succeed at this."

"There's where you're wrong, wee brother."

"You'll get yourself killed. If you want to live, you should go south and stay there."

Haldane gave a bitter laugh. "I've been south. Dunnakeil is my home and I mean to claim it, no matter the cost."

"'Tis not worth your life."