The Isle of Skye by Skye Jeppson (best value ebook reader .txt) 📕

The Mcleod clan is at war with the MacAlaster clan, and Si'leas, the cheif leader's daughter has been captured and is being held hostage in the MacAlaster clan's dungeon. The Scottish people are feirce warriors and in the Isle of the Skye, people are scared for their lives, so many leave the huge land mark and flee the country. While Si'leas is locked up in her cold and sunless cell, a lowlife sheep herder's daughter Ma'iri, loses her dad to war and her Mum is taken to be a war widow to help with the injuries and food rations. Ma'iri is now utterly alone with only her horse Bla'ir as company, what will happen now that she's all alone and in the middle of a war? And what will become of the leader's daughter Si'leas?

I woke to darkness, nothing at all like the rolling green Scottish countryside. Beneath me I could feel cold wet stone. Shivers ran up my aching spine. I groped around, trying to get my bearings when the memories from the day before came rushing at me. I remembered me and my mother and father, the clan leaders, were coming back from making a treaty with our distant friends the MacAdie's, we had promised them our protection in the means of war, and they in return would haul in the food nessicites that our country was low on, for our feilds had not grown that year, and we were in a slight famine. I had come with my parents, and we had not realized then that the long hated clan, MacAlaster, had in fact, started a war with us. We didn't know that they would start it by coming in by night with their huge warriors, and while our men were fending off their attack, I would be gagged and thrown carelessly onto one of their huge war horses. We scottish people take delight in huge horses for every day life, my horse back home, U'na, is one of the most massive mares one would ever see. But while I was being hammered in the gut from the horse's massive stride, and trying unsuccesfully to scream through the gag, I soon felt comforting darkness.

And now here I was, probably in some dungeon, awaiting some terrible death or torture, while my clan and country was at war. The rope that bound my wrists together was digging into my fair skin, and my dark red hair was falling in clumps around my face. But that pain was nothing compared to the pain I felt deep in my heart, where I longed for my family and the comforting, Scottland breezes, that blew all around me while riding U'na through the forested countryside. That night, or what I asumed was night I fell asleep crying, with longing for the life I no longer had access to.

I was atop one of Scottland's massive boulders that dotted the countryside when I heard yelling from my cottage that was about a kilometer away. I hurried and scrambled down the boulder's ruff surface and whistled for my ever faithful horse, Blai'r, a tall and striking red gelding, he wasn't a very big horse compared to the huge clydesdales and shires and other massive horses that the Scottish people fantsied. He was sleek and nimble, and could outrun those big ofes any day. The other villagers, when they got a chance to see him would usually laugh and say, "What you got there? A little pony to haul your sack of feathers around?" Me and Blai'r didn't mind their taunts, but sometimes I'd like to have a little race with their big blocky pets, they call horses. But as I was admiring Blai'r's sleek grace, I was snapped back to reality when I heard another scream from my cottage. I hopped up on Blai'r's narrow back and rode fast to my cottage to find the horror that awaited me.

As I came into our little clearing with our cottage, I saw the Clan leader's men dragging my frizzled mother onto one of their horses. I let out a sort of choked scream, "No!" , I yelled feircly on my second attempt to make a decent scream. "Mom!" I screamed again, I ran over to them and started yanking my mother's arm frantically. "Let go!" The taller of the men said. "Where are you taking her!" I yelled at them. "She's being taken to be a helper with the war, we don't have men to spare, so she'll be coming with us to help drag the injured into the medic tents." Said the shorter gaurd, in an annoyingly calm voice. My mother spoke up as they started hauling her back onto the horse. " Ma'iri my darling, take care of the sheep and sell their wool for food, you understand?" She paused for my answer. I nodded and looked up at her through blurry eyes. " I love you, be safe!" She called as they started riding down the dirt path. I watched them go and stood there crying long after they dissapeared into the green hills.

I woke to the sound of footsteps drawing nearer. I quickly scrambled to pull myself into a sitting position. I heard a key turning a lock, and then a figure stepped in. I squinted through the torchlight to try to get a better view of the person's face. But it was lost in the darkness of his cowl. Then a rough and cold voice cut through the silence. "Si'leas, I'm suprised how long your parents and their armies have lasted, you have some feirce warriors on your side," he paused to pull back his cowl, " I'm Si'oltach, the leader of this clan and you are my hostage." I snorted, "Obviously", Like it was hard to notice that I was a hostage when I was tied here, in this dark, cold cell, facing our enemy clan leader. " Well, well, well, not the friendliest of Princesses are you?" I just glared daggers at him. " I'll take that as a yes," he continued, "Well your probably wondering what I'm going to do to you, right?" I continued to glare, at this shabby, dark, and disgusting man. He gave me a wry smile, " You don't talk much do you? Well we're going to have to change, that."

He leaned in close, and I shrank back from his foul breath. "I'm going to send a message to your pathetic kingdom, telling them, that you are being held hostage in my residence, and then I'll write that the only way to get you back is to send in gold and silver, until I say it is enough to let you go; if they do not agree you will be tortured for my pleasure until you tell me where your stockhold is." I closed my eyes tight and faught for oxegen in the close space between me and him. I thought about our newly made treaty with the MacAdie's and thought how much we needed the war help part now. I knew that if we stopped paying for armor to send to them, because they were having a war of their own, they would break the treaty, and our people would starve. We wouldn't be able to pay for anything for our kingdom if our stock hold was revealed and found just because of a selfish princess that only thought about her self. I knew I would never tell, even if it killed me. I straightened my shoulders, and lifted my eyes to his face, "No, I will never tell, and my people will never agree to the message contract." He narrowed his eyes at this and said, "Then your people are unfaithful, and you will come with me, to the torture chamber."

I woke to the familiar smell of my horse Blai'r. I had fallen asleep in the hay barn with him, after crying my guts out all night. Yeserday's events still stung my aching heart, but at least I wasn't crying anymore. I got up and went over to grab the horse brush off its hook by the door. As I started brushing Blai'r I tryed to form a plan of what to do next. Of course I wasn't going to just stay at the house. I would look for my mother, though I had no idea where to find her.

I had packed a satchel full of traveling supplies and had brushed Blai'r until he gleamed. I had also asked a boy that lived down the road to watch over our livestock, and in return he could sell wool and eat mutton from them. I hated leaving the cottage, but I could'nt just stay here without knowing if my mother was okay or not. I regreted every time I thought about that evening that I hadn't