Seeds of Time by K. C. Dyer Page A

feet after treating so many of the sick, I cannot say.”
    Darrell and Luke started back to his house. She could not get the sight of the small body left on the ground out of her mind. The baby’s skin had been so blue it looked almost black, and the throat had been swollen grotesquely.
    Luke was clearly thinking the same thing. “Alexander is the village cobbler,” he said. “That baby was born the same month as Rose.” He sighed. “Abbie helped Alexander’s wife deliver the baby, and then she came to help my mother.”
    Darrell was rocked by the enormity of this tragedy. When she had learned in Professor Tooth’s class that as many as one in every two people had died in the most affected parts of Europe, it had only been numbers. Seeing the faces and the agony of the loss of family and friends this close was almost too much to bear.
    Darrell cleared her throat and said roughly, “I’ve seen enough. I want to go back to speak with your mother, Luke.”
    As they made their way quickly back to Luke’s small dwelling, Darrell could see the turrets of a castle, cast inlight stone, on a distant knoll surrounded by the water of the loch.
    â€œWhat is that place?” she asked Luke in surprise.
    â€œThat is Ainslie Castle, the ancestral seat of the clan MacKenzie. The lands around the village all belong to the Laird.”
    â€œAre you his servants, then?”
    â€œNo, my family are fishermen, but many peasants work his fields and are beholden to him for their lives and livelihood.” He thought for a moment. “We were very lucky, before this tragedy. The Laird is a fair man and usually was good to the people who worked for him. Many neighbouring areas do not have as strong a protector. The castle is on a tidal island, and when the tide is in, it is protected by the waters of the loch.”
    â€œWhere is the Laird now?” asked Darrell.
    â€œI heard he travels to the far north, to the Nordic lands, where they say the Black Death has not yet found its way.”
    Darrell sighed impatiently. “Some benefactor,” she said, scornfully.
    â€œOh, but he has left behind the castle guard to maintain order in his absence,” replied Luke. “They are a fine group of soldiers who help to keep the peace.” He dropped his head modestly. “It is my goal to join them one day, but first I must be apprenticed to another of the guard.”

    â€œAnother guard? Weren’t you an apprentice already?”
    Luke nodded eagerly as he steered them in the direction of his home. “Yes, and I have learned much, about arms and warfare, animal husbandry, and how carefully to keep a soldier’s kit.” His expression became more serious. “The guard under whose tutelage I studied was taken by the illness several weeks ago. His death has left me without a patron.”
    Darrell nodded, her mind preoccupied with both the struggle to walk without slipping on the cobblestone lane and the magnitude of the tragedy looming around her.
    That night, Darrell sat down to eat with Luke, his mother, Maggie, and his baby sister, Rose. Luke introduced Darrell to his mother as Dara, a friend of Maggie’s sister from Arisaig, and she clung to Darrell and sobbed her grief into Darrell’s shoulder. Luke’s mother had circles under her pale grey eyes and her black hair was shot through with strands of pure white.
    Darrell helped Maggie to a seat by the fire and then gently explained the plan she had come up with that afternoon, during her tour of the village with Luke.
    â€œI would like to see your family safe,” Darrell explained. “We cannot halt the spread of this terribledisease, but perhaps we can preserve the lives of Luke and Rose.”
    Luke’s mother looked like she was going to cry again, so Darrell spoke hastily. “Is there anything left for you here?” she asked. Maggie shook her head mutely.
    â€œI have sold