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    Chapter Three
     
    I awoke in a panic
to pounding on my chamber door. Had I bolted it last night?
    “Kate! Kate, wake
up!” shouted the urgent voice amidst the banging on my door.
    My feet felt the
shock of the cold flagstones as I slid from my warm cocoon of quilts and
stumbled blindly towards the door in the pitch darkness. 
    “Kate! Hurry!” 
The banging grew more insistent. 
     I fumbled with
the latch that I had indeed locked and came face to face with a terror stricken
Leti as I cracked open the heavy wooden door.  Her face was ruddy from crying
and her usually striking green eyes were puffy and bloodshot.  Her nose was red
and she sniffled as she exclaimed, “Do ye ken anything about healing?” the
words coming out brokenly between the sobs that racked her small frame.
    “Wait,” I
mumbled.  I was having difficulty tracking her explanation after my abrupt
awakening.  “Who?  What?” I questioned as I made a lame attempt to smooth my
curls and wipe the remnants of sleep from my eyes.  “Who’s hurt? Leti?  What
happened?”  The sleep was beginning to recede from my brain and coherent
thoughts were within tentative reach.
    Leti was growing
impatient with me. She now spoke quickly and directly, her breathing heavy from
the run up to my chamber.  Her desperate demeanor demanded my attention to the
matter at hand.  “Our young men are back from a cattle raid and a few are badly
wounded.  Over half of the clan is gone for the harvest, including our healer. 
We need any help that can be mustered.”
    “Yes, I can help,”
I said without thinking, having been trained in some healing techniques as a
young girl.
    I was alarmed by
the urgency in her voice.  I could see that her body was wrought with tension. 
Her hands clenched the folds of her dress so hard that her knuckles were white
with the strain as she said, “Brennan’s hurt something fierce.  He’s my
betrothed.  I caught word that they were home early and I went to greet them
and saw him being carried behind his horse in a pallet and...” her voice
trailed off as a sob escaped and the emotion of seeing her betrothed in such a
condition tore from her throat.  Gasping for breath between her sobs, she
exclaimed, “And he was so pale it was as if the blood had left his body!   His
eyes are glassy and he doesn’t speak, doesn’t respond or recognize me or…Oh
God, Kate!  He can’t die!  Please help him!  Please help him... hurry!” she
sputtered in desperation between sobs, as she reached out and grabbed my arm,
half pulling me into the hallway.
    My mind was racing
as I pulled away from her and ran back into my chamber, having the presence of
mind to throw a dressing gown on over my night dress.   Leti was standing rigid
as a board in the threshold, color gone from her face, waiting impatiently for
me to follow her.  She turned on her heel as we left my chamber and walked
briskly down the hallway as I slammed the door behind me. I rushed down the
corridor following close behind Leti, knowing that there was not much that I
could do to help if the situation was as grave as she had described. 
    Apparently not
happy with the pace of my progress, Leti whispered “Hurry,” tersely as her
sweaty hand reached back and grabbed mine, speeding my walk into a jog as she
drug me through the candle lit corridor.  Her nails dug into my skin and I felt
the desperation in her hurried, methodic movements as she rushed me through the
maze of halls.  I followed her into the great hall.  My breathing ragged now. 
Nervous anticipation filled my senses as I dreaded the scene I was about to
enter into.
    The fire roared at
the end of the great hall and there was a hustle about the room as if it was midday rather