“Either they work or you do,” Alistair said with a wide grin, and we all knew that the caterans would net a fine crop of slaves.
I watched the forced labourer's toil, surprised that they did not share my pleasure at serving my lord Alistair. With the caterans driving them with fist and foot, their reluctance did not matter and soon the river was deeper and the banks steeper, so that no force could assault us here.
“We are waiting for Thomas Dunbar, the Sheriff of Inverness,” I gave my assessment. “Alistair is tempting him to us, so we can defeat him in one battle and have Moray to ourselves.”
Lachlan stared at me, as if unable to comprehend even such a simple trap, but he was a gallowglass, whose sole strategy is taking and giving blows and whose virtue is solely courage. I was a Border
