The cursed towers 202
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too slowly than too fast. Listen in silence and learn."
Lightning at Lochsithe
The little prionnsa shrieked with excitement. "Donncan, come down here now!" Sukey cried. He grinned
at her and did a swift somersault, his golden wings fluttering madly. Then he patted the faces of the
dancing nisses painted on the ornate ceiling. "Please, Donncan, come down," his nursemaid begged.
"Your mam will be here soon and ye ken ye should be in bed."
Swift as a swallow, the little boy swooped down and caught at Sukey's cap. Trying to hold the linen cap
on with one hand, she caught at his arm with the other, but he evaded her nimbly and soared to the
mantelpiece where he perched, babbling excitedly. "Where mam? When she come? One minute? Six
minute? Where dai-deinl I dinna want to go to bed. Canna I go 'n listen?"
A small figure dressed all in white with a nightcap on his head appeared in the doorway, rubbing his eyes.
"What be going on?" Neil asked sleepily. Two years old, he looked more like his mother Elfrida than his
father, Iain, with fair hair, gray eyes and a rather frail little body.
"Neil, get ye back to bed!" Sukey cried. "Look, Donncan, ye've gone and woken Neil. Ye're a wicked,
wicked bairn!"
She climbed onto a stool and pulled Donncan down from the high mantelpiece. Although he tried to grab
her cap again, he did not fly away and she clambered down again, scolding him all the while. With the
heir to the throne tucked under one arm, she turned Neil around with the other and directed him back to
his own room.
Just then the door opened and Iseult walked in, her pale face strained.
"Och, I be so sorry, Your Highness, indeed I've been trying to get them into bed for the last ten minutes
but I couldna catch Donncan and then he woke wee Neil and I—"
"Never mind, Sukey, I know what Donncan can be like. Just put Neil back to bed and I'll look after my
son."
The nursemaid nodded and shepherded Neil back to his own room. Iseult sat down with Donncan on her
lap. He wound his chubby arms around her neck and pressed his cheek into her shoulder. "Ye're a
naughty lad," Iseult said. "Ye ken it is no' fair to fly around the room when Sukey canna catch ye. Ye ken
what time bedtime is."
"I was afraid I'd fall asleep afore ye came," he said with a yawn. "Ye promised ye'd come 'n tuck me up
and tell me a story."
"I'm sorry, sweetling, but indeed the meeting dragged on and on, and I had to be there to make sure all
those foolish lairds did no' decide to do something silly."
"Did they?"
"No' yet, sweetling, but give them time and I'm sure they will."
