And he fell down and lay in all his blood like a… like… a… a big hairy drunk.

ISABELLA laughs.

That’s true. I did that. You have to kill the wolves or else they eat all the sheep.

ISABELLA. Why would they not? Don’t they need to eat? You carry your father’s blood. You’ll grow to be the worse than any wolf. Your father was a murderer, a tyrant. A grasping corpse robber with a winter stone where his heart should be. All Scotland’s glad he’s dead.

JAMES. Why do you never get up?

ISABELLA. Did you hear me?

JAMES. Yes. Why do you never get up?

ISABELLA. I have to watch them.

JAMES. The birds.

ISABELLA. My sons. The souls of my dead sons are in those white birds. I’ve seen them. Two died in blood. One died on the other side of the sea and couldny fly home till now. They live in the air. They live in the sky. They’re landless and lost. I can’t ever stop watching them.

JAMES. Why not?

ISABELLA. How else will they know how they were loved?

Your father destroyed them. But he wouldn’t kill me. He was a cruel man. He died in a drain. Did they tell you that?

JAMES says nothing.

Aye they did. May she soon lie over him as he rots. Your mother was colder than he was. Did they tell you how your father’s killers died? She planned it, the whole thing. Did she tell you?

JAMES. No.

ISABELLA. I heard she made it last three days. Watching them die a piece at a time. Did you see their blood on her?

JAMES. No.

ISABELLA. Yes you did. Where is she now?

JAMES. I don’t know.

ISABELLA. Yes you do.

JAMES. She married John Stewart.

ISABELLA (laughs). Tart.

Faithless and cruel.

Aye, that’s the blood that’s in you, like black snakes creeping their way down your veins, your father’s cursed blood, your mother’s cruel blood. You’ll be a monster, just like them.

A monster with a child’s face.

JAMES. I won’t.

ISABELLA. You will. The Dark Ones will come to you in the night and put their bloody knives in your hands and you’ll use them. You’ll do their work. You’re cursed.

JAMES shouts at her.

JAMES. I’m not! I’m not!

He runs. The nightmare is around him, ISABELLA’s shout pursues him.

ISABELLA. I see you! I see what you are! You can’t hide!

JAMES runs, looking for his box, as the nightmare swirls round him.

King’s Room

He finds the kist and climbs in.

MEG (off). Where’s King James?

MEG enters.

Where are you? Where’s my boy? Where’s my wee cub?

JAMES peeks out of the kist.

Where can he be? Where can he be?

I know, I’ll sit here… and close my eyes… and when I open them he’ll be here in front of me.

She sits down, closes her eyes. JAMES peeks out at her then hides again. MEG opens her eyes and looks round, sighs in some irritation.