“Erastaed is the name of my world. Cair Orlandis is the Royal House or the bloodline from which I descend.” He folded his handsand rested his elbows on his knees. “My world is through the portal at Taroc Na Mor. It is a powerful gateway permitting passage to many wondrous worlds and dimensions. Gearlach and his kind are the conductors of the portals. Without the unbelievable power of the mystical Draecna, the gateways would cease to function.”
Royal bloodlines, portals that needed mystical beasts to power them? Hannah closed her eyes and massaged her temples. Taggart had said he was the eldest son. She opened her eyes. “If you’re the eldest of a royal house, then why aren’t you back at the castle leading your people or something? Or isn’t that how it works in your world?”
A groaning sigh accompanied his troubled scowl. He rose from the log and stoked the fire until the flames licked even higher toward the winking stars piercing the darkness. With his face lifted to the pinpoints of light, he turned a slow circle as though searching for a particular constellation. “The hour grows late, Hannah. Pull your pallet closer to the fire and try to get some rest. There will be time for more answers tomorrow. I promise. The longer we are at Taroc Na Mor, the more you will understand.”
She studied him. Did he actually presume to send her to bed? “I am not tired,” she said. “I want information. It's important I know more about you before I go any farther.”
He kept his gaze locked on the fire. “I am weary, lass. Please leave it ’til tomorrow, aye?”
Something in his voice wrenched at her heart. Utter bleakness and sorrow. He sounded so—defeated, and she didn’t like it. It didn’t fit his protective nature.
With a roll of her shoulders, she rose from the stump and fetched her pallet. Another glance at his drawn face stayed the questions on the tip of her tongue. No. She would bide her time. Find out more when he was ready. After all, there wasn’t any need to cause him pain. She scooped up the blankets and hugged them to her chest. “Well, maybe I am more tired than I thought. Good night, Taggart. We’ll talk in the morning.”
“Sleep well, Hannah, and thank ye.”
11
“Why did you leave her after I specifically asked ye to watch over her?” Taggart risked a glance at Hannah as Gearlach fidgeted in place in front of him. Praise the gods, the woman still slept. At least while she snored beneath her mound of blankets, she wasn’t nettling him with questions he wasn’t prepared to answer.
Gearlach hung his head and worried a splintered claw around one of his crooked horns. The mottled skin on his great, greenish snout wrinkled as he stubbed the foreclaw of his right foot deep into the soft earth. “I heard something prowling about in the wood, and I thought I should go have a look-see.” He scraped an odd-shaped symbol in the dried silt he’d knocked loose from the limestone shelf extending around the base of the cliff. With his stubby forearms held akimbo, he kept his balance as his scaly body swayed back and forth while he scratched jagged glyphs deep in the darkened soil.
“Stop it! Ye know that symbol calls up storms, and I am sick and tired of getting soaked.” Taggart rubbed out the markings with the toe of his boot, then shoved the sulking Draecna away from the loose dirt.
“If ye would mate with the sharp-tongued woman, ye wouldnahave to keep dousing yer cock in icy water.” Gearlach shoved back, knocking Taggart across the clearing into a thicket of newly sprouted rowans.
Rage surged through him as he disentangled himself from the weave of silvery branches. Teeth clenched, he stumbled out of the brush and knocked broken branches off his sleeves. He would strangle that insolent, oversized lizard. With another glance at the motionless mound of blankets by the fire, he bit back the response he longed to roar. Hannah still hadn’t moved. Thank the fires of all Erastaed, the longer the she slept, the better. It was the only peace he could hope to enjoy.
“Shall I step away for a while so ye can get yer relief with her?”
“It—is—forbidden,” Taggart hissed through clenched teeth. “And ye ken there are several reasons why.”
Gearlach rolled his great golden eyes as he stretched out a tip of his hooked wing and scratched behind his pointed ear. “Do ye truly think she will mind ye are a Draecna hybrid? She favors yer human shape well enough. After all, she didna mind me. She nay even screamed.”
“Ecnelis!” Taggart jerked a nod at the impudent Draecna. “Ye will remain silent until I decide ye have found the wisdom to understand what information should be shared and what should not.”
“What is all the yelling about?” Hannah’s muffled growl emerged from the depths of the blankets.
“Merlin’s beard.” Taggart shoved him again. “Look what ye’ve done. Awakened the raging beastie herself.” He shot Gearlach a withering glare as the Draecna fixed him with a sharp-toothed grin and returned to cleaning the dirt from his claws with the pointed tip of his tail.
“I heard that,” she mumbled as she threw back the covers and rolled to her knees. She wrestled her way out of the wad of blankets and stumbled toward the dwindling fire while rubbing her lower back. “Why did you let me sleep so long? We should’ve been up and gone hours ago.”
“Ye needed your rest.” He wasn’t about to tell her the real reason.He cringed, waiting for the arsenal of questions he sensed she was about to unleash.
Shaking out the blankets, Hannah winced, then rolled her shoulders and folded the blankets against her chest. “I guess I was pretty tired. Jet lag must’ve nabbed me after all. But we really need to get moving. Instead of bothering with a campfire breakfast, can we just eat some of that dried trail mix while we ride? Where’s the bottled water? If you don’t mind, I’m not all that keen on drinking water from that spring.”
Taggart sidled a glance at Gearlach, who merely tapped a claw across his pale green lips and returned a wink before ambling off into the woods. “Ye dinna even want some of that noxious coffee ye favor so much? There’s a pot in the pack. I can have some of that wicked brew ready in no time at all. Or a bit of proper tea, perhaps?”
Hannah rolled the blankets into a tighter bundle and belted them behind her saddle. “As tempting as your generous offer sounds, I’m eager to see Taroc Na Mor. I’ll just wait until we get there for my first cup of the day. I’d rather we got going, if you don’t mind.”
The minx plotted something. He would bet Gearlach’s oversized arse in gold. Did she think him a fool? Taggart scratched the stubble peppering his jaw while admiring the temptation of her fine, round backside as she bent to shove the gear into another bag. She hadn’t mentioned a word about last night. Not one prying question or comment about anything they had discussed. He had been certain she would launch a verbal assault as soon as those fiery green eyes of hers snapped open. Had to be a trap. “Aye, perhaps that would be best. The sooner we get ye settled at Taroc Na Mor, the sooner ye shall see what a fine place ye may now call yer own.” He kicked dirt on what was left of the night’s fire and smothered out the orange, glowing coals.
As they rode down the trail, he rolled his shoulders as though itching in a spot he couldn’t scratch. Her stare burned through the center of his back, because her mind hummed with questions she longed to ask. Damn her eyes. The woman electrified the very air with everything she wished to know. She fair ticked like an activatedbomb set to detonate at any moment. He slowed his horse and turned in the saddle to face her. “For Merlin's sake, just ask me what ye wish to know.”
She arched a sleek brow and stared back at him, one hand resting on the saddle horn. “Are we a little tense this morning?” She popped another handful of trail mix in her mouth while rocking to the slow steady rhythm of her horse’s gait.
An irritated growl rumbled free of him. He swung back around in the saddle and urged his mount to a faster trot. The woman bordered on the edge of impossible. He knew she wanted to ask him questions. Why didn’t she just do it?
“I learned a long time ago no man is going to tell me anything until he’s good and ready. I figure when you’re ready to talk, you’ll tell me everything I want to know.”
