Some shuffling at the back of the cave. Rand prayed that it would not be a wild boar which trotted out.
Eventually, a dishevelled Rhiannon emerged.
‘He has been hurt in the side,’ she announced, sticking her nose in the air. ‘He is going to need help. I can’t move him any more. Rand, you must do it.’
Rand motioned to two of his men to go into the cave and bring Thorarinn out.
‘He was the one to kill the Northern warrior?’ he asked in a low tone. ‘To protect you?’
She nodded. ‘We were supposed to start a new life in the North, but that man arrived and began issuing orders.’
‘Orders—like what?’
‘He wanted us to separate.’ She raised her chin defiantly and Rand could see the resemblance to the King and his late wife. ‘I refused to be separated from my Thorarinn. We belong together. Thorarinn fought back.’ At the sound of a loud groan, she hurried over to the cave. ‘You be careful with him, you hear, or you’ll answer to me.’
‘He became rough, unlike his brother Turgeis.’
Rhiannon stiffened. ‘Who told you about Turgeis and me?’
Rand silently blessed Svanna and her instincts. ‘You had a flirtation with him, didn’t you?’
Rhiannon chewed her bottom lip. ‘He wasn’t Turgeis’s brother, was he?’
Rand narrowed his eyes. Rhiannon appeared to think she could play games with him. She knew who Turgeis was and he would get the truth out of her before they left this place.
‘He was, but why should you worry? You broke with Turgeis.’
‘Not exactly, cousin,’ Thorarinn said, emerging from the cave, supported by Rand’s men.
‘Did you know Turgeis expected to marry Rhiannon?’
‘Not marry!’ Rhiannon laughed. ‘Obviously not. I married Thorarinn, the only man I’ve ever cared about.’
Thorarinn gave her a ridiculous lovesick grin.
‘You told him secrets, like the fact that your father wanted to marry you to an old man. If you require help with Thorarinn, I require the truth.’
He waited. Rhiannon finally sighed.
‘And that the dowager Queen and her daughter from where he had to leave were there,’ Rhiannon added. ‘He and my father were particularly interested in that fact.’ She deliberately yawned. ‘Who cares about some old woman and her daughter, who I bet is ancient as well?’
Rand struggled to control his surprise. Máel Sechnaill had known that Svanna and Astrid were there, but neglected to inform him. ‘I’d have found it interesting.’
‘You too?’ Rhiannon put her face in her hands. ‘Trust me. I’d no wish to marry an old man.’
‘Ingebord, the Queen’s daughter, was indirectly responsible for Rand’s scar,’ Thorarinn said quietly. ‘I swear that I didn’t know she’d be there, Rand. I’d have warned you. That gold enabled us to get away, remember that. We escaped together.’
‘Her name is Svanna,’ Rand said, not commenting on the fact that if Thorarinn had kept quiet, Drengr and his sons would never have attacked him.
‘You and your Svannas.’ Thorarinn gave a feeble laugh. ‘You went on about one in your delirium after you were beaten. Some serving girl eager to open her legs, I suppose. Don’t worry, Rand, she will be long married.’
‘The Ingebord whom we encountered in Agthir bears the real name of Svanna. And no, she was never eager to open her legs as you ungraciously put it.’
Thorarinn’s mouth dropped open. ‘How do you know this?’
Rand put his face close to Thorarinn’s, struggling to contain his temper. An ice-cold fury descended on him. Thorarinn did not care about anything or anyone except his own skin.
‘Because Svanna is now my wife. And she was a virgin when I married her. Clear enough for you?’
