The sounds of someone moving on the other side of the wall were muffled, but she closed her eyes and imagined it. Olaf tearing back the curtain. His angry face when he realized she was gone. He would be livid.
“Ethne?”
“Oh, God,” she whispered, her heart thumping against her ribs.
His cry of outrage sent her toward the dark recesses where she’d found the crack opening to the pit holding Lachlann.
“Where could she have gone? Were ye not guarding her as I’d ordered?”
Mumbled answers.
“Enough!”
She patted her open palm along the wall, high and low, desperately searching for an escape. It was too dark to see anything, but she heard water dripping and remembered how wet Lachlann’s pit had been. Drifting closer to the sound, the stench increased. The smell had been much stronger in the pit as well.
She knew in her heart there didn’t have to be a passage between the two spaces other than the gap she’d found, but she prayed there was. Locating the crevice again, she dropped to her knees to follow it along the floor. It did open a bit more at the base, and a slight breeze blew across her hand.
When she ducked closer, the rotten smell blew in her face. A break in the wall. She followed the contour of the opening, but the bottom was sand. An arch. Something traipsed over her hand and she yelped, yanking back her hand.
“Did ye hear that?” Olaf’s voice was quieter, but close. Just beyond the solid rock wall beside her.
She moved away as if somehow that could keep him from knowing where she was.
With her head to the ground, she could just make out the light shining into the pit from outside. The space was not big enough even for Finn.
“Another room?”
Olaf’s voice kept her hands shaking even while she dug at the sand like a dog.
“Ethne?”
When he called to her, she gasped. His voice was no longer muffled. He’d found the passage entry.
Paralyzed with fear, her back to the wall, she struggled to settle her brain. He was far too large to get through. She was safe.
Turning her attention back to the sand, she raked her hands at the dampened floor. She needed to widen the size of the arch and make it big enough for her to pass through.
“Ethne, I know ye are in there.”
She froze, but pressed on, continuing to dig through the dryer sand she’d uncovered.
“I can smell yer fear.”
Desperate now, she pushed her head through the opening. Her shoulders still could not make the squeeze.
“Ye dinna need to fear me.” He used the same seductive tone that sent waves of repulsion over her. “I will be gentle with ye. Ye have my word.”
Grabbing up handfuls of pebbles and sand, she shoved them behind her, her mind threatening to freeze in panic.
“Come to me now, and I’ll not punish ye.” His voice was losing its composure. It must be killing him to sound calm when he’d prefer to rail at her.
“Get Talorc. He can get through.”
Ethne squeaked. Her fingers scraped along something smooth. Smooth and cold. She wiped away the last of the sand. Her digging had uncovered a large rock, lodged in tight, running from one side of the tiny arch to the other. Her exit was blocked.
“No. No. NO!” she sobbed, frustration threatening to undo her.
“Ethne?” Olaf’s tone was more coaxing now. He’d heard her.
