The man was excellent at maneuvering out of the way. He seemed to dance out of Kai’s reach constantly. The one time that Kai made contact was cutting the sword across the man’s stomach. He fell to the ground, and as Kai stood over him, he saw with horrid realization just how much this masked figure had come for battle. Kai had not drawn blood but cut through a heavy amount of padding. The tightly packed wool on the man’s chest was now torn open and fraying, but he was not injured.
Kai raised the blade again, but his moment’s hesitation gave the man what he needed. He grabbed a handful of snow and threw it at Kai’s eyes.
“Argh!” he called again. “Guards!” He could hear them running now. There were mad shouts and whistles as people closed in on his location.
Kai tried to wipe the ice away from his eyes that were now stinging badly. Tears filled them and blurred his vision as he staggered to the side, doing his best to stay standing with the screaming pain from the basilard in his shoulder. In the distance, he saw that masked figure running away. Rather like smoke, he vanished into the bleak white snow.
“Kai? Kai!” a guard called from nearby.
“After him. Cannae ye see him? After him.” Kai thrust a hand in the direction in which the man had left, but as he staggered to the side, losing his balance, clearly no one was going to listen to him for two guards jumped forward to catch him.
“We need tae get him tae a physician. Now,” one muttered to another.
Kai tried to argue. Now was not the time to worry about his health when second, that man could attack another. He had to be stopped. Yet Kai was too weak to put up a fight. He could have sworn he saw stars in his vision as he was forced to stand by the guards. His sword was taken from his grasp and his arms looped over their shoulders.
“Come, back tae the castle,” one ordered.
For some of the distance, Kai managed to walk, but he knew for other parts, he was too weak from the pain and his feet were dragged through the snow. As they reached the castle courtyard, there was a commotion outside the keep.
“What has happened?” It was Ava’s voice. That sound made Kai lift his head, desperate to see her. “Kai?”
Kai noted briefly that there were people all around her. Thora, Lyla, and Laird Grant too. Yet she didn’t stop to talk to any of them. Instead, she launched herself forward, running toward him. She met him in the middle of the courtyard, issuing orders to the guards at once.
“This way. The castle physician will be in his rooms. Come.” Then she laid a hand on Kai’s cheek. “How badly daes it hurt?” His grimace was enough of an answer. She nodded, rather numbly in his opinion, then he felt her hand brush his. It was gone all too quickly for his liking.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Laird Grant talking to Thora and Lyla. Yet his eyes were not on Kai or his injury. His eyes were on Ava as she led the way to the physician’s rooms, a frown marring his face.
Did he see the way she touched me hand?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
“We are honestly going ahead with the celebrations?” Ava stood in the doorway of the great hall, dumbstruck. Beside her, Thora seemed in an equally bad mood. Neither of them spared a glance for the pine and holly decorations, nor the mistletoe hanging from the ceilings. They were both much busier staring at the happy faces. “It’s as if a man hasnae been wounded in this castle at all.”
“I ken,” Thora grunted unhappily. “Yet yer faither and Laird Grant were insistent If ye ask me, Laird Grant has some grand plan of what will happen taenight. Something he wishes tae ask ye.”
Ava barely took notice of what Thora said. She turned away from the great hall and crossed the entrance toward the horses which had been prepared outside of the keep door. The physician stood there nervously, uncertain and just as unhappy at the state of affairs as she was.
“Must ye go?” Ava whispered. She didn’t look at the fussing physician who was now making the sign of the cross, in some mad hope that God would keep the rider safe when healing tonics could not. “Kai?”
Kai looked down from the horse. He was stiff in his seat, barely man at all as he did a very good impression of a hunch statue. The night before, the physician had pulled the basilard out of his shoulder then stitched up the wound. Kai had slept all night and half the day before rising and insisting that he go home to recover. The healer had thought it a wise idea to be in a homely environment but had naturally worried about the long journey ahead and what toll this would take on the body.
“Are ye sure about this?” Ava murmured, moving to stand closer to the horse as Thora stepped out of the keep behind her. Dressed in full furs to keep warm in the snow, Thora moved toward her own horse. They had been given three guards to accompany them in their journey that afternoon.
“Aye, I am.” Though Kai barely looked Ava as he spoke, his voice just as wooden as before. “I need tae recover, Ava. I’ll sleep easier in me own bed. Whoever attacked me…” He shifted his head to the side, looking out at the grounds. “I cannae help thinking it was targeted. I dinnae want tae give them another chance tae come after me.”
Ava nodded, though nothing about it felt right. Kai was leaving on his horse and there was a sudden coldness between them. They hadn’t embraced or even touched hands in parting. Was this really supposed to be their goodbye?
“Kai?” she whispered again, laying a hand on the bridle in the hope to get his attention. “Are ye strong enough tae make this journey?”
“I am,” he spoke with disinterested conviction. “Ye should go inside, Ava. Yer faither will want ye there fer the celebrations, and… and Laird Grant will be looking fer ye.”
Her chest ached. Bringing up Laird Grant’s name at that time made her feel quite sick. Didn’t Kai realize that she only wanted to talk abouthimand not Laird Grant?
“I spent most of the day outside of that physician’s room waiting fer news of ye,” she hissed. “I have paced, I havenae slept, and now I have come tae say goodbye and ye will leave without a proper farewell? Kai, cannae ye see what this is…” She trailed off. How unfair would it be of her to say how this broke her heart, whenshewas the one so intent on marrying Laird Grant? She was the person who had asked Kai to kiss her yet had always made clear that she intended to marry another.
Kai’s hands shifted from the reins to where her fingers were on the bridle. He caught her palm and lifted it up. Not looking her in the eye, he turned her hand over as he bent toward her and kissed the inside of her wrist. It was a soft butterfly kiss, his lips barely traceable against her skin at all, though it made her heart dance fast in her chest, wishing he would do it again.
“Goodbye tae ye, Ava. I hope…” He sighed, lowering her hand between them. “I hope ye get everything ye are looking for.”Then he kissed her hand again and let it drop. “Let us leave,” he called to the guards.
