“Evera,” Ruairc said.
I raised my gaze and found him staring out through the stable doors behind me. I followed his line of sight.
My breath caught.
Passing the open stable doors, making their way down the cobbled road, the two huntsmen rode in front of Nox, a body draped over the rumps of each of their horses. One, a boy, with dark and curly hair. The other form, larger, dusted the horse’s leg with the ashes in his hair.
“No,” I rasped beneath my breath.
Ruairc wrapped his arms at my shoulders and hushed me as the small group passed.
No.
When the road before us stood clear again, I spun in Ruairc’s grasp and struck at his chest, anger and fear coursing through my veins with the rapid beating of my heart. Keeping his hold firm around me, he allowed my pounding fists until they settled, replaced by tears. I crumpled against him.
“Nox took them. He betrayed Neirin. He—” My words came out nearly a wail, and new tears swelled with them.
Ruairc stroked my shoulder.
“I need them, Ruairc. They are my family. Do you think—” I choked back the word that stuck in my throat.
For a moment, only my tears broke the quiet. The rough leather of the apron Ruairc wore smelled of his workshop and brought back memories of playing in the back room together as children.
“They are alive,” Ruairc said finally. “If they were not, the huntsmen wouldn’t have wasted the time to bind their wrists and ankles.”
Overwhelmed, I shuddered. How had I not noticed? But Ruairc was right. There would be no reason to secure them in such a way if—
“What do you need?” Ruairc asked.
I pulled back to glance up at him. “What?” I asked, fighting against the waves of panic.
“Dammit, Evera. What is our plan?”
His sharpness grounded me. “Our plan?”
Dropping his embrace, Ruairc ran a hand through his beard, then took my hands in his. “Since we were young, Evera, you have had more fire than Aureus and I combined. I can fight, but I can’t take three men. So, what’s your plan?”
My breath hitched, and a faint tendril of hope took root. I latched on to it. Ruairc was right—now was not the time to lose my composure. Not when my family needed me. I’d lost myself for a moment in the possibility I’d lost Neirin and Calix, but if Iwas going to get them back, I’d need me—stubborn, determined me. The me Neirin loved, and the me I loved too, who followed her own path no matter how many people whisperedwitch.
“There is a tincture.” I withdrew the sleeping tonic I’d used on Calix from my satchel. “If we put this in their drink, the huntsmen will fall into a deep sleep. Nothing will wake them, aside from time.”
“They will stop before the mountains,” Ruairc said, nodding. “It would be too much of a risk to take the pass with such a valuable bounty on the back of their mounts, not when they would still be riding through dusk. They will camp and leave at dawn.”
“Then we must follow them.” I tucked the vials back into my sack and led Sorrel to a stack of crates I could use to mount her.
“You can ride? What of the wagon?”
“Yes,” I said. “Neirin taught me. And there is no time for the wagon. We will sort out a new plan once we get them back.”
Without response, Ruairc mounted his own steed. “Let us get your family back.” There was a glint of sadness, of loss in his eyes as he kicked his stallion’s sides and passed me, crossing the border of shadow into the sunlight of the open air.
45
NEIRIN
I awoke with a start,my heart pounding and the weight of a nightmare lingering. With my eyes shut tight, I tried to still my breath. My head throbbed, and when I removed a makeshift wrap of cloth to investigate, I found a welt just above my left ear, raised and tender. Surrounding it, my hair was matted, clumped with what was probably blood and charcoal.
Rope bound my chest, holding me upright against the trunk of a solid oak tree. My wrists, at least, remained unbound, though red markings indicated they had been, not long before, tightly tied.
