“Gisela!” Panic gripped him. She’d have never left her sword behind. Not even to go to the outhouse.
Something wasn’t right.
“Candara!” he called.
She appeared instantly. “You don’t have to shout.”
He picked up Gisela’s sword and held it out to her. “What’s happened? Gisela isn’t here, and I know she didn’t just wander off without her weapon.”
Candara held her hands out around her. Her eyes turned stark white as she cocked her head to listen to the sounds of the universe and her guides.
Xaydin didn’t move as he waited for her to do whatever it was she did whenever she searched for answers.
Her hands made graceful circles around her. In front and to the side. It was a beautiful dance in a very macabre way. He’dnever understood why she made those gestures and whenever he asked her about them, she couldn’t remember doing it.
Something takes me over and shows me what I’m seeking.
That was why he remained silent, waiting for her to do whatever it was she did.
“She wasn’t alone.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper. “Here, horsey. Let me scratch your nose.” She turned around and scowled. “I don’t want to lose him. Why can’t we be together? I can’t live without him.”
Candara’s white eyes met his. He knew she wasn’t seeing him. Yet she was focused on his face with a stern expression. “He will leave. Everyone leaves. I don’t want to be there when he learns to hate me. Ow!” She staggered forward, holding the back of her head in both hands until she sank to her knees on the ground and held her hand up. “Stop!” Then she fell forward, across the hay-lined floor.
Uncertain, Xaydin stood back, even though he wanted to help his sister.
Finally, she fell out of her trance and pushed herself up from the floor.
“Diflyn. He means to use her to draw you out.”
Rage suffused his body so swiftly and bitterly that he threw his head back and roared.
“Where is he?” he demanded.
She shook her head. “We’ll need a potion for that. I didn’t see where they went.”
“If he lays one hand on her…”
“He intends to kill you both.”
Of course he did. “How did he capture her?” He couldn’t imagine Gisela leaving herself open to attack.
“She was petting her horse when he rose up behind her with no warning. The coward bashed her in the head and took her.”
And before he could say anything else, Masakage came rushing into the stable. “What’s happened?”
“Diflyn took Gisela,” Xaydin growled between clenched teeth.
His eyes flared at those words. “Then we will get her back.”
Xaydin clapped his brother on the back. “Yes, we will. And I will bathe in his blood.”
Gisela came awaketo an awful pain in her skull. It throbbed, sending so much agony that she could barely open her eyes. Worse, it made her sick to her stomach.
And as she came fully alert, she realized her hands and feet were tied.
Diflyn. She remembered him now. The quick glimpse of him right before she’d blacked out.
Bastard! She wanted his head for having humiliated her this way. How dare he sneak up when she wasn’t looking!
