A normal man would have let it go at that, but Artur didn’t seem to notice the threat he faced. Instead, he pushed forward with another foolish question.
“Perhaps you’d care to share her with some of us, now that you’ve had yer fill of her, aye?”
“And perhaps you’d care to impale your skinny arse on the pointy end of my sword.”
In a flash of polished metal, Hall drew his weapon, the ring of steel loud in the stone entryway. He pointed the blade toward Artur, its tip mere inches from the man’s throat.
“You’d do well, little man, to mind what business is yours. I’ve not yet had my fill of what she hasto offer. And as I told our good laird last night, I’m not a man to share what is mine. Best you remember that and keep your distance, aye? I won’t take it well if I find you sniffing around Mistress Christiana’s tower as long as the woman is there. Do I make myself clear?”
Artur nodded frantically, turning and running the instant Hall lowered his sword.
“I’d be watching my back if I were you,” Ulfr warned, his gaze following after the departing soldier. “He’s no likely to forget this incident.”
“Neither will I, good captain.” Hall’s smile had returned to his face. “Neither will I. Come along, little brother. We’ve much to do to prepare ourselves.”
What Chase wanted to do was to go check on Christiana. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be a way for him to do that without drawing attention to both the women staying in her tower.
“I’ve a suspicion about our good laird.” Hall clasped his hands behind his back, increasing the speed of his stride.
“Only one?” For his own part, Chase had many. “I’m pretty sure we aren’t working for the good guy, Hall.”
The big man answered with a snorting noise. “Of that I have no doubt. At the moment, my concern is more centered on the possibility that Torquil attempts to deceive us.”
Them and everyone else on the planet, would be Chase’s guess. “What exactly makes you think—”
“The man lied to us in there. No riders have left Tordenet. Not a single one. I know the faces and none are missing. If he can’t be honest regarding something that seems so small, chances are good that it’s not small. The time has come to be tying up our loose ends and making preparations to leave this place. And that’s exactly what we go to do now.”
Chase agreed wholeheartedly. Nothing around here felt right, except Christiana. She was one loose end he definitely intended to tie up.
“Where are we headed?”
“To have ourselves a chat with the Tinklers,” Hall answered, wearing the first real smile since Chase had returned to Tordenet. “To seek out the assistance of your people.”
OceanofPDF.com
Twenty-seven
IS THERE ANYTHINGelse you need?” Christiana watched doubtfully as her guest drew a stitch through her ripped chemise.
“No,” the other woman replied, head bent to the task at hand.
Christiana had found an old overdress, but it was much too short for Bridget, making it all the more important that they repair the rent in her chemise so that she would have something to cover her legs from her shins down.
“In that case, I’ll retire to my bedchamber. Don’t hesitate to call me if you need anything.”
Though she was exhausted, it wasn’t sleep on her mind as she picked up the clay pot holding the elixir Orabilis had prepared for her. There was much she needed to know, and a visit to Skuld’s world was the only place she could find her answers.
She began the slow trek up her winding stairs. Her ankle was healing but stairs, she’d quickly found, aggravated the injury.
After shutting the door to the room at the topof her tower, she dragged the heavy wooden bar over and fought it into place to ensure she wouldn’t be interrupted. Had she not been tired before she began, that effort alone would have seen to it.
But tired or not, she had to do this now. Torquil had twice sent word for her to hasten to his tower that he might be present while she traveled the Visions, and twice she had sent her excuses.
Her half brother was not a patient man. He would not take no for an answer the next time, and she desperately needed to know what she would confront before she was forced to share that information with him.
She removed the stopper from the clay jug and lifted it to her lips. Flavors of the infused herbs flowed over her tongue, coating her mouth in a burst of familiar sensation.
A sigh of relief heaved up from deep in her chest. At last, she was within reach of that which she needed most—foreknowledge.
