“As a matter of fact”—she looked up at him, a smile curving her beautiful lips—“I do at that.”
She hurried ahead of him, all but disappearing in patches of night where the moon’s light didn’t reach.
“Here!”
Her whisper drew him deeper into the dark. She reached for his hand, her fingers lacing with his, and she led him forward. He knew they’d passed through an entry of some sort; the dark was thicker here, but devoid of the biting winter wind.
“Mind you make no noise,” she cautioned in a whisper as she stepped closer to him. “And dinna let go my hand, lest I lose you in the maze.”
As if he had any desire to let go. Nothing suited him better than an excuse to hold her hand.
The floor rose and fell as they hurried through the confines of pitch black. Holding out his free hand, he was assured that the passage they traveled was barely larger than the width of his shoulders, as if it had been built for miniature people. Or at the very least, people who didn’t have his problem with tight, dark, confined spaces.
He lost count of the right and left turns they took,leaving him no doubt that Christiana had been absolutely correct in calling this place a maze.
He tightened his grip around her hand. No way was he taking a chance on getting lost in the bowels of this damn castle.
“I need my hand for this part,” she whispered at last, pulling her fingers from his.
A strange grinding noise sounded a few feet away, and a small sliver of light appeared.
He headed toward it, realizing as it grew larger that it wasn’t so much that it was light as that it was simply not the same level of soul-sucking dark.
His forehead smacked to a sudden stop, the collision hard enough to set off little flashes of light behind his eyes.
“Mind yer head,” she cautioned from somewhere in front of him.
“Too late,” he answered, stooping as low as possible before starting forward again.
Two more steps and, just like magic, he was free, stepping into a room where moonlight spilled in through cracks in the shuttered windows set high on the wall.
Chase thought his eyes must be playing tricks on him when it appeared the fireplace moved; then he realized that must have been where they entered. Christiana crouched near the floor, and a little flash of light sparked from the flint in her hand. Within moments, she’d coaxed the tinder into dancing flames.
“Come close to the fire,” she invited as she knelt by the flames. “Sit by me and let me see what you’ve done to yerself.”
Dropping down to her side, he leaned forward, allowing her fingers to delicately trace his forehead. Her touch alone was worth the pain of the injury.
“There’s no sign of blood, though I do feel quite the bump here,” she murmured. “I warned you, did I no? I told you to mind yer head.”
He reached up to capture her hand between his own two. “Next time, you might want to offer your warning just a minute or two earlier.”
The reflection of flames from the fireplace lent her eyes a look of sorrow. “An ongoing fault, it would seem, that I dinna think a thing through before I act upon it. My apologies, Chase, for bringing you to a place you dinna belong.”
“It’s no big deal. Trust me, I’ve had much worse.” He brushed her fingertips to his lips before breaking the contact. “So where are we right now? This place where I don’t belong.”
He smiled at her, hoping to lift the look of distress from her face, but she appeared even more unhappy.
“This place,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Of course. These were my mother’s rooms during her lifetime. Afterward, they were mine. This wing is of little use now, other than to house the rare visitor.”
“In that case, I guess it’ll be getting a workout soon. Torquil plans to bring together a council offamilies from all around here. He says he’s already sent riders to most of them, though Hall and I have reason to doubt that. I’m due to leave for the Sinclairs’ any time now to invite them to Tordenet.”
Her eyes widened. “Artur and Ulfr will accompany you, yes? And many others. Far too many men for the simple purpose of delivering an invitation.”
“How do you know that?” Artur and Ulfr were to go along with them, though Torquil had said nothing of others.
“I spent the daylight hours traveling the pathways of Skuld’s world. I saw you, a riderless horse at your side, along with Artur and Ulfr and a company of my brother’s men, riding hard to the north, into the Mysts of Choice.” She put a hand on his forearm, her fingers warm through the linen of his sleeve, and leaned closer. “This is the first of what I need to warn you about. What I saw was a series of pathways branching off from the road you traveled. I was unable to remain in Skuld’s world long enough to see which pathway you should choose, but I do ken that some will lead to good and some will lead to ill. You must promise me that you’ll no set out on this journey until I am able to see what it is you must do.”
“A riderless horse?” he questioned. Her visions were as full of riddles as carrying on a conversation with a Faerie. “Hall’s supposed to ride out with me. Is a riderless horse supposed to mean that he’sin danger? That something is going to happen to him?”
