“So?”Shaw gave the rope around Roark a tugand tied off the ends.“We don’t have the princess now, do we?”
“No,” Roark said, “you don’t.However, youdid take her escort, me, from her, and you are chasing her.Somehow, I don’t see her father, a fierce Northman king, as caringwhether you caught her or not.”
“Shut up,” Shaw snarled.“Lessen you wanna begagged.”
Roark leaned his head back against the treetrunk and closed his eyes.The men had a tense discussion overcontinuing their search for her while the beans cooked.Good.He’dspooked them with his talk of Alina’s father.He’d learned theywere itinerant field workers who’d seen him and Alina riding intothe Mounths’ southern foothills, and after hearing about them at aninn, they took off after them.They’d spent a miserable two dayswaiting out the storm while he and Alina had been in their cozycave.
The cave.Roark let his mind wander back tohis memories of those two wonderful, passion-filled days andnights.Memories that would likely have to serve him for the restof his life, no matter how long or short it turned out to be.Hisonly regret was he wouldn’t be spending whatever time he had leftwith Alina.
An owl hooted in the woods, and Roark sat atattention.It called out again with three short hoots and Roarkdipped his head and lifted it, slowly, purposely, and bit down on agrin.
He’d meant for Alina to be on her way toSilver Water Keep, to safety, yet he wasn’t surprised she’d stayed.She meant to free him, and though there was only so much he coulddo to help her in his current position, he could stay alert and atthe ready.
***
Alina hunkered down behind a graniteoutcropping and focused on the camp.The three brigands hadn’t evenlooked up from the fire when she’d let out her owl hoots, but Roarkhad.He’d not only heard her, but had known it was her.Courage anddetermination filled her anew.She could do this.
She ate the handful of cold beans she’dpacked and waited until the men had eaten their supper, which shewas glad to see they shared with Roark, and settled in for thenight.Two of the men lay on their bedrolls while the third satwith his back propped up against his saddle, guarding the camp andRoark.
Their horses were tied off to a line, minusArtur, who Alina had crept out and checked on after Roark had cuthim free, deciding, as Roark apparently had, that the stallion wasbetter off loose and resting his injured hoof than being forced tokeep up with her, Etain, and Beasty.
Alina waited until the guard woke the nextman for his shift.By the moon and the stars, they were taking athird of the night each shift, and neither of them had checked thehorses once.She let out another three short hoots and slunk backinto the cover of the woods and her cold camp and horses.Wrappingthe blanket and otter cloak around herself, she propped her back upagainst a tree and dozed on and off until the sky started to changefrom black to a misting grey.
Starting out on Etain and leading Beasty, shekept to the woods and followed Roark and the brigands downhill andnorth toward the foothills.From what Roark had told her, once theymade the northern foothills, they would only be one day away fromvillages and farms, and another day from the shores of the NorthSea Firth.Which meant she had tonight to get Roark free.
The lower they got into the foothills, thethicker the woods grew, which made keeping hidden easier, andfollowing a bit trickier.Alina was no trained tracker, but she’dlearned enough from her father and Uncle Bors to not fret aboutlosing them.
Besides, tracking four men on horseback whodidn’t seem worried about being followed wasn’t difficult.Shehadn’t even needed to use the spyglass to keep track of them, buthad snuck looks at Roark with it throughout the day.
He rode with his wrists bound and tied to hismount’s saddle with another rope around his neck that the samerider kept hold of, and was wont to yank on periodically.Yet hestill rode with his head high and a straight spine, unlike hiscaptors, who rode slouched and slumped with their threadbare cloakspulled tight around their shoulders in the spring chill.
After their noon break, she gave Etain a restin preparation for the night, and switched to riding Beasty.Shewas pleased at how well the gelding responded to her.As highstrung as he’d acted when he’d first showed up, he turned out to bea gentle soul, as long as you were gentle with him.
“Play your part well tonight, Beasty,” shetold him, “and you’ll be Roark’s new mount.”She patted the roan’sneck and his ears twitched back.“You’ll like Roark, he’s got goodhands and an amazing seat.”
They were well into the foothills when themen finally stopped and made camp for the night.Alina ate the lastof the beans and tied Etain to a tree, saddled and ready to ride.She left Beasty saddled, took a swig of wine from the skin he’dshowed up with, poured the entire vial of White Milk into the skin,shook it to mix it with the wine, and tied it back onto Beasty’ssaddle.She checked her blades, slung the bow and quiver of arrowsover her shoulder, and led Beasty toward the men’s camp.Shestopped at the wood’s edge, hid behind a tree, and set the spyglassto her eye.Then she let out three short hoots.
As before, the brigands didn’t seem to takeany notice of her hoots as they went about the business of spittinga rabbit over their fire and arranging their gear.Roark, tied to atree again, lifted his head, cocked it, nodded once, and uncrossedand crossed his legs.
Alina watched and waited until they’d cookedand eaten the rabbit and were beginning to settle for the night,and then she led Beasty toward the line of horses, one slow, silentstep at a time, until they were no more than twenty paces from thehorses.Alina let go of Beasty’s reins and half ran, half crawledto hide behind a hedge of bushes as the gelding walked up to theother horses.
“Hey,” one of the men called out.“Isn’t thatRob’s horse?”He stood and approached Beasty, who started to backaway.“Yeah, it’s his gelding all right,” the man said, grabbingBeasty’s dangling reins.“Always was a twitchy thing.”He jerkedBeasty’s reins and led him over to the line and tied him off withthe other horses.Then he looked Beasty’s gear over, took the waterand the wineskins off the saddle and uncorked them.“Hey.”Helifted the wineskin.“It’s still half full.”
“Bring it over here,” another of the mensaid.“We owe it to Rob to finish it for him.”
While she couldn’t hear what they were sayingas they sat swilling the wine, she could tell when they werestarting to feel its drugged effects by how their voices andlaughter grew louder like braying asses.Then their voices turnedsingsong and sporadic, and finally they were silent.She waited awhile longer before she crept out from behind the hedge and stoppedand stood among the horses.
The brigands made no indications of noticingher as they all lay in various positions of repose around the fire.One on his back, staring up at the night sky, his jaw slack,another on his side, his gaze fixed on the fire, and the thirdlying on his back, mesmerized by his own hands as he waved themaround.Still, she crept around the edges of the camp, one slow,sure step at a time, waist blade in hand until she was standing infront of Roark, who’d been watching her every move.
He grinned, slow and easy, his rain eyesshining in the low glow of the camp’s fire.Alina grinned back anduntied the rope around him, her grin growing as Roark took a deepbreath in and blew it out, and then he held his bound wrists up toher.Alina untied his wrists and he grabbed her and pulled her tohim and kissed her.Hard.
“I should be angry with you for not ridingout like I told you to,” he whispered hoarsely.“But thank you, mylady owl.Thank you for freeing me.”
“I wasn't going to let you be taken by thelikes of them.”She nodded at the drugged men.“Not when I couldprevent it.”She wound up the two ropes as Roark stood on stifflegs and cocked an eyebrow at her.“You’d have done the same forme, my stubborn stag.”
He chuckled.“Aye, lass.I would have.”Helooked over at his captors, lost in their dreams.“You drugged themwith the White Milk?”
Alina grinned.“I did.When Beasty showed upat my camp last night, I remembered the story of my grandmother andgrandfather, how they’d been drugged by tainted wine.”
