Page 166 of Moon Craving

horse and my wife in my absence?"

"Someone tormented the stallion into a lather and then released him from the

stable on a rampage."

Talorc had barely taken Barr's words in when Earc said with relish, "Your wife was

directly in the horse's path."

A subsonic growl of fury rumbled in his throat, making the other Chrechte around

the table send back immediate growls of submission. Only the fact that she was sitting

there looking unharmed in any way kept him from roaring out his anger.

He turned abruptly to face his wife. "You are well?"

"Right as rain." She even smiled.

"Someone saved her. Who?" he asked Barr.

"She saved herself. She didn't hear the shouts of warning, but she noticed the

earth trembling beneath her feet," he said with clear admiration.

Hell, Talorc was more than a little impressed himself. "Where was her escort?"

From the look on Barr's face, that was the first time the question had occurred to

him. "I do not know, Talorc. Who did you assign to escort her today?"

Talorc's memory flew back to that morning and his leave-taking from the fortress.

He had not assigned anyone the specific duty of watching his wife. He rotated the duty

amongst his soldiers daily, so none missed too much training time. Despite the fact that

he had not assigned a soldier to the task, his wife knew better than to leave the tower

without an escort.

"You know you are supposed to be escorted when you leave our room," he

censured her.

A wisp of something like anger passed through her beautiful brown eyes before

she blinked and it was gone. "I was never alone."

"If you had an escort, you never would have been in danger."

"I avoided the danger on my own. I've been doing so for years."

"She's a liability to the clan. Anyone can see it," Osgard said angrily from his place

down the table.

Talorc looked at his wife to see her reaction to the old man's words, but she