“Perhaps we’re proof that the Lightbearer does not,” Malkanus offered, leaning against the wall by the window.
Arkoniel looked at him in surprise. The other man shrugged, fingering the fine silk embroidery on his sleeve. “I saw the vision and believed. I’ll fight, if need be. I say we stay together.”
“So we stay together,” said Lyan. “But we can’t stay here.”
“We could go deeper into the mountains,” Kaulin said. “I’ve been quite a ways up. There’s game enough, if any of you know how to earn your food.”
“But for how long?” asked Melissandra. “And what about the children? The higher we go, the sooner the winter will find us.”
“Lyan, can you send one of your message lights to Iya?”
“Not without knowing something of where she is. It must be directed.”
“All right, then. We make our own way. We’ll pack the wagon and your horses with all the supplies they can carry, and see where the road takes us. Be ready by dawn.”
It wasn’t much of a plan, but it was a start.
Nari and the servants took charge of provisioning. With the help of the men, Arkoniel moved his meager belongings back up to his abandoned bedchamber on the third floor. When they’d finished he sent them to help in the kitchen yard, and found himself alone upstairs for the first time in months. Gooseflesh prickled up his arms. It was already dark.
He packed hurriedly, throwing a few days’ clothing into a pack. He wouldn’t be gone long; as soon as he had the others settled somewhere, he’d come back and try to speak with the boys. He tried not to think of the locked door down the corridor, yet all the while he had the growing sense that Ariani was watching him.
“This is for your child. All for her,” he whispered. Grabbing up the lopsided pack, he was halfway to the stairs when he realized he’d forgotten the bag containing the bowl. It had been months since he’d thought about that, too.
Turning slowly, he searched the darkness beyond his lamp. Was that a white shape hovering by the tower door, or just a trick of the light? With an effort, he started back for the workroom. The air against his face grew colder with every step, but he couldn’t run away. Not without the bowl.
He dashed to the table and snagged the dusty leather bag from its hiding place underneath. Shoving it into the pack, he looked around fearfully, expecting any moment to see Ariani’s blood-streaked face in the shadows. But there was no sign of her, only the chill, and perhaps that was just the night breeze through the shutters. With shaking hands, he added a few more simples and a jar of firechips to his collection.
He was halfway down the corridor again when another realization halted him in his tracks.
In a few days’ time this house would be filled with young nobles, huntsmen, and servants. Every room would be needed.
“Bilairy’s balls!” Dropping the pack at the top of the stairs, he drew out his wand and hurried back to his rooms.
Obscuration was not difficult magic, but it took time and concentration. By the time he’d hidden the doors to his chambers, making them appear to be bricked up, he was shaking and drenched with sweat. That still left two guest chambers on the other side of the corridor in use.
Only then did he realize he’d forgotten about the windows, which were visible from the road. With a snarl of frustration he swept aside the carefully crafted spells and began again, this time creating the illusion that there had been a fire; from outside people would see blackened stonework around the windows and charred shutters. As he obscured the last doorway again his lamp guttered out and he heard an unmistakable sigh.
Ariani was standing by the tower door, bright as a candle in the darkness. Water and blood streamed from her black hair, soaking the front of her gown and pooling on the floor around her feet. Silent as smoke, she glided to the workroom door, one hand pressed to her mouth, the other held at a strange angle against her side, as if she were carrying something. She stared at the illusion for a long moment, looking lost and confused.
“I’m protecting your child,” he told her.
She held him with her eyes a moment, then faded away without a word.
Arkoniel hadn’t expected to sleep that night, but he fell into a restless doze the second he lay down across the unmade bed in Tobin’s room, and dreamed of riders hunting him through the forest, led by Ariani’s ghost.
The touch of a cold hand on his brow brought him awake with a strangled cry. It was no dream; a hand was touching him. Flailing wildly, he tumbled off the wrong side the bed and found himself wedged helplessly between the mattress and the wall.
A woman stood on the other side of the bed, silhouetted against the light spilling in at the open window. Ariani had followed him here. His flesh crawled at the thought of her touching him as he slept.
“Arkoniel?”
That wasn’t Ariani’s voice.
“Lhel?” He heard a soft chuckle, then felt the mattress shift as she sat down. “By the Four!” Scrambling across the bed, he hugged her, then rested his head in her lap. Deer tooth beads pressed into his cheek. Dark against darkness, Lhel stroked his hair.
“Did you miss me, little man?”
Embarrassed, he sat up and pulled her close, burying his fingers in her coarse black curls. There were dead leaves and twigs tangled there, and the taste of salt on her lips. “I haven’t seen you in weeks. Where have you been?”
“The Mother sent me over the mountains to a place my people once lived. It’s only a few days’ journey from here. Tomorrow I’ll guide your wizards there. You must go quickly, though, and make what houses you can before the snows come.”
Arkoniel pulled back a little, trying to make out her face. “Your goddess brought you back today, just when I most needed you?”
When she said nothing, he guessed she’d been back for some time. Before he could press the matter, however, she surprised him by shoving him back on the bed and kissing him hungrily. Fire shot through his belly as she climbed on top of him, lifting her skirt and fumbling at the front of his tunic. He felt rough wool against his belly, then warm skin. It was the first time she’d ever offered sex inside the keep and she was as desperate for it as he was. Holding his hands against her breasts, she rode him wildly, then lurched forward to smother their cries as they came. Lightning flashed behind Arkoniel’s closed eyelids as he thrashed and moaned under her, then the world exploded into red light.
When his mind cleared, she was lying beside him, cupping his balls in one hot, wet hand.
“Your pack is too small for the journey,” she murmured.
“It was full enough until you emptied it for me,” he chuckled, thinking it some joking slight against his manhood.
She rose on one elbow and traced his lips with one finger. “No, your traveling pack. You’ll be no good to Tobin dead. You must go with the others and stay away.”
“But you’re here now! You could take them to your oak and hide them there.”
“Too many, and too many strangers coming, perhaps with wizards who have enough sight to see through my magic.”
“But I want to see the boys again. Teach me how you hid yourself for so long!” He grasped her hand and kissed her rough palm. “Please, Lhel. I ask in the name of the Mother—”
Lhel snatched her hand away and slid off the bed. He couldn’t see her face as she pulled her clothes back into place, but he could feel her anger.
“What is it? What did I say?”
“You have no right!” she hissed. She crossed the room to retrieve her discarded shawl and the moonlight fell across her face, turning it into an ugly mask. The pallid light filled every crease and wrinkle with shadow and robbed her hair of color. The symbols of power blazed on her face and breasts, stark as ink on alabaster. The lover of a moment ago stood before him as he’d never seen her before—a vengeful hag.