Keeper of the Dream by Penelope Williamson

Author:Penelope Williamson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307567802
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 1992-07-28T22:00:00+00:00

An icy spray that tasted of salt slashed against Arianna’s face, reviving her. Kilydd had her mounted on the saddle in front of him, his arm wrapped like a smithy’s vise around her waist. They were by the river. She couldn’t see it, for the night was too black, but the sound of the rushing water battered her ears like the flapping wings of a million birds.

She thought Kilydd was making for the bridge that crossed from the Tegeingl into Rhos, but the storm was disorienting. The wind seemed to be coming from every direction at once, driving the rain at them in sheets that slammed against their faces, swirling up spume from the river, so that it felt as if they were being sucked into some giant tidal pool. Water burned Arianna’s eyes and clogged her throat. She wondered if it were possible to drown in rain.

Lightning snaked across the sky, making it suddenly as bright as a midsummer’s day. Arianna gasped, for the gentle Clwyd was now a raging torrent. The waters had burst over the banks, completely swallowing the piers and had almost reached the walls of the houses that fronted the quay.

The squat lump of the toll house wavered before them through a curtain of water. Arianna thought at first that the bridge had been washed away, for the pilings were completely underwater. But then the timbered span emerged for a moment, before being covered again by the rushing river.

Kilydd kicked his heel into the palfrey’s side. The horse reared, then stumbled, and Kilydd cursed. His arm squeezed Arianna’s middle, cutting off her breath.

She clawed at his smothering arm, fighting for air. The palfrey balked against crossing the bridge, then suddenly darted forward. They were nearly thrown from the saddle.

Lights pricked at Arianna’s eyes as she struggled to breathe. It felt as if her chest had been crushed by a boulder. She twisted, pulling against the arm that pinned her. But Kilydd thought she was trying to get away, and tightened his grip.

The horse’s hooves slipped on the wet planking of the bridge. Several inches of water swirled around his fetlocks. Suddenly the bridge heaved beneath them, as if the thing were alive and was trying to buck them off its back. The horse stumbled to his knees.

The abrupt movement broke the grasp Kilydd had around her waist, and Arianna sucked in a life-saving breath of air. Over the screech of the wind and the rushing of the blood in her ears, she heard the wail of splintering timbers. Suddenly, she was flying through the air. The world became a maelstrom of sucking, swirling water and splintering wood. Something brushed against her. She tangled her fingers in it, and thought it might be the horse’s tail.

She opened her mouth to scream, and swallowed blackness instead.

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