Lady of Valor by Lara Adrian

Author:Lara Adrian [Adrian, Lara]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Lara Adrian, LLC
Published: 2012-05-13T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

The sights and sounds of festival set Emmalyn's heart racing as she tread down the path that led from the castle to the village below. The guards on post at the keep had offered her escort, but she refused them with assurances that the walk was not so very long and the fires would light the way for her. If she had worried that an armed attendant might draw attention to her arrival, she realized soon enough that she need not have bothered with that particular concern. There was far too much activity going on about the village and plains for anyone to take notice of a cloaked figure come to join the countless other folk in attendance at the feast day celebration.

Bonfires glowed from the center of the village, and on nearly every surrounding rise, the flames crackled and undulated as they leaped high into the blackness of the night sky. Music and singing filled the air, along with the laughter of dancers spinning circles around the many crowded blazes. A group of young boys broke from the perimeter of one of the fires, each of them brandishing a burning torch. They ran past Emmalyn as if she wasn't there, yelling at the tops of their lungs as they set off on a mission to drive away mischievous dragons that might be tempted to poison village wells during the revelry.

As the boys zigzagged hither and yon with their brands, Emmalyn was able to discern the dark silhouettes of couples heading into the woods together. Some did not even trifle to conceal themselves in the thicket; their passions consumed them so much, they embraced and kissed wherever they happened to be standing--in the fields and pathways, or pressed against village outbuildings.

Safely obscured in the shadows, Emmalyn walked along the fringes of the gathering, drawn toward the aromas of roasting venison and freshly baked bread. She got a portion of both from the men tending the cook fires, then sat down on a thick log that was being used as a makeshift bench. At her left, two little girls were playing with their food and giggling over the antics of the village boys and other fanciful nonsense. Emmalyn munched idly, so engrossed in her meal and eavesdropping that she almost didn't notice the tall, broad-shouldered man who took up the empty space at her other side.

“How many times has that old nurse dragged ye out to dance with her this eve, Sir Cabal?” someone asked from across the circle of folk partaking of the viands.

“Too many to count. I vow she means to make an old man of me before the night is out.”

His velvety voice rumbling directly beside her sent a shiver of awareness skating up Emmalyn's spine. She shrank deeper into her cloak, eating in silence while Cabal gnawed on a mutton shank and conversed easily with the people.

Watching their rapt faces as they all vied for his attention, it struck Emmalyn how easily they had come to adore and depend on Cabal in the short time he had been there.

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