Mathis, Jolie by The Sea King

Author:The Sea King [King, The Sea]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-11-20T23:44:02+00:00

Chapter 12

Though a sea of men surrounded her, she felt utterly alone.

Isabel guided her mare up the rocky path, just behind Vekell. Since the night before, Kol had eschewed her company. How thankful she was for that. Shame flushed her cheeks, a constant reminder of how firelight had combined with loneliness to make her see a man, and a connection, that did not exist. An illusion of the night. But in the daylight she saw her plight with the utmost clarity.

She was a Norsexian princess, held prisoner by a mercenary warlord, one who very likely had taken her innocence two years before. One who presently hunted her brother with an all-consuming desire to kill him. How had she, in her childish yearnings, allowed herself to forget those things for even a moment?

The group she rode amongst broke from the forest onto the mountain road, and joined the large contingent of Danish foot soldiers she had not seen since departing Calldarington the day before. The cadence of the warriors' footfalls echoed off the high jagged cliffs, steady as an untroubled heart.

Did she witness a march into battle? Why else, Isabel marveled, would such a force be assembled? Fear trickled down her spine. Had Ranulf been found?

One thing she knew—they approached Lothair's Ravine.

Her mare staggered against the force of the wind. Though again, she had begrudgingly worn the Dane's fur-trimmed cloak, it did little to smother the cold. In furtive gusts, it crept beneath her hem. Despite the way she'd twisted her hands in her sleeves, her hands had gone numb.

Lothair's Ravine marked the western boundary of Ranulf's kingdom. As children, she and her half siblings had visited the marvel with their father. They had sat upon its rocky edge, dropping pebbles and ash twigs into the fathomless depths. Aldrith had warned them away, claiming the chasm had no bottom. If they fell into the darkness, he'd intoned, they would find themselves in the burning lands of the ogres.

Neither she nor the others had been brave enough to test the truth, although now, she wondered if ogres might be better company than Danes. Especially the tall, dark Dane with whom she had humiliated herself by kissing the night before.

Remembering the shining face of her childhood brother, she wondered, where was he now? She scoured the weather-beaten crags, as if she might discern, by mere will, where he and his surviving officers hid, planning their countermeasures. The alternative was unthinkable. She thought it anyway. Was he dead?

Wind gusted into her face. Her eyes watered. Her hands gripped the reins.

No. That was not a possibility. Not only was her brother a strong ruler, he was a clever warrior and strategian. He would not fall so easily. Truly, he would be a fearsome match for the Dane. Which is why she still did not understand his disappearance from the battlefield. Ranulf was no coward.

His egress must have been part of a plan. One that, despite leaving her and Rowena behind, would work for the larger good of the kingdom.

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