River of Dreams by Lynn Kurland

Author:Lynn Kurland
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-01-07T06:00:00+00:00

Twelve

Rùnach stood just inside Tòrr Dòrainn’s border and suppressed the urge to pace. He had enough practice in that that it shouldn’t have been difficult, but there was something about his current straits that seemed to inspire it.

He held on to Iteach’s withers with one hand and Aisling’s hand with the other. Iteach was absolutely immobile, which Rùnach appreciated. Aisling was equally still, and her hands were freezing. He smiled briefly at her.

“Not to worry.”

“Me, worry?” she said uneasily. “Surely you jest.”

Rùnach patted Iteach, then turned and pulled Aisling into his arms. He realized he was beginning to do that with regularity, but who could blame him? She was, as his cousins had pointed out to him several times the night before, an angel in human form, surely worthy of the most ardent and sustained pursuit by the most jaded of elven princes. They had tripped over each other to also assure her of that.

Rùnach just thought she was lovely.

He rested his cheek against her hair and watched his cousin Còir, second son of the crown prince, stand as silent as a sapling with his hand outstretched and as light as a strand of sunlight against the glamour that even Rùnach could see. Unorthodox, perhaps, but a very easy way to tell when Sìle and his company had breached that security and begun their purposely frantic but utterly pointless journey east toward Beinn òrain.

It was a plan Rùnach hadn’t dared disagree with, especially given that his grandfather had been the one to suggest it. The idea was that Sìle and a small company would pretend to be Rùnach and an escort making for a logical place, namely the schools of wizardry. Whilst that company was heading east, Rùnach would slip over the border and fly under cover of night and spell toward Ceangail, which was perhaps the very last place Acair would expect him to go.

Còir stirred, then looked at Rùnach. He nodded.

Rùnach patted Aisling on the back. “We’re off,” he breathed against her ear. “Up you go, but don’t leave without me.”

She shook her head, then accepted his leg up. She settled herself on Iteach’s back in the very lovely saddle provided, then drew her cloak more closely around herself. Rùnach watched Còir walk over, look up at Aisling, then make her a low bow. Rùnach would have given in to the urge to reach out and slap his cousin smartly on the back of the head whilst he was almost folded in half, but there was something about the sight that brought him up short.

Aisling continued to believe she was a simple weaver of no importance in the world, yet the grandson of a king was making her an obeisance better fit for the queen of some important realm. Rùnach wished he’d had some means of painting the scene so Aisling might have enjoyed it at another time.

Còir turned to him and stepped forward. “Guard her well,” he said in a low voice.

“I will.”

Còir reached out and touched the back of Rùnach’s right hand.

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