Disputed Land 02 - Forbidden - Elizabeth Lowell by Elizabeth Lowell

Author:Elizabeth Lowell
Language: bg
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-05-08T11:01:38+00:00

13

“YOU look downcast for a maid who just became her lover’s wife,” Cassandra said, pitching her voice to be heard above the feast’s noise.

Amber said nothing. Her golden eyes were fixed on Duncan, who stood on Erik’s right, receiving the congratulations of the assembled knights. Even among fighting men, Duncan stood out, taller than most, harder, yet with a laugh that no one could hear without laughing in return.

Many toasts had been drunk, many stories told, and much food eaten. Now jugglers and rhymers moved among the people, entertaining them with clever hands and ribald verses on the subject of wedding and bedding.

Erik’s wolfhounds foraged in a furry, toothed turmoil beneath tables that were all but swaybacked from the burden of food, silver and gold plates, and goblets set with precious stones. Prized hawks sat above the party on wall perches, watching every motion with unnerving interest.

Cassandra watched Amber with the same kind of interest. No sooner had the wise woman returned from a birthing than she discovered a keep seething with excitement. A man hanged. A maid to be wed. Norse raiders rumored at Winterlance.

And, perhaps, the memory of a great warrior stirring, waking, looking around at a world with the eyes of a bird of prey.

There had been no time for Cassandra to protest, to agree, or to do anything except witness a marriage that never should have taken place.

There certainly had been no opportunity to talk to Amber in private, to ask her why she was risking so much when the gain was so unlikely, to ask her why she had allowed her body to follow her reckless heart, given over to a man who had come to her in shades of darkness.

Would that he remained that way.

But Cassandra’s rune stones said that he would not. Duncan would awaken and then death rather than life would flow.

“Have you told Duncan yet?” she asked.

There was no need for Amber to ask what Cassandra meant. Amber knew. She had spent the hours before her marriage in solitude, asking questions of her amber pendant.

The answers that came back to her were always the same.

A choice of evils.

“No,” Amber said.

“Soon or late, someone will recognize him,” Cassandra said.

“Yes.”

“What will you do then?”

“Whatever I must.”

“It would have been better to let Erik hang him before the third aspect of the prophecy is fulfilled.”

The look Amber gave Cassandra held the same tawny fires of hell that Erik’s eyes sometimes did.

“I see.” Cassandra’s smile was real, and sad. “Heart and body are his. The soul is swiftly following.”

“Other than see my dark warrior hanged,” Amber said coldly, “what would you have me do?”

A toast was shouted by one of the knights. “Long life, wealth, and many sons!”

Goblets were lifted high. Amber smiled as was expected and saluted with her own goblet before she took a sip.

“Guard your soul,” Cassandra said.

“How?”

As Amber spoke, she watched Duncan’s hand. Strong, scarred, it made the heavy goblet he held appear almost delicate. After he set the goblet down, his fingertips roamed lightly over the gold design, testing its variations and textures.

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