Part 22 (1/2)

Turning on his heel, he walked to a small rise in the land and began his watch.

The moon rose to its heights and a small wind blew by in gentle gusts, pulling the soft, wet scent of loamy earth and growing things behind. He ran his hand through his hair, drew a deep breath, and began a slow reconnoitering around the perimeter of the clearing. In the center of his sweeping circle, Senna slept.

Nothing moved in the dark world. Years of practice made him move soundlessly through the sticks and leaves covering the ground. One circuit, two.

An owl hooted.

He froze.

In the treetops to the west, the rapid beat of wings shuddered briefly, then a bird shot out of the dark greenery, squawking.

Moving swiftly and soundlessly, he pushed his spine up against a tree trunk. Another small sound far to his left disturbed the night silence. His body was frozen but for his hand that swung to his sword hilt.

Again it came. Shuffling, heavy hooves. Far away but far too close. The murmur of a voice speaking in hushed tones, racing through the night air. Creaking leather, jangling spurs.

Soldiers.

Bending low, he slid his sword free and crept back through the trees, moving from shadow to shadow, making no more noise than a bat winging overhead. When he reached Senna, he crouched down, mouth by her ear.

”Up, la.s.s. We've company.”

Her eyes shot open. Her startled, bright eyes were inches from his.

”Unwelcome guests. I've need of yer talents with a blade,” he whispered, rising and pointing to a far tree, indicating where to position herself.

She scrambled to her feet, feeling in the sheath lashed around her waist, pulling out the knife. Her other hand briefly touched a second blade strapped to her leg, then she slunk across the shadowy glen to where he had pointed, bending low.

The sound of hooves crunching on sticks suddenly stopped. Every muscle in Finian's body rippled in readiness. He threw his head back, his mouth slightly parted, every sense alert to scent, sound, motion. At his side, his sword hung still. The dull silver plane of steel shone in the slatted moonlight.

A nicker broke the tense silence, then a m.u.f.fled snort. Two voices, speaking in thick, almost unintelligible English accents, p.r.i.c.kled the hair along the back of his neck.

Sweeping his sword up, he crept closer, moving from tree trunk to tree trunk like a slinking shadow. His blood welled thick and sluggish in his veins, an icy, solid feeling. Planting the heel of his hand on the gnarled bark of one tree, he edged his head around and squinted, trying to pierce the darkness.

The night was too thick, the woods too dense. He couldn't see anything. Behind, he heard the uneven whisper of Senna's breathing.

The soft clop of hooves began again, moving slowly away. An exchanged curse or word occasionally floated back to him. He let another moment pa.s.s. Then, to comfort Senna in her fear and ensure her continued silence, he turned to her, a finger at his lips.

Astonishment dropped his hand to his side. Was this not the woman he'd awoken two minutes ago from a dead slumber, telling her their lives were about to be shortened? Nay, it could not be. She did not look in the least afraid.

To the contrary, she radiated power and energy, and she was marvelous. Having nailed her lithe torso against the trunk of the tree, she peered around with one chestnut eye, her cheek pasted to the rough bark. Curving and tense, her body was finely tuned, her head thrown back. Ma.s.ses of tangled dark curls slipped over her shoulder and along her arms. The blade hung deceptively still by her thigh, dripping from her fingertips.

The taut lines of muscles in her arm were defined by the filtered moonlight. Broken fingers did not seem in any way a hindrance. Her eyes glittered as she met his startled gaze, and she flashed him a bold, intrepid smile.

”We are alive yet,” she whispered with an exultant look.

Partner. He had a partner. Sweet Jesu, when last had he such a thing?

Never. Never, and always sought it.

He forced his gaze back to the woods. The sound of the soldiers was farther away and continued to grow more distant. Motioning for Senna to stay where she was, he crept after them.

Half a mile of stealthy hunting a.s.sured him they were indeed headed away, and would trouble them no more. He turned back. Upon reached the clearing, he saw Senna had done as he bid, waiting motionless by the tree.

”They are gone,” he whispered.

Her body was trembling with repressed excitement. He could scarcely fathom it. This was a dangerous world, and she was a small woman in its merciless midst. The crown of her head barely topped his shoulder, although the fuzz of untended hair added a good half inch, and he could nearly wrap his fingers twice around her slender wrist. With a twist, he could snap it. She was defenseless, really.

With weapons or without, she was no match for a soldier, no match for him. And she could have been killed a moment ago.

But she was smiling, G.o.d save him, with an untamed, fearless grin that smashed through the base of an untended wall of his heart and entered in.

He kept expecting Senna to be a simple matter: a smart, sensuous woman with some surprising, engaging traits. But that all lay in the dust of the past. In the damp, impressionable here and now, she was coming together as a human being in such startling and unexpected ways he was quite helpless before it.

He couldn't think of a single thing to say. The moon was setting.

”Were they searching for us?” she whispered.

He shook his head. ”No way to know. I doubt it. That is a rarely used path between two towns.”

”Is it safe to stay here?”

”I don't want to chance it. Can ye walk some more?”

She nodded. No semblance of a braid anymore, she was a sea of wild red-brown curls he could dive into. ”All night, if we must. But, the moon has set,” she pointed out. ”It will be ever dark.”

”I can see us through. Yer hand?” he asked, gesturing.

She looked at it as if surprised, then grinned. ”I do not feel a thing.”

They were very quiet as they shouldered their packs and started off. They hiked until the sun rose, when russet light fell like rain through the emerald tree branches. Scented with pine needles and forest resin, the triangulated rays of gold and dusty red drifted between the branches, humming faint light.

They pa.s.sed through this furred illumination, their bodies alternately light and shadow, chilled to the bone and alive. It would be another glorious day.

They stopped twice-once to rest for a deep, hard sleep at midday, and one other time for a quick scrub in a stream.

But mostly they walked. And talked, although not of the nights before. Finian told her about his extended foster family and his love of music, and she might have mentioned something about a few be-knighted daydreams of her youth.

And he watched her. Endlessly.

Every time she bent her body, he followed the curve. When she laughed, he watched her mouth stretch up into that bewitching grin. When she looked up to ask him a question, he was already watching her with a slow regard that brought a blush to her cheeks.

At which point he would jerk his gaze away. The feeling was indescribable, akin to being stoked by fires that had been long banked. Something like coming home.

When evening finally turned honest eyes unreadable, she brought up their brush with the soldiers.

”Have you ever felt that way before, so alive when you are so close to dying?” Her voice was so low it barely disturbed the air. She could have been talking to herself.