She did not think so. Up on Mican’s pony with him, held as close to him as could be with his arm across her chest like an iron bar, she could barely breathe. The hurried gait of the pony made every jog an agony. If she did manage to hurt Mican somehow and drop from the back of the horse, the entire group of his men would be atop her.
What might Mican do with her? Aye, that question occupied a great portion of her mind. He would take her back to his stronghold. There, he would doubtless wreak some sort of vengeance upon her. Punish her for the death of his son.
The very thought made her go hot and cold in turn. She could endure much, especially for Adair’s sake. But an existence there among strangers who hated her? One of unending misery?
He would not keep her alive that long, she assured herself. Mican would kill her after he hurt her—for it was not she he wanted to punish so much as Adair. He would kill her in some terrible manner and deposit her remains where Adair would find them. Or perhaps use her for bait to capture him.
Och, why had she failed to see that possibility? She might have spared Adair nothing.
For he would come after her. He would, the man she loved—he with the heart so valiant, even he did not see his own worth. If Mican used her as a means to lure Adair in…
She should have warned him. Should have forbidden his coming after her. There had been no time when the mad idea of giving herself up came to her.
He would not have listened. Nor would she, were their positions reversed.
Suddenly she heard his voice in her mind.I will find ye. I will find ye again in spirit, if no’ in this lifetime, then in the next.
But was that Adair’s voice? It must be, for it echoed through her with sacred promise. It filled her heart.
It tried to chase the doubt. Adair, her husband, had made a promise. Yet perhaps they weren’t meant to be together in this life.
Do no’ think that, she chided herself.Do not ever doubt him, or our love.
Mican eased their hectic pace a bit. The ponies could not sustain such flight for long, and anyway, they were entering the forest, where such incaution could prove dangerous.
Bradana strained to look back—hoping, hoping for what she could not see. Back past Mican’s men. Through the trees that closed behind them.
Did she catch a glimpse of gray? Or did her eyes, fooled by the flicker of light through the trees, play tricks on her?
“Keep still,” Mican growled, and squeezed her cruelly. “Unless ye want a beating. Ye may believe I will gi’ ye one—and gladly.”
She did believe it. He would beat her senseless. She’d be easier to transport limp over the back of a pony.
Tears filled her eyes. Och, she should have done as Adair wished and sailed away with him to Erin. Left this land she loved while still they had the chance.
*
“Ye ken,” Dabhorsaid when they paused to let their ponies pick their way across a narrow stream, “if we do catch them, we ha’ no’ enough men to fight her free. ’Tis a stout force Mican has wi’ him still.”
Adair glanced at the man. He appeared as worried as Adair had ever seen him.
“I will fight her free,” he vowed. “No matter what it takes. Keep your eyes peeled for the hound.”
“The hound is far ahead o’ us.”
“And may well come back for me. They will ha’ to stop eventually. If Wen knows where she is, he will lead me.”
And what condition might Bradana be in by then? Adair did not want to express that thought. He did not even want a hint of it in his mind. But if Mican took out his ire on the woman who’d spurned his son…
“Hurry,” he told Dabhor. “And silent, now.”
They continued on through the seemingly trackless forest, and Alba whispered in his ear. She did, with a stirring of air at his cheek. A flicker of light up ahead. The scurry of a fox. The ponies grew weary, the men wearier still. Dusk came late in Alba at this time of year, but at length a kind of preternatural dusk began to gather beneath the trees.
Would Mican try to press on for his settlement, through the dark? Adair believed it was too far, but who could tell?
He must catch them before they reached the settlement. Once inside Mican’s stronghold, Bradana was as good as lost to him.
The gloom beneath the trees deepened to night. They stopped perforce.
