“Aye. Pack it and we will go on.”
He could hear no sounds of pursuit from behind them. Could hear nothing but the songs of birds, Wen’s huffing, and a kind of curious murmuring from the trees overhead. It seemed as if the three of them had fallen out of the world, to this other place. An endless stretch of rock and forest.
Albabreathed.
That thought came from nowhere. He found he could not dismiss it. He must be lightheaded from loss of blood.
“There, now.” Bradana made a neat bandage and tied it off. Her hands lingered upon him as if she could not bear to draw them away, and she leaned closer.
The kiss came so sweet that it curled his toes and stirred the desire inside—let him know, all over again, how much he loved her.
Slowly and reluctantly did she pull her lips from his to say, “Adair, I was so afraid. If I lost ye—”
“You have not. Am I not here?”
Her gaze flicked to the bandage, betraying her worry. “Aye.”
“Bradana”—he held her with his uninjured hand—“I must go back after a time. Face what I have done.”
“After a time.” Disconcertingly, her eyes filled with tears. “No’ yet. I canna lose ye.”
“What makes ye think ye will?”
“Unjust punishments have been imposed before this. Kendrick, aye, is a fair man. But what if he decides to place all blame on ye in order to salvage his ties wi’ Mican?”
Wen, who had been lying beside them, suddenly got to his feet and looked back the way they had come.
Pursuit?
Hastily, Bradana tied up her bundle. “Come—we must ride on.”
*
“D’ye know wherewe are?” Adair asked as night began to fall, gathering like a gray blanket beneath the trees. Night came late at this time of year. That and Adair’s bone-deep weariness told him they had traveled far.
She shook her head. She had deliberately lost them, steering a course through the thickest part of the forest and over stony ground.
He must have faith she could find her way home again. For he never would.
The trees here towered around them, and the ground rose steadily. They had climbed the mountain—no hill this, like the ones back home—and now skirted the summit. He could sense, if not see for the dark, that a drop opened on their right. Wen, who followed him, kept away from it, making a barely visible gray shape against the upward slope.
Traveling near blind in such country was surely madness. When Bradana drew her pony up in the midst of the trees, he felt nothing but relief.
“The animals need rest.” She slid down from her mount. “So do we.”
So did he, she meant. And aye, as he too dismounted, he had to admit that his strength flagged. He’d lost much blood, and to his dismay, his head swam a little when his feet met the ground.
Instantly, Bradana was at his side. “Come. I will mak’ ye a bed.”
They had little in the way of supplies. Bradana unpacked it all and spread the blanket out for Adair before urging him down.
“How bad is the pain?”
“No’ bad.” He did not mention that both his arm and hand still felt numb.
“Ye need water to replace all that blood ye shed. I ha’ a flask and can hear water nearby. Let me bring ye some.”
He caught her with his left hand. “Be careful, love, in the dark.”
