“I will bring the torch down to you,” Tam said.
“No, that is not advisable. The boards are soft beneath my feet and if you drop down onto them, I fear we may go straight through.”
“The Dragon will see that Duff and I suffer more than a fall if we leave you down there alone, and he will be here soon.”
“Nessa,” she shouted and the next thing she knew the torch was falling down the hole, and Heather was quick to snatch it up.
“Are you a fool, woman?” Duff shouted.
“Lady Heather gave an order and I obeyed.”
“You better have had good reason to do so,” Rhys said sharply as he entered the room with the force of a swirling storm. When he saw Tam and Duff bent over the hole in the floor, his stomach clenched and he shouted, “Heather!”
“I am down here, Rhys,” she called out.
Rhys rushed to the hole, the sight of him in all black, his brow narrowed, and his eyes blazing, caused the two warriors to hurry out of his way.
Rhys peered over the edge and relief ran through him when he saw her standing there, with the torch held over her head. Her face was smudged with dirt as were her garments, but she looked to be unharmed.
“Stand back. I am coming down to fetch you out of there.”
“Lady Heather says the boards are too soft beneath her feet or we would have had her fetched out already,” Tam explained.
“It is good you explained that. Now I will not have to punish you for leaving my wife down in a dark hole.”
“Tam and Duff have been very helpful and quick to want to get me out of here. Please do not be angry with them.”
Rhys looked down at his wife again and ignoring her plea, said, “Move to the side.”
“So, you can fall through the boards? I think not.”
“What did you say to me?”
Duff and Tam stepped further away from the Dragon and Nessa stepped closer to the door.
“I am not moving,” Heather shouted the glare from the torch making it difficult to see his face clearly, but that did not matter. She was familiar with the look of the fire-breathing Dragon.
“Move! Now!” Rhys’s voice rumbled with anger.
“I will not see you hurt,” she shouted back.
Rhys was about to let her know that was not for her to decide when he heard a noise. “What was that?” he called down to her.
Before his wife could answer him, he heard it again and knew. It was the sound of the boards cracking. “Move, Heather!” he yelled.
The boards gave way before she could flee and suddenly his wife was gone and all he saw was the torch flickering as it spiraled downward in the dark and her scream raced up at him.
“RHYS!”
The Dragon did not hesitate. He dropped down in the hole after his wife.
CHAPTER 24
Rhys twisted so that his body would take the impact of the fall rather than his legs and he was surprised when he landed on something softer than he expected. Though there was a jolt to his body, it did not stop him from hurrying to his feet and looking around for his wife.
He spotted the torch a short distance away and was grateful it still held its flame. He hurried over and snatched it off the floor, seeing that he stood on thick wood planking. He swung the torch up above his head to cast a wider light so that he could find his wife and when he spotted her prone body face down, fear gripped at his heart and he let out a slew of curses as he hurried over to her.
His arm brushed across something in the stone wall as he reached her. It was a metal sconce and he rested the torch in it before dropping down beside his wife. He had stopped praying a long time ago, so it was not a prayer that rushed to his lips but a warning that if anything happened to her, he would rage war on the heavens.
