“She is tired. This is good, she will not have the strength to do anything, but obey me.”
Heather raised her head to look at Haidar, but he had stepped behind her.
He stepped in front of her again after only a few moments, smiling and nodding. “Good, she will not be able to walk with how badly her feet suffered.” His smile grew as he stood staring at her. “Dirt does not even mar your beauty. I may keep you longer than I thought,” —he sneered— “and make your husband suffer even longer.”
Heather would have preferred to remain silent, worried if she said a word her fear would show. But if she could keep him talking, then it gave Rhys more time to reach her before Haidar could do anything to her.
She tossed her chin up. “My husband will come for me.”
“Of course he will.”
“He will kill you.”
Haidar laughed. “He will never defeat me. I taught him what he knows. I made him bow to my will just as I will do to you. And it will be ever so enjoyable for me, but so terribly painful for your husband and not so pleasant for you, unless you learn to accept your fate and obey my every command, something it took your husband a while to learn.”
“But he did and won his freedom.”
“So, he told you about that,” Haidar said, nodding. “It was, what I believed, an impossible task. I never expected him to succeed. I expected his tortured body to be returned to me, but instead I was quite surprised when he returned with my enemy’s intended bride, the task complete.”
Heather was shocked by the news. Rhys had enslaved another to free himself.
I promise I will return to you, nothing will stop me from coming back to you.
Quinn’s departing words came back to her. His promise had come at a great cost.
“I took her as my bride that day. He left three months later with a great deal of wealth I bestowed on him for accomplishing the task, though he took something far greater with him than wealth...he took my wife, Anala, the woman he had captured for me.”
Heather kept silent, not able to speak if she wanted to, too shocked by what she had just learned. But then having grown to know Rhys and knowing Quinn as she did, neither man would let a woman suffer if he could help it.
“It was not so much that he took Anala, but that he took my unborn child...a son who died before he could live. I stood at the shoreline and watched as everything I so generously gave him was loaded onto the vessel, never knowing Anala was among them, never thinking he would betray me in such a way.” His eyes narrowed. “Now I will see him suffer greatly for his betrayal.”
Heather could not help but think that at least Anala and her son were forever free of such an evil man.
Haidar began to unwrap the black sash around his waist. “We will leave a little something for your husband to see how much I enjoyed his wife, though I will make sure not to disturb the seed he has no doubt planted inside you. I have plans for his child. He nodded to the man who held her rope. “Strip her bare and leave the torn garments where they fall. That should be a clear enough message for him.”
* * *
The Dark Dragonrode his stallion through the woods. He wore his leather armor but nohelmet. His warriors rode along on both sides of him, lighting the way with torches.
He cursed himself a hundred times over for leaving the keep, leaving Heather. He should have known something was about to happen when his contingent of warriors arrived from the west and told him that Haidar’s warriors had not been spotted. He had moved them in preparation for this trap. The one good thing about that was that Haidar would not expect the size of the troop Rhys brought with him.
Many of his warriors at the McComb village insisted on joining with the warriors that had just arrived. They were eager to find Lady Heather and bring her home safely and once and for all be rid of the enemy that had continued to plague them. Other warriors remained behind to finish extinguishing the fire.
Rhys also had received a message from Innis. He had set a plan in motion after discovering important information and if all went as planned, Rhys would have Haidar exactly where he wanted him.
A halt was called from the lead warrior and Rhys did not question it. His men were superior warriors and knew well what they were doing.
Pitt rode up beside him. “A moment, they think they found something and want to be sure.”
Rhys nodded and his stallion snorted, wanting to keep moving as anxiously as his master did.
“Patience Macinnes will ride as soon as she gets that message,” Pitt said, waiting beside him on his horse.
“I expect her to; they need to be ready for what is to come.”
“My lord,” a voice called out.
Rhys dismounted as did Pitt and they followed a warrior who waited a few feet ahead. His warriors circled a small area, and they parted when Rhys approached. The best tracker Rhys had was hunched down close to the ground in the middle of the circle. He looked up at Rhys and he could see the tracker did not want to tell him what he had found.
