“Not the time, Bria,” he repeated. “Pay attention and keep close.”
His words startled her. Had he sensed what she felt? Or was she feeling what he felt?
She had no time to pursue it. His hand closed firmly around hers and he hurried her forward.
They didn’t go far when the forest grew unnaturally quiet. Not the natural stillness of dawn before birds stirred awake, but the heavy silence of something listening.
Kaelan slowed instantly.
His hand tightened around Bria’s as his gaze swept through the dense greenery surrounding them. The alertness she had sensed in him moments earlier sharpened further now, every line of him suddenly taut with readiness.
Then he stepped slightly in front of her. Not enough to block her entirely but enough to shield her.
Bria’s pulse quickened. “What is it?”
Kaelan pressed his finger to his lips to warn her to be silent.
She remained quiet and that’s when she heard it… a branch snapped somewhere ahead. Leaves crunched beneath heavy footfalls and birds scattered from trees overhead. Bria moved closer to Kaelan’s back.
A moment later a man stepped from between the pale trees.
Bria’s breath caught softly.
She had no knowledge of what the inhabitants of Driochmor looked like, but she got the sense this man wasn’t one ofthem. And no one from the Kingdom of Scotara was allowed in Driochmor. No one. It was forbidden.
Yet the stranger stood there as though the forbidden land held no more concern for him than an ordinary woodland path.
He appeared several years older than Kaelan, lean and sharp-featured beneath travel-worn clothing stained from a long journey. Dark hair brushed the collar of his cloak, and watchful gray eyes missed very little as they settled first on Kaelan… then briefly on Bria.
At his feet trotted a strange little creature no larger than a small dog. Long floppy ears bounced as it moved, while enormous dark eyes peered curiously through thick pale fur. The odd little thing stayed close to the stranger at first, though its attention quickly drifted toward Bria.
The man smiled faintly, though something about it failed to warm his face.
“Well now,” he said smoothly. “I did not expect to see outsiders in Driochmor.”
“Nor I,” Kaelan said coldly.
The stranger looked briefly between them, sharp enough that Bria sensed he noticed far more than he revealed.
“Driochmor is a dangerous enough place for a man, let alone a woman,” he remarked casually.
Kaelan shifted subtly farther in front of Bria. “She has nothing to worry about. I will keep her safe. But if you know this is such a dangerous place, what are you, an outsider, doing here?”
“Private business for the king. And you? I am sure the king would like to know what two of his subjects are doing in Driochmor.”
Bria studied him. There was no ease in the man, he stood anxious, his temper just beneath the surface. She supposed he could be on a mission for the king. Perhaps he was sent intoDriochmor to search for the healer who could defy death. Still, there was something about him that just did not sit right with her.
The small creature, however, seemed far less wary.
It wandered away from the man entirely and trotted toward her, sniffing curiously at the hem of her skirt before rubbing against it affectionately.
A smile touched Bria despite the tension surrounding them.
“Well, you are a friendly little thing.”
She bent slightly to pet him?—
“Do not touch him!”
