The stones ended about a mile away from the mountain. Elea could see the remnants of falling rocks, the changes on the landscape caused by the earth shakes. She slowed her horse to a steady walk; the ground was uneven. She pulled up on her reins when she saw three stone mounds. Her ancestors’ cairns. They were beautiful and haunting.
She turned to look at Gerard. “Now what do we do?”
He swung out of his saddle. “We wait for Nora.”
33
MATTEO
He could feel her at all times of the day. The connection between them was so strong that Matteo could almost read her thoughts through her emotions. They were tethered together by something he couldn’t see. Something he didn’t understand.
“You almost make a believer of me.”
Nora turned her head to look at him. The smile on her face was devastatingly beautiful. Warmth flooded his heart and his soul. He felt her joy as well as his. The sensation was indescribable.
“Perhaps, by the end of our journey, you will be,” she said.
Matteo returned his wife’s smile. “I don’t need to believe in your goddess. . . . I believe in you.”
Nora didn’t answer, but she didn’t need to. He sensed her love through their bond. She did, however, angle her horse closer and kissed him.
It was all too brief.
But long embraces on horseback were not possible.
“I can hear the waves of the Dark Channel,” Nora said with another blinding smile. “We are almost there.”
Matteo patted his tired stallion’s head. Both the horses and the humans were spent. The pace that Nora kept was brutal, but he had an inkling of what drove her. It was the same emotion that had driven him and his army across an enemy country.
Love.
Nora’s love for Urka was written in her soul and on the scars that covered her body. He now knew and loved every inch of her.
Inside and out.
Her love for him was staggering in its intensity. He felt awed and somehow not quite worthy of such devotion. They had been tethered to one another long before they’d shared their souls. He’d known it from the first time he’d seen her.
It was inevitable.
Unstoppable.
And not even her death had parted them.
Perhaps a small part of his logical mind believed in a supreme being. And if there was one, well, certainly, it was Nora’s mother goddess.
Matteo followed Nora into a medium-sized port town. The houses were stacked on top of each other like mismatched blocks. The roads were narrow and winding. It seemed that every street led to the docks and to the darkness beyond them. He’d heard of the Dark Channel but had not precisely known what to expect. It was as if an enormous fog, black and menacing, sat on the water for as many miles as the eye could see. What was even stranger was that the mile of sea before the fog was clear and like any other body of water. It was an unnatural phenomenon.
“I know. Wait until you sail through it,” Nora said. “You can feel its tendrils on your skin. A cold darkness that no warmth can reach. And you remember the worst moments of your life with perfect clarity.”
He winked at her. “Sounds like a party. I can hardly wait.”
Nora threw back her head and laughed.
They winded through the streets until they reached the dock. Matteo found a ship that was large enough for both them and their tired steeds. He negotiated the fee for the crossing as well as the feeding of the animals. Nora did not speak a word, for her Kaulish was terrible and it would have given them both away.
Only once they were safely locked inside their room did she talk. “I am so tired; I think I could sleep for a week.”
She pulled off her cloak and laid it on top of the bed—the blanket appeared to be in need of a washing. Lying down, she raised her arms in the air and yawned. Matteo took off his boots but kept his clothes on. He was so exhausted that he could have fallen asleep standing, like a horse. Sliding next to her, he put an arm underneath her head. Nora snuggled against him and he knew that every sacrifice he’d given or would give was worth it for her.