Terror clouded Mathew’s eyes and he clutched the sword to his chest.
“And by your actions at this moment,” Hall continued, “you are responsible for Fenrir remaining in this world. By your actions,youwill be responsible for the atrocities he will commit in the name of evil. Atrocities much worse than the fate that Hugo met.”
Mathew’s face paled and he stumbled back a couple of paces. “What you say is not possible. It canna be my fault. I’ve done nothing. I’ve harmed no one.”
Hall shrugged, his expression void of all emotion. “So you may believe. But you withhold what I need. Without the sword and the scrolls, I cannot defeat Fenrir. Without the sword and the scrolls, the Beast will be free to carry out whatever evil he wants, and we will all be lost. For that, you will be to blame.”
“I will not be to blame.” Mathew dropped the sword to the ground and retreated another pace. “Take the sword. Do with it as you will. But I canna give you the scrolls. They are gone.”
Brie placed her foot squarely across the blade of the sword, just in case Mathew changed his mind.
“Gone?” Hall growled. “Gone where? What have you done with them?”
Mathew suddenly crumpled to the ground to sit, his head in his hands. “Dobbie Caskie. When I awoke this morning, he was gone with everything I had excepting the sword.”
Hall set his hands on his hips, staring down the road. “Then we must find young Dobbie. Would I be correct in supposing that having lost your possessions is what sent you backtracking?”
Mathew nodded. “I had no horse, no jewels or scrolls to sell, no food, nothing. No way to continue on with what I planned to do.”
In the face of the boy’s desolation, Brie couldn’t stop herself from asking, “And what was that, Mathew? What was yer plan?”
“After I found Hugo—” Mathew paused, eyes closed, to take a shuddering breath before he spoke again. “After I found what was left of Hugo in the laird’s solar at Tordenet, I realized it had fallen to me to provide for Eleyne. I took what treasures I’d found, planning to sell them so that I might collect my cousin and return her to our home, with the power of a fortune in my pocket as protection against our having left in the first place.”
“Surely you dinna require silver to return to yer own family.” The idea was preposterous to Brie. Family was family no matter what. Even her uncle, obsessed as he was with finding her a husband, would never require silver from her to return home.
“No to return, but to returnsafely. My uncle is no a forgiving man. Nor a charitable one.”
“We’ll have to deal with all that later,” Hall interrupted brusquely. “Finding Dobbie and the scrolls is our priority now. Where did you last see him?”
Hall leaned over to reach toward the sword, but Brie stopped him with a hand to his chest.
“Do you really think that’s wise? Best we keep the blade away from you, aye?” She looked up at him. “I’m thinking I should carry it, no you. Just in case.”
“As you wish. For now,” he agreed, and turned to remount his horse before sticking out a hand toward Mathew. “Well, come on, boy. What are you waiting for? We’ve a thief to catch and our time is running low.”
“Yer no going to leave me here?”
“Dinna be such a dullard,” Brie scoffed, reaching down to pick up the sword. “What do you take us for? We would never abandon you out here.”
Mathew rushed past her toward Hall, as if he feared they might change their minds, but any words the two exchanged as the boy climbed up onto the big horse were lost to Brie when her hand closed around the sword’s hilt.
The hilt molded to her hand as if it had been made for her, heating her palm. A greatwhooshof roaring air filled her ears like a mighty storm wind blowing through the forest. It carried with it the voices of unseen hordes whispering messages into her mind that she couldn’t quite decipher.
She dropped the sword and the noise abruptly subsided, leaving a strange emptiness.
“Is there a problem?” Hall asked.
Again she reached for the weapon, and again the rush assaulted her ears. This time, prepared for it, she ignored the distraction. “No problem but a clumsy hold on a heavy blade.”
Crossing to her horse, she slid the weapon into the sheath on her saddle before mounting the animal.
Her hand still tingled from contact with the sword, but she could determine no other ill effects. After what she’d seen the blade do to Hall, she considered herself lucky.
When she lifted her gaze, she found Hall and Mathew staring at her.
“What’s all this dallying about? We dinna have time to waste. On with the both of you!”
THOUGH HE’D SEENno sign of tracks, Hall had been hearing riders for the last half hour. Four... no, five of them, moving slowly, all spread out. Perfect formation for a search party.