“He’s lethal. Hunting this night, I’d say,” Rauf repeated his earlier assertion. “The great owl. From his flight, I’d guess he had targeted his prey and begun to move in for the kill, though it would appear as though the victim may have eluded him this time. It’s best we return to the others now, my lady.”
“You’re probably right. We do intend an early start tomorrow.”
Dani cast one last look up at the big bird, still circling directly overhead, and a shiver ran down her spine. He’d targeted his prey, had he? Obviously, it was the way of nature, but it didn’t make her feel any better for the poor little creature here on the ground. She rustled the plants on both sides of her, making more noise than was at all necessary as she followed Rauf back to their campsite. Hopefully anything around here would be frightened into hiding.
As for her, she needed her rest. Tomorrow, just like that owl, she would be on the hunt. Except that she intended her hunt to end in success.
HE’D DOZED OFFagain but a scraping noise from above him brought him wide awake.
Malcolm squinted his eyes against the light as the wooden cover slid away from the opening to the oubliette to reveal a maliciously grinning guard.
“Awake, are you? That’s good.” The guard picked up a basket and turned it upside down, allowing its contents to fall freely into the hole.
Malcolm had learned this lesson. He was quick this time, launching to his feet to catch what he could of the table scraps as they fell.
“Wouldn’t want our good laird’s guest to go hungry, now would we?” The guard’s laughter disappeared only when the wooden cover slid back over the opening.
Malcolm clutched the soggy chunks of bread he’d caught, tearing into them as a starving dog might. Especially appropriate since these were the scraps normally cast out to the strays roaming the castle grounds. At least, they had been used for that purpose when his father had been laird.
Knowing Torquil, any castle strays had starved to death by now.
Much as Malcolm had expected he would.
And yet, after what felt like days in this hellhole, the cover had slid away and food had rained down on him. He hadn’t been ready that first time and the bounty had scattered around him, landing in the wet slime of waste and straw that covered the floor.
He needed food to rebuild his strength. Even food such as that had been. In the dark he’d managed to find a few pieces, convincing himself as he choked it down that it was only leftovers from the table that soaked the bread.
His lesson learned, when the cover had moved this time, he’d been ready.
Resting his head against the wall, he finished the last of what he’d been able to catch.
Thanks to the scraps, and time, he had healed. His strength had returned, a fact that Torquil must have anticipated.
Which led him to only one conclusion: His brother had some reason of his own for keeping him alive. If he could only determine what that reason might be, perhaps it would give him the advantage he needed to escape when the time came.
One other possibility haunted him. A thought he’d have preferred to avoid, but with nothing to do but think, his worry would not be denied.
As he’d slept, Dani had often come to him in his dreams. At least, he thought she had.
In this hole bereft of light to mark the division between day and night, he’d begun to wonder whether his mind might not be playing tricks upon him.
Still, each time had seemed real. Real enough that he’d forced her away, blocking her entry to his world, determined not to allow her to experience the abomination of his hell.
He’d been successful at it, too. Until the last time she’d come to him.
Exhaustion had taken its toll and he’d slept soundly. So soundly that he’d not heard her approach. He’d not heard her at all until he’d looked up to meet her gaze, her eyes reflecting her revulsion from what she saw.
He’d quickly closed off that part of himself and forced her back, shielding her from the horror of his existence.
But not before he’d heard her voice. Not before she’d said the words that drove terror deep in his heart. Not before she’d claimed she was coming to him, not in the dream, but in the real world.
“Tomorrow. We’ll be there tomorrow.”
Surely Patrick had more sense than to allow Dani to travel to Tordenet Castle in search of him. He’d made a point of stressing to his brother the importance of keeping Dermid safe. But he’d never considered the need to order Dani’s safety. It had seemed a given to him at the time. It still did.
And yet, the worries lingered, eating away at the edges of his sanity.
If Dani were to fall into Torquil’s hands, if Torquil were to recognize her importance to him, it would grant his elder brother the power to access whole new levels of hell for Malcolm.