Page 3 of Bride of Ice
If all went well, she’d return by sunrise, well before her parents.
If it didn’t…
“I need you to promise me one thing,” she told Rauve. “No matter what happens, you are not to march on Creagor. I cannot start a war with the neighbors.”
Rauve looked deeply unhappy about that. “So you’re going alone and unarmed. In the dead of night. To try to rein in your hot-tempered cousin. Who may have riled up a savage Highlander. And you’d like me to sit on my hands?”
“Exactly.”
“I don’t like this.”
“I know. But you’ll give me your word, aye?”
He muttered under his breath. Giving the sharpening wheel a kick, he laid the edge of Hallie’s sword against the spinning stone. Sparks flew. The harsh whine of the blade sounded like an angry wildcat.
“Rauve?” she prodded. “Your word?”
“Aye, m’lady,” he said tightly, making his disapproval clear.
He might not like it. But she could trust him with her life.
Now that Rauve’s cooperation was secured, Hallie wasted no time.
She and Feiyan departed Rivenloch by the underground passageway, the same passageway Hallie’s mother had used years ago to save her father. They emerged deep in the wood and set out for Creagor.
The full moon filtering through the branches lit their way. The silence was broken only by the breeze soughing through the pines and an occasional mouse skittering through fallen leaves.
Hallie’s mind, however, was anything but silent. She raced through various scenarios and courses of action with duty and determination.
As they neared Creagor, she drew her cloak about her. The air was colder and windier than she’d expected. If Jenefer had stuck to their original scheme—frightening the superstitious Highlander away by feigning to be an evil spirit—she must be half-frozen by now in her sheer and ghostly disguise.
It was just as likely that forthright Jenefer had simply marched up to the keep with her bare blade, demanding the castle be surrendered to her.
Whatever she’d done, it was up to Hallie to make things right. Effective leadership required that she consider all possible outcomes. That she be ready for anything.
Still, nothing could have prepared her for what she found when they finally reached Creagor.
Beyond the copse of trees at the edge of the wood, down a long, gradual slope, surrounded by a wooden palisade, the castle gleamed like a pale gem in the moonlight.
The grass of the vast clearing was bedewed by shimmering crystals, frozen by the chill night air and stirred by the wild wind that blew through the glen.
But the magical peace of the landscape was broken by the scuffle taking place on the sward below.
Hallie narrowed her eyes.
Feiyan gasped.
Their cousin Jenefer was grappling with a giant.
He was armed with a claymore.
And she was as naked and defenseless as the day she was born.
Chapter 2
Colban an Curaidh jerked his head upright and blinked back sleep. He should never have offered to take the night watch at the palisade gates of Creagor.
Despite his best efforts, he kept dozing off in the dark. After an exhausting fortnight of travel from the Highlands and a full day of settling the clan into their new home, he could hardly keep his eyes open.
