If she could get back to Halcyon, she would go to the counsel, tell them what Trevelan and Marcus had done and let them decide how to deal with it.
She bit her lip, wondering how much she should tell Sebastian. Those days after her capture were a blur. She had no clear idea where she was. Without his help, she’d have a hard time making it back to her vessel.
“I fear Trevelan is behind this,” she admitted, all in a rush. “I need you to lead me back to the place where your brother’s men found me. I think we can stop the sickness from spreading, but only if I can get back to my people and tell them what he has done.”
“What has he done?” Sebastian grabbed her shoulders, shaking her a little in a desperate attempt to finally get the answers she had repeatedly withheld. “Are you telling me the man you begged me to save somehow caused those in the village to become ill? Why would he do such a thing?”
“He’s lost his mind, obviously.” She raked her hand through her hair, unsure how else to explain it. Even though she’d lived her entire life below the sea, the mass murder of thousands, if not millions of people, just to walk in the sun once again, made no sense.
Sebastian paled. “My brother suspected as much, but I defended you. I defended you both.”
“He told me he meant to do it, but I didn’t think he really would. I thought he was just angry and frustrated, speaking in jest. I would never have asked you to help him if I’d known this.”
He sat back on his heels and stared at her, his blue eyes flooding with disgust and disbelief. All the tenderness had vanished, and he was once again a brutal stranger who held her life in his hands. “How can I believe you? How can I believe you did not know, when you came here with him?”
The anguish in his voice destroyed her. “I’m sorry. I never meant for this to happen. And I swear I did not have anything to do with it.”
He pushed off the bed, his movements taut with anger. “I must tell Simon. We must find a way to stop the sickness before it spreads any further. You will come with me and tell him what you know.”
Once Simon knew she was involved, the mercy Sebastian had convinced him to show would vanish. He’d throw her back in the dungeon and try to beat the truth out of her. “There’s only one way to fix this. I have to get back to where your men found me. If I can get home, I might be able to find an antidote—a drug that will stop it.”
He shook his head. “It is a three day journey to the coast. By then everyone in Hawkesmere could be infected.”
“It will spread past Hawkesmere’s borders,” she told him softly, trying to make him understand the magnitude of what Trevelan had done. “If you don’t help me, millions will die.”
“I cannot leave my people now, Rhoswen. Not even for you.”
“Listen to me.” She held out an imploring hand, begging him to trust her. “Tell Simon to stay away from the village. Tell him to close the castle gates and not let anyone in. Perhaps the virus hasn’t spread here yet. That’s all we can do for them. But if you help me, we can save untold thousands more.”
He stumbled away, his indecision obvious. Turning his back on her, he strode to the narrow arrow slit, staring down at the village below.
She could only imagine how difficult it must be for him to contemplate walking away from everything he knew — especially in a time of need — for the sake of a woman he barely knew.
“Don’t stay here and die, Sebastian. It won’t help anything, and it would break my heart. I need you to come with me. I can’t do it without you.”
A visible shudder traveled through him, and he turned to face her. “Swear to me that if I do this thing, if I take you to the coast, you will tell me everything. I will have no more secrets between us, not if I am to trust you.”
She took a deep breath, and then nodded. His stipulation was more than fair, and she trusted him to keep her secrets. She trusted him with her very life. “I will tell you everything, but not until we are far away from here.”
He remained on the other side of the room for a long moment, then strode to a trunk at the foot of the bed and tossed her a heavy robe very similar to his own.
“Put this on,” he told her grimly. “We cannot leave any of your belongings behind. We will stop in the kitchen for some food, and then leave through the postern door.”
She scrambled off the bed and dressed in her warm sleep shirt and pants, then slipped the robe over her head, hiding her blonde hair beneath the heavy cowl. Apparently, he’d decided to help her, but she didn’t dare ask any questions, lest he change his mind.
Grabbing her pack and its contents from his desk, he took a few more things from his shelf, then opened the door and motioned her out into the drafty stairwell.
“Stay close,” he said, his voice tight with tension. “And keep your head down. People will be looking for someone to blame, and you are the most likely target. I would like to get out of here without talking to anybody.”
She’d planned to tell him of the tunnels beneath the castle and suggest they leave that way, but his words hinted at a lurking danger she hadn’t fathomed. Besides, she wasn’t even sure the tunnels existed. If she mentioned them now, he’d wonder what else she’d hidden from him.
She planted her feet, forcing him to stop and look at her. “I won’t forget this, Sebastian. I can never repay you for all you’ve done for me.”
“Do not thank me yet,” he muttered, looking as though her gratitude made him uncomfortable. “We have a long, dangerous road ahead.”
As he stepped past her, she crowded in behind him, hoping they managed to get away from Hawkesmere with their lives.
Chapter Twelve
Sebastian turned his huge destrier away from Hawkesmere, guiding the warhorse into the heavily wooded hills beyond. Within moments, the dense trees hid them from view of the castle, and he released a pent-up sigh of relief.
They had made their escape without incident. Not that he had really expected immediate pursuit. It would take a few hours for Simon to discover what he had done. Hopefully, they would be far away before that happened.
His arms tightened reflexively around Rhoswen. She sat sideways across his lap, but her robe obscured her face. They had not said a word to each other since they had left the tower, and he was in no hurry to remedy that.
For the first time since he had left the Holy Land, he offered up a fervent prayer. He prayed he had done the right thing — that he had not betrayed his brother and the rest of his people for this girl without reason.
If she was not telling the truth, if she had lured him out of the castle for some ulterior motive, he hoped she and her accomplices killed him. He could not bear to live with that sort of guilt and betrayal.
She had promised to tell him everything once they left the castle behind, but he did not press her. He had a feeling that her story, whatever it might be, would turn his world upside down. Before that happened, he wanted to enjoy these last few moments of relative peace and quiet.
He had already decided she was one of the fey — or perhaps she came from some otherworldly place. How else to explain the amazing things in her pack or her companion’s ability to call forth a plague?
His destrier surged up an incline, and Rhoswen dug her fingers into his arms, clinging for dear life. Her unease made the horse shy nervously.
“Be calm,” he murmured, as he gave the animal’s powerful neck a soothing pat. “You are upsetting the horse.”
“I’ve never ridden one of these animals before.” Her voice quavered with what seemed to be genuine fear. “We’re so very high off the ground.”
“I will not let you fall.” He wrapped his arm securely around her waist, but her words piqued his curiosity even more. Surely she had ridden at least occasionally. How had she and Trevelan traveled so far on foot?
How far
had
they traveled?
She melted against him, the tension leaving her in a rush. "Thank you, Sebastian. For saving my life in the first place, for keeping me safe from your men, and now for coming to my aid yet again."
He hugged her, his earlier distrust vanishing in the wake of her sweet affection. Somehow this odd, amazing creature had slipped beneath his defenses and made him want to live again. Despite everything, he could not regret meeting her.
"It is I who should be thanking you. Before you came into my life, I cared about nothing.” The admission came hard, but he felt better for having said it.
He was suddenly very glad he had left with her. If he’d had to watch her ride away alone, it would have been a blessing to die of the plague.
“Oh, Sebastian,” she whispered. “It pains me to hear you say such things. You must know how very special your life has become to me.”
"Did you mean what you said earlier?" he asked, his voice hushed. “Will you tell me everything, now that we are away from the castle?”
"Of course.” She ducked her head and played with the frayed edge of the robe. “It’s just hard to know where to begin.”
“Tell me,” he whispered. “Please, tell me now, Rhoswen. Put my mind at ease.”
“Yes.” She searched for his hand and squeezed it tightly. “I owe you that, at the very least.”
He bent forward and kissed her, uncertain whether he thanked her for her trust or postponed the revelation of secrets that would change his life forever.
After a long while, he drew back, his blood rushing through his veins with fierce arousal. He pushed back her cowl, revealing her silky blonde hair. The sun caught in the pale strands, giving her an angel-like glow.
If he had ever seen anything more beautiful, he could not remember it.
“I am mad for you, Rhoswen. I fear if you told me you were the daughter of the devil himself, I would happily follow you into Hell.”
She smiled. “I’m not the devil’s daughter, though my father does rule the place I come from.”
“You are a princess?” He shook his head and choked back a strangled laugh.
Of course.
He should have known. “I knew I aimed too high when I dared touch you, but I never dreamed how far beneath you I truly was.”
“Never think that,” she chided. “My people do not adhere to a class system. Everyone is equal. There are very few of us, so each person is needed in order to make our civilization run smoothly.”
“Sounds like paradise.” He nudged his horse onto a seldom-used path, then urged him to a faster pace. Though he had seen no sign of pursuit, he felt the need to put as much distance as possible between them and the castle.
“Perhaps.” She sighed, looking troubled. “I’m afraid I haven’t always appreciated it. Many times I’ve wished I could trade it all for what you have — the sun, the stars, the sky…” Tilting her head back, she gazed up, looking at the sky as though she’d never seen it before.
She lived somewhere where there was no sky? Confused, he simply stared down at her, waiting for her to continue. With every word she said, his unease grew. Perhaps he did not want to know where she came from, not really. He was not certain what remained of his faith could survive whatever she meant to tell him.
With a sigh, she met his gaze. “I know I said you I’d tell you all, but I really don’t know how to explain my home to you. Perhaps it would be easier to show you. But I fear if I take you there my father will be furious.”
“I do not want you to risk your father’s wrath for me, Rhoswen.”
She reached up and ran her fingertips over his face, as though she wished to imprint his features in her mind for all eternity. “How can I risk anything less than you have? Perhaps bringing you there and letting them see what an amazing man you are is the only way to help them get over their irrational prejudice.”
“Are you fey?” The question had haunted him, and this seemed as good a time as any to ask.
She shook her head and gave him a brief smile. “No, though I believe my people may have spawned those stories. There’s a little bit of truth in every legend. But we don’t have any supernatural abilities. We are human, just like you.”
He gazed at her with rapt fascination. “So you are human? Somehow I find myself a little disappointed.” He returned her smile. “I had thought your answers would shatter my world.”
She pressed a kiss to the tip of his nose. “Well, don’t be too disappointed. I may have something earth-shattering in store for you yet.”
* * *
The door of Trevelan’s small chamber swung open with a crash, rousing him from an uneasy sleep. He scrambled to a sitting position, grunting in pain as his many aches and pains protested the sudden movement. Blinking through the gloom, he found the lord of the castle’s immense shoulders blocking the doorway.
“Where are they?” Lord Simon’s furious voice echoed off the stone walls, hammering inside Trevelan’s pounding head.
Trevelan narrowed his gaze, biting back a furious retort. If he’d been just a little groggier, he might have destroyed Sebastian’s story and endangered them all.
“The girl and my brother,” Lord Simon demanded once again. “Where did they go?”
Rhoswen and Sebastian were gone? Fear sluiced through Trevelan’s battered body. Rhoswen had promised her barbaric friend would free them both.
How could she have left without him, abandoning him to his fate?
“I know you understand me.” Lord Simon advanced toward him with quiet menace. “And I do not believe you are incapable of speech. So if you wish to have a prayer of surviving this day, I suggest you tell me exactly how that cursed witch ensorcelled my brother.”
Anger chased away the last of Trevelan’s fear. Despite their recent argument, he’d always considered Rhoswen his very best friend. He’d loved her most of his life, had risked everything to come here and rescue her, yet she’d apparently abandoned him for her barbarian lover.