Mystique (41 page)

“A hint of madness?” Alice cast an uneasy glance at Fulton and Royce.

“Aye.” Katherine looked down at her hands. “I hate him, you know.”

“Your cousin?”

Katherine gazed unseeingly at the wall of the cave. “He took me to live with him after my parents died. He wished to control my inheritance.”

Alice grimaced. “Not an unusual state of affairs. Few men can resist the opportunity to control an heiress’s fortune and the law encourages them to do so.”

“True enough, but my cousin’s treatment of me was most unusual and … and unnatural.” Katherine looked down at her tightly clasped hands. “He … he forced himself upon me.”

Alice stared at her in shock. “Oh, Katherine.” She ‘touched the healer’s arm with grave gentleness. “I am so very sorry.”

“And then he tried to marry me off to Sir Matthew in order to obtain lands of his own.” Katherine’s face was rigid with pain. “God forgive me, but I hate Eduard with a degree of passion that other women reserve for love.”

The scrape of a boot on stone made Alice stiffen. She turned her head to peer into the shadowed passageway. Torch light flared in the opening. A moment later Eduard loomed into view. His face was a mask of fury.

Fulton scrambled to his feet. His eyes went to Eduard’s empty hand. “Sir Hugh has not yet paid the ransom?”

“The bastard taunts me.” Eduard slammed the torch into Fulton’s hand. “‘Tis now dawn and he has not left the green stone at the north end of the stinking ditch. The damned fog grows worse by the minute.”

“Mayhap he does not believe the lady is worth the price.” Fulton cast an aggrieved look at Alice. “‘Tis not hard to comprehend that he might prefer to be rid of her.” He rubbed the palm of the hand that Alice had bitten. “The wench is tiresome.”

Eduard rounded on him furiously. “You fool. You know nothing of this matter.”

“Mayhap,” Fulton muttered. “But I know that I do not like it much.”

“Sir Hugh values his wife right enough.” Eduard combed his beard with restless fingers. “He indulges her to the point of idiocy. You saw how he was that night in Rivenhall Keep. Because he had given his word to her on a whim, he allowed the lady to deprive him of his long-sought vengeance.”

“Aye, but—”

“Only a man besotted would allow a woman to manipulate him in such a manner. Aye, the fool places great value upon her. He will bring me the stone, thinking to exchange it for her life.”

Royce scowled. “I agree with Fulton. I do not like this business. Surely the stone is not worth the risk of being cornered like trapped rats by Hugh the Relentless.”

“Cease your whining.” Eduard began to pace the floor of the chamber. “We are safe enough in these caves. Now that Calvert is dead, no one else except me knows these passageways. Not even Sir Hugh would dare enter this maze.”

“Aye. So you said.” Royce dropped the dice into his belt pouch. “But that changes nothing. This cavern may be a clever place to hide for the moment, but it could just as easily become a snare.”

Eduard stopped pacing and turned, eyes slit with menace. “Do you think to defy me, Royce?”

Royce did not cower. Instead he regarded his master with a considering expression for a moment. Then he appeared to come to a decision. “I believe I have had enough of this futile endeavor.”

“What? You are my man,” Eduard roared. His hand went to his sword hilt. “I’ll kill you where you stand if you think to desert me now.”

“You are welcome to try.” Royce reached for his own sword.

Fulton stepped back out of the way. “Blood of the demon, this is truly madness.”

“Traitor”
Eduard jerked his blade from its scabbard and leaped forward.

“Stay back,” Royce warned. He raised his heavy blade.

“Stop this nonsense,” Fulton shouted. “Or all is lost.”

Alice reached for Katherine’s hand. “Come,” she whispered. “This may be our only chance.”

Katherine sat frozen on the stone. Her eyes were lit with horror. “We cannot flee into the caves. We will be lost.”

Alice tugged impatiently on Katherine’s wrist. “Nay, we shall follow Eduard’s trail.”

“What trail?”

“He has been through these passages often enough to mark them well with the soot from his torch.” Alice prayed that would prove true. One thing was certain, the quarrel that had broken out between Eduard and Royce was an opportunity she and Katherine could not ignore.

“Do you really think we can escape?” Katherine looked confused. She had obviously set her mind on death. Hope was a difficult concept for her to grasp at the best of times. At this moment it clearly left her bewildered and befuddled.

“Come.”

Alice kept a wary eye on Eduard and Royce, who were shouting and circling each other. Fulton paid no attention to the women. He was laboring in vain to calm the other two men.

Alice kept her grasp on Katherine’s wrist as she edged cautiously toward the nearest torch. The hair stirred on
the back of her neck just as she reached out to grab the torch. A shiver of awareness went through her.

There was no sound to herald Hugh’s arrival, but Alice knew he was close by. She whirled to gaze at the passageway that Eduard had used a moment earlier.

A cold, ghostly wind wafted from the dark corridor. It carried before it the promise of doom. The torches in the large cavern flickered and sputtered wildly.

“Hugh,” Alice whispered.

A faint amber glow appeared in the black tunnel. A few seconds later it revealed the shadowed outline of a man.

The quarreling men behind Alice did not hear the sound of their enemy’s name on her lips, but there was no mistaking his voice. It cut through the tense atmosphere with the impact of lightning slicing through a night sky.

“Enough.”
The single word thundered off the cavern walls. “Lay down your arms or die where you stand.”

Everyone in the vast chamber went still for an instant. They all stared at Hugh, who stood framed in the opening of the stone corridor.

Alice was as stunned as the others, even though she had been expecting him to appear. She knew without being told that tonight Hugh was a thousandfold more dangerous than she had ever seen him.

Katherine made the sign of the cross. “The
Bringer of Storms.”

Hugh was vengeance incarnate, a dark wind that would sweep all before it. His eyes were cold and utterly without mercy. His black cloak enveloped him from his shoulders to the tops of his black leather boots. He wore no helm but light glinted on the steel of his drawn sword.

Dunstan and Aleyn, one of the household guards, quickly emerged behind Hugh. They flanked him with gleaming blades. Benedict came up behind them. He held a torch aloft. His eyes anxiously searched the cavern until they settled on Alice. When he saw her, his face glowed with relief.

Eduard was the first to recover from the paralysis that had gripped everyone in the stone chamber.

“Bastard,” he cried. “You have ruined everything.
From the very day of your birth, you have tried to deny me what was rightfully mine. You shall pay.”

He lunged, but not toward Hugh. He turned and bore down on Alice. She realized with horrified amazement that he intended to kill her. For an instant she was literally frozen with fear.

“Alice,
move”
Hugh surged forward, but he was several paces away from Eduard.

Hugh’s command broke the spell of terror that had trapped Alice. She sprang to the side just as the heavy weight of Eduard’s sword crashed downward. It struck the floor where she had been standing a second earlier. The dreadful clash of metal on stone rang out across the cavern.

Alice’s stomach churned. She felt a cold, clammy sensation on her skin. If she had not gotten out of the way, she would have been cut in half by the force of Eduard’s blow.

Even now he was spinning toward her once more. He raised his sword with both hands.

Alice stumbled backward. Her foot tangled in the hem of her skirts. “Blood of the Martyrs.” She struggled desperately with the folds of her new black and amber gown.

“Devil’s own whore. This is all your fault.” Eduard’s small eyes were those of a savage beast as he crowded Alice back against the cavern wall.

Fury swamped Alice’s fear. “Get away from me. Do not come near me.”

“Die, whore.”

Out of the corner of her eye Alice saw that Hugh was halfway across the cavern but still too far off to cut Eduard down.

She gathered herself and prepared to try to duck the next blow.

But reason finally intervened to temper Eduard’s rage. “Stay back or I’ll kill her,” he warned Hugh.

Hugh reached into the swirling folds of his cloak and removed an object. The green stone gleamed in his hand. “This is what you wanted, is it not, Eduard?”

“The stone.” Eduard wet his lips. “Give it to me and I’ll let your wife live.”

“Take it, if you can.” Hugh hurled the stone at a point on the cavern wall just to the right of where Eduard stood.

Eduard’s eyes widened. He screamed,
“Nay.”
He lurched toward the stone but could not catch it.

The green crystal smashed against the wall. It shattered instantly. A glowing rainbow of gems cascaded onto the floor. Rubies, golden beryl, pearls, emeralds, sapphires, and diamonds shimmered and sparkled amid the shards of the dull green casket that had once concealed them.

“The Stones of Scarcliffe,” Alice whispered.

She suddenly realized that the green crystal had been fashioned of heavy glass. She told herself that she should have suspected as much all along. Instead she had assumed that it was a natural object, just as everyone else had done. Now she understood that it had been created by a superbly skilled craftsman who had found a way to simulate the look and feel of a great chunk of crystal.

Eduard shrieked, “The Stones.” He stared for a second, fascinated, at the glittering heap. Too late he recalled Hugh’s presence.

He whirled about to confront the cold and deadly storm of Hugh’s blade. But his obsession with the stones had cost him dearly.

Steel clanged dissonantly on steel.

Eduard was driven to his knees by the force of Hugh’s blows. Hugh raised his blade again and again, beating against Eduard’s steel.

When Hugh raised his sword for the death stroke, his eyes burned the same color as the flames that flared in the torches.

Alice turned away quickly, unable to witness what she knew must occur next. She saw Katherine staring past her, transfixed by the dreadful scene. On the other side of the cavern Dunstan and Aleyn held Eduard’s two men at swords’ points. Benedict watched it all from the shadowed passageway.

Alice held her breath but there was no death scream behind her.

Seconds ticked past, two, three, four, five. She looked
up and saw that everyone was still staring at the spot where Hugh had driven Eduard to his knees.

Slowly she turned back to see what had happened.

Eduard lay on his back, still very much alive. He stared mutely up along the length of the blade that rested on his throat.

“Why do you hesitate?” Dunstan asked. “Have done with it. This night has been long enough for all of us.”

“There are some questions I want answered,” Hugh said. “Bind him and take him back to the keep, Aleyn. Put him in the dungeon. I shall speak with him on the morrow.”

“Aye, m’lord.” Aleyn hurried forward to take charge of the prisoner.

Hugh finally turned his attention to Alice. His eyes still burned but otherwise he appeared as calm as though he had just risen from his bath. “Well, madam, you do have a way of livening up my evenings.”

“And you, my lord, have a way with legends.” Alice looked at the brilliant gems that lay scattered on the stone floor. “You are certainly never at a loss when it comes to adding to your own.”

“Alice?”

“Oh, Hugh.” She felt tears of joyous relief clog her throat. “I knew you would save me. Indeed, you always do, my lord.”

She ran to him. He crushed her close against his chest. The folds of his great black cloak swirled around her.

A
long time later, Alice sat with Hugh in front of the hall fire and tried to get warm. She could not seem to ward off the cold. Whenever she thought of the hours spent in the cavern, a chill went through her. Mayhap she should take a dose of the medicine she had sent to Erasmus of Thornewood, she thought.

She pestered Hugh with yet another question. It was one of a multitude she had asked since their return to the keep two hours earlier.

“When did you discover that the Stones of Scarcliffe were inside the green crystal?” she asked.

“When it shattered against the wall of the cave.” Hugh stretched out his legs and contemplated the flames with a brooding gaze.

Startled, Alice glanced at his hard profile. “You mean you did not suspect before that the crystal was merely a casket designed to hold the gems?”

“Nay. I have never particularly cared about the Stones of Scarcliffe, so I never took a close look at the green crystal. So long as I had it in my possession, I was content.”

“I see.” Alice fell silent again for a moment. “I think there is something wrong with me, Hugh.”

He looked at her in sharp concern. “What’s this? Are you ill?”

“Nay, at least not with a fever. But I cannot seem to calm myself. My nerves are unsettled.”

“Ah. I see. ‘Tis the natural aftermath of a violent event, my sweet. The feeling will fade with time.” He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.

“You do not appear to be affected by it,” she muttered as she snuggled into his warmth.

“Rest assured, my nerves were badly unsettled when I learned that you had been kidnapped. Twas all I could do not to take to my bed in a swoon.”

“Hah. I do not believe that you ever suffer from unsettled nerves, sir.”

“Every man suffers from unsettled nerves at one time or another, Alice,” he said with startling seriousness.

She was not certain what to say to that, so she changed the subject. “Thank you for not killing Eduard in front of Katherine tonight. She does not care for him, but he is her cousin, after all.”

“‘Tis not seemly to execute a man in front of women, especially healers, if it can be avoided. In any event, there are some questions I want answered.”