“No bushes,” Charlie muttered. “If they’re waiting for us, they’re going to have a clean shot. Do you know this place? Do you know what the terrain is like out there?”
“Cliffs. Steep paths down the mountainside.” Her eyes widened as she stared at him. “You can’t run and leap, if that’s what you were thinking.”
“It was a thought. Okay.” Rubbing his hands together, he eyed the cave mouth. “Let’s do this.”
He turned sideways, as much as he was able, and motioned her to do the same. Then, together, they eased their way toward the cave’s mouth. With each careful step, Tarrys’s heart pounded a little faster, a little harder until she thought it would fly from her chest.
Slavery she could survive. Even living without Charlie would be bearable as long as she knew he was back in his world and safe. But watching him die would destroy her. And if the Esri were out there, waiting, that’s exactly what would happen.
Tarrys forced herself to breathe, pushing back the panic that crowded her lungs. She had to remain calm and focused to be of any help to him at all.
Charlie held up his hand, a silent command to stop while he peered out. The cave entrance was higher than the one on the other side of the mountain and he could almost stand erect.
The scent of fresh air wafted around her, welcoming and worrisome.
“Do you see anything?” she whispered.
He shook his head and took another step. Tarrys did the same, watching for any shadow, any sign of movement as she followed him closer to the outside. Slowly, the valley below became visible, shrouded in mist.
But still, she saw nothing move.
A couple feet from the entrance, Charlie stopped and hooked his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. “Be careful.”
“You, too.”
As soon as he released her, she pulled her bow and grabbed an arrow, ready to counterattack. Arrows wouldn’t hurt an Esri, but one aimed just right might slow him down. Or make him miss his own shot. And that might be all it took to keep Charlie alive.
Charlie held up one finger. Two. As he held up three, he ducked low and lunged for the cave’s mouth. Tarrys followed close behind. The brightness of the day hurt her eyes as she ran behind him, down the steep path, moving side to side as he’d told her to. But no arrows came sailing at them. No shouts.
A dozen yards down the path, Charlie ducked behind a boulder, his back to the red rock, and she joined him.
“Do you sense anyone?” he asked.
“No. Do you?”
“No.”
“Then why are we hiding?”
He grinned at her. “It seemed like the smarter place to ask the question. But it does appear we’ve beaten them. How far to the Forest of Nightmares?”
“Several days’ journey.”
“We’ll have to run,” Charlie said.
“That’ll be hard in the mists.”
“You mean that fog in the valley? Won’t it lift?”
“No. These are the mist lands. It’s always like this.”
“That might be good news if they couldn’t sense us any better than we can sense them.” But they could all follow his death mark. “How far do the mists extend?”
“They end a few miles from the Forest of Nightmares. We’ll be in them almost the entire journey.”
“Great,” he muttered. “How are we supposed to find our way through them?”
Tarrys rose. “I’ll lead you through.”
Charlie stood beside her, peering around them in all directions. “Do you have some kind of internal compass or something?”
“I’m not sure what a compass is, but I know the way. I’ve been through here before. And I understand my world.”
“Then you’re the official guide.”
A short while later, they reached the bottom of the path and slipped into mists so thick she had to grip Charlie’s hand to find him. She prayed she was leading him to safety. And not to his death.
“This stuff tastes like turpentine,” Charlie muttered three days later, draining the canteen that contained the last of the carnasserie root infusion, the antidote to the black trimor’s poison. They’d come upon one of the bushes their first day in the mist lands.
“It’s saving your life. Give thanks, ungrateful one.” Tarrys sat behind him on the stairs, kneading the tense muscles in his shoulders and neck.
The mists weren’t helping his tension. He hated the feeling of not being able to see his enemies when he knew they could zero in on him without effort. The mists themselves were odd. They smelled all right, kind of like a musty sea spray, but they had a wet, cloying feel that clung to his skin yet didn’t actually make his hair or clothing damp.
They swirled now through the ruins of some kind of structure he and Tarrys had literally stumbled upon a short while ago.
“Ungrateful, huh? You didn’t have to drink this swill.”
“And now neither will you. This is the last of it.”
“That’s what you said yesterday,” he muttered. Though he teased her, traveling virtually blind for three days was making him as edgy as a cat on a high wire. He’d ended up with a blasting headache yesterday. Tarrys had offered to try to ease some of the tension in his shoulders to keep that from happening again.
“Yes, well, I didn’t know I’d find another bush so soon. An extra dose won’t hurt you. Now I’m sure you’re completely cured.” Tarrys placed a soft kiss on his cheek, sending his protective instincts skyrocketing again. He hated putting her in danger, but he had to admit, he’d never have made it without her.
If Tarrys was right, they should be close to the forest by now. But how they’d ever find it in this soup, he couldn’t begin to guess. All he could do was follow her and hope she knew where she was going. And pray he heard the Esri before they attacked.
“I was probably cured three bushes ago.”
Tarrys laughed softly. “You are such a complainer.”
Affection surged through him and he flipped her over his shoulder and onto his lap. “Who are you calling a complainer?” He tried to look angry, but couldn’t. Every time she spoke, every time she touched him, she eased something deep inside him. Sliding his fingers into her thick, soft hair, he kissed her deeply because he had to, because he needed to ground himself in her taste and the feel of her in his arms.
He hadn’t made love to her since they left the mines, afraid to let his guard down like that when they were so vulnerable. But already he was suffering from withdrawal. He might not need her to stay alive any longer, thanks to the carnasserie root, but he was beginning to realize he needed her in other ways, ways he didn’t fully comprehend.
With another kiss, he set her on her feet. “You tempt me, little one.” Tempted him. Pleased him. Healed him.
As he filled his water flasks from the pond Tarrys had called, his gaze fell on the beautifully carved stone pillars that lay at broken angles like a child’s discarded blocks.
“What was this place?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. There are a number of ruins similar to this scattered throughout the mist lands. My old master used to pass this way every few years. I’ve always assumed this was an old Esrian court before the mists made living here unpleasant. But I don’t know.”
“You came through here with Baleris?”
“No. Baleris was my third master. My first was the captain of the crystal mines. When I came into my virgin’s power, he sold me. He could have taken it himself, but a virgin has much value in this world, so he sold me for a great deal of money to a passing nobleman. Not Baleris.”
“He raped you.”
“He took my virgin’s power, yes, but he made me want him first.” She wrapped her arms around her knees. “That master was brutal in other ways. He had a dozen Marceils, but forbade us from touching one another or speaking at all. For nearly forty years, no words left my mouth.”
He stared at her. “None?”
She shrugged. “An Esri’s control over his s
laves is complete. But we managed to communicate with one another without words.”
Forty years. “The son of a bitch.” How could anyone do such a thing to another?
“That wasn’t the worst of it,” she said softly.
Charlie watched her, not liking the glimmer of misery he saw in her eyes. “Tell me. If you want to.”
She looked away. “It’s unpleasant, Charlie. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
Reaching for her, he slid his hand over the back of her head. “It’s part of your past, part of who you are. If you can bear to tell it, I can bear to listen.”
The eyes she turned to him fastened on him as if seeking the truth of his words. Slowly she turned away and began to speak.
“He enjoyed bringing the females into a frenzy of needing, painful needing. Then he left us like that.”
He frowned, remembering too well her desperation for penetration when they first reached the mines.
“I learned to use other things to bring myself relief, though sometimes he’d tie me so I couldn’t even do that. One time he left me like that for four days.”
Charlie swore. “A real bastard.”
“A few years ago, he was called back to court and he sold me to the drifter, Baleris. Baleris already had one slave, Yuillin. But he wanted a female.”
Charlie’s gut tightened, sick at the thought of the abuse she’d described, and certain she’d touched on only the tip of the iceberg. She’d been tortured. But he knew that. He’d known it on some level since he first met her and realized she’d been a slave to these creatures. But he hadn’t really understood. Not until he’d seen the slave forced to stab himself, then watched Tarrys in so much misery she would have welcomed rape.
He took her hand and rubbed his thumb over her silken skin. “I can’t imagine....” He shook his head, unable to find the words. “I always thought Baleris had to have been the worst, but his predecessor sounds as bad.”
“No, Baleris was the worst. Baleris enjoyed inflicting pain.”
With his free hand, he reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. “I’m sorry for all you’ve endured. I wish I could make it all go away.”
She smiled softly and met his gaze. “You have. Every time you touch me, every time you kiss me, every time you treat me as an equal, you give me strength and sweep away a little more of the past. I thank you, Charlie Rand.”
He didn’t know what to say to that, so he kissed her, tasting her Mona Lisa smile. How had she ever endured what she had? How was he ever going to walk away from her when they got home? When it was time for him to go back to his life?
Keep her, a voice whispered deep in his mind. Impossible, his heart replied. His path through life was only wide enough for one.
Less than an hour later, they crested a small rise and walked out of the mist as cleanly as if they’d walked through a door into the bright golden light of midday. The ground rolled, familiar blue dotted with shrubs and bushes. And no sign of Esri. Thank God.
In the distance stood a forest as dark and foreboding as its name.
The Forest of Nightmares.
“That’s it, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
On the surface, the trees didn’t seem that close together. Logically, the forest shouldn’t be that dark. But no light penetrated. None. In the bright day, those woods were dark as a moonless night. Scary as sin and, ironically, his only chance of survival. From what Tarrys had told him, no Esri would willingly enter that place.
“Let’s go.” He took off at a run, careful to keep his strides in sync with Tarrys’s as he watched for sign of Esri. “I don’t suppose you have a plan for finding the princess and getting us out of there.”
Tarrys glanced at him. “I don’t. This was your mission, remember.”
“The mission was only to reach the Forest of Nightmares and rescue the princess. The details of the rescue have always been a little fuzzy.” Then again, he was a pro at improvising. Up until now, he’d only been concerned with reaching the forest.
And they weren’t there yet.
“How close are we to the full moon?” Tarrys asked.
“If my watch has been keeping the correct time, it’s tomorrow night.” And this day was already half done.
“We don’t have much time left. If we don’t get Princess Ilaria out by tomorrow night, we’ll have to stay another month.”
“Then we’ll get her out.” Charlie glanced at her. “If what Kade heard is true, one of the twelve gates lies within the forest. Will you be able to find it?”
Tarrys shook her head. “Not unless I stumble upon it when it’s open. I can’t see the gates and can only sense them when I’m virtually on top of them. Princess Ilaria may know where it is.”
“So you won’t even know when it opens?”
“Unless things have changed now that all twelve are open, no.”
Charlie snorted. He’d thought reaching the forest would be the hard part. He was beginning to realize that the real challenge still lay ahead.
The first mile passed easily. But just as they crossed the halfway point between the mist and the forest, an odd rumbling began to vibrate beneath his feet.
“Do you feel that?” he asked Tarrys.
Her wide-eyed stare swung to him. “Horses. Royal Guards!”
“Damn!”
Chapter 19
Charlie ran, Tarrys at his side, pounding across the grass-dotted blue terrain, toward the spookiest sight he’d ever seen—the utter blackness of the Forest of Nightmares.
The closer they drew to the dark wood, the more every instinct he possessed yelled at him to go back, as if the ghosts of those who’d died there were flying around him, screaming at him, flaying him with their silent fear.
But the pounding of the Esri horses had been growing steadily louder.
Beside him, Tarrys ran, her hair whipping back, her face a mask of concentration and determination. If she was terrified, and she had to be, she didn’t show it. His admiration for her tripled. Her body might be small and delicate-looking, but there was nothing delicate about the size of her heart or the strength of her spirit. He couldn’t have asked for a better companion.
He glanced at Tarrys. “Are these horses like I think of horses, or another strange Esri creature?
“They’re from your world,” she told him breathlessly.
He threw her a confused glance. “My world? Fifteen centuries ago?”
“Their sires were. Humans can’t breed here. The Esri tried often enough. But your horses can.”
“Damn. I should have brought my gun.”
“You would kill a horse?”
“I’ll kill anything I have to in order to keep us alive and unenslaved. An arrow between the eyes will do it, Tarrys. You can’t be soft.”
She threw him a look of such affront it made him smile. “I’m not soft.”
“You’re not, I agree. There’s no one I’d rather have by my side right now.”
Her expression turned skeptical.
“I mean it.”
A look of wonder warmed her eyes. “Truly?”
He nodded once. “Truly.”
As she turned to face forward, he caught a glimpse of her smile and he thought his affection for her might swallow him whole.
They were in a shallow valley, which hid them from their pursuers for now. Or rather, hid their pursuers from them. The Esri knew exactly where he was. He thought he could make out the distinct sound of four animals. Maybe five.
“How large is the king’s stable?”
“I’ve heard there are five.”
“Just five? In all of Esria?”
“They breed here, but not easily.”
“Then it sounds like they’ve sent them all. They’ll be coming from the right. We should be able to see them when we crest this ridge coming up.” They were still close to a mile from the forest’s edge. What he wouldn’t give for a car about now. Or a tank.
Never breaking stride, Ta
rrys pulled her bow off her shoulder, grabbed an arrow and cocked it. His tiny dancer had turned into Robin Hood. Robin Hood in a Friar Tuck robe. How she ran in that thing was beyond him, but she didn’t seem to be tiring any more than he was. Then again, fear was a powerful energizer. For both of them.
As they crested the hill, the riders appeared in the distance, five men, white as ghosts, dressed in the requisite silver tunics, black pants and cloaks of the Royal Guard. At the rate they were traveling, the Esri would be on them long before they reached the woods.
“If they take me down, Tarrys, keep moving. You can hide out in the forest until they’re gone.”
The look she threw him was pure determination coated with acceptance and unhappiness. “I’ll find the princess. Your mission will become mine.” Her eyes flashed. “But don’t you dare give up, yet.”
He grinned at her. “Not a chance.”
As the Esri neared, he caught his first good look at their horses. My God. Their heads were misshapen, their snouts too short and slanted upward, and they didn’t have a bit of hair. No manes, no tail except a bony-looking stump. One of the creatures appeared to be jet-black, but the rest all had flesh of a pinkish-white. They were, without a doubt, the ugliest animals he’d ever seen.
“Those things are not horses,” he muttered. Horselike creatures from some horror story, maybe. “Shoot them, Tarrys. Take them out of their misery.”
She threw him a quick look of amusement. “I’d rather take the Esri out of theirs.” As she spoke, she started firing arrow after arrow. True to her word, he watched her arrows pierce the eyes of the Esri. Shouts of pain echoed over the field as three of the five lost their seats and crashed to the ground, their mounts scattering.
“Nice shots!” Charlie crowed.
But the other two guards kept their heads and their seats. As if choreographed, the pair reached up and pulled the arrows out of their eyes at almost the same moment, tossing them aside.
Tarrys released another volley, all three going through the face of one man, knocking him to the ground.
“Nice job.”
Tarrys nodded, but there was no triumph in her expression. “I’m out of arrows.”
A Warrior's Desire (Harlequin Nocturne) Page 14