Aislin of Arianrhod (Land of Alainnshire) (20 page)

“Who are you? Show yourself!” she demanded.

The shadow opened the door and stepped toward her. She squinted into the darkness, her heart racing with fear. He slowly reached up and pulled down his hood.

It was one of the council elders. The one they called Duff.

“
What do you want?” Aislin asked hesitantly.

Duff responded by delivering a vicious backhand across her right cheek. The unexpected blow sent her spinning away from him and hard into the marble wall.

She had the dizzying sensation of sliding and falling at the same time, finally landing face down on the floor. Sparks of pain danced behind her eyelids. She put her palms down and tried to push herself up. She collapsed, and tried again to get to her feet.

Duff was on her in an instant, shoving his knee into the small of her back with such force it stole her breath. Grasping a wrist in each hand, he pulled them out from under her and twisted them behind her back, then bound them tightly.

Aislin opened her mouth to scream, praying Tristan would hear her up the stairs. Duff, straddling her back, grabbed her head and forced her cheek hard against the stone floor. She heard him laugh softly: an ugly, malevolent laugh.

His voice was directly above her, soft and threatening in her ear as he forced a gag into her mouth. “No no, Princess. No need to call for Tristan. I have a very interesting evening planned for the two of us, and he would just be in the way.”

He hauled her roughly to her feet and snaked an arm around her waist, looking hard into her eyes. “You’re very beautiful, but you don’t belong here. I intend to find out what has Tristan so beguiled, and then I’m going to cut your throat. Tristan has shown himself to be weak by allowing you to live. I expect the Sylvan council will reward me for killing you by making me the new chieftain.”

Aislin stared at him stupidly, absorbing his words. Duff had been insistent that she be executed immediately, but she never dreamed he’d be willing to take things into his own hands this way.

Twisting desperately in his grasp, she screamed under the gag. She knew Tristan wouldn’t hear her muffled cries, but she had to do something,
anything
...

He tightened his grip, a leering smile spread across his face. “Scream all you want, human. He’s too far away to hear you, and he’s probably sound asleep.” He leaned into her and began to kiss her neck. She closed her eyes and tried to be somewhere else.

Duff pulled away from her, breathing hard. He gripped her by the arm and pulled her from the cell.

White moonlight bathed the forest as they stumbled out into the clearing below the village. He dragged her across the clearing and into the deep woods. As Aislin struggled to stay on her feet, she tried desperately to think of some way to save herself.

After what seemed like an eternity, she saw the glow of a fire off in the distance.

You’re running out of time!
Do
something!

Digging her bare heels into the soft loam of the forest floor, Aislin stiffened and threw herself backward, pulling them both off balance. Duff was forced to let go of her abruptly, and the momentum pulled her forward onto her knees. She quickly scrambled to her feet and headed back toward Oakenbourne, her legs pumping furiously.

She was only free for a second or two before he caught her around the waist and lifted her off the ground. She kicked and thrashed in his arms. He let her exert herself for a moment, and then he tightened his arm around her.

“If you want to play rough, human, I’m happy to oblige. I usually like my women staring into my eyes when I take them, but I’m willing to make an exception in your case.” The arm around her waist had tightened to such a degree that Aislin was becoming lightheaded.

His words chilled her. She forced herself to relax against him. She had precious little chance of escaping him, but she would have no chance at all if she were unconscious.

Duff, breathing hard from excitement and his efforts to subdue her, carried her the rest of the way to the fire. “I can’t wait to feel you beneath me. I like a woman who fights...” he murmured in her ear. “...but I think the moment I’m going to enjoy the most is the one where I cut into your pretty little throat with my knife.”

She shivered with revulsion. Her mind screamed for Tristan, but she knew it was beyond hope. He would have no way of knowing Duff had taken her from the cell. He wouldn’t find her until it was too late.

As the reality of her impending death began to penetrate her muddled mind, she found herself wishing she had talked to Tristan. She
could
have remained calm and asked him what he’d been thinking when he let Roderic go without her. Instead, she’d thrown the mother of all tantrums and shut him out. There would be no second chance for her.

Duff carried her into the clearing and dumped her on her feet. She was horrified to see that he’d driven four wooden stakes into the ground near the fire. Each stake had a length of rough rope tied around it, an extra three feet or so coiled into the grass. He’d spread blankets on the ground within the four corners of the rectangle.

He’d not been jesting when he said he had an interesting evening planned. She was going to die tonight, but not before he did unspeakable things to her. It took every bit of strength she had not to sink to her knees.

Duff stalked around her in wide circles, studying her. She spun with him warily, unwilling to give him her back. Finally, he stopped in front of her and removed the gag.

“Do you find me handsome?” he asked her, cocking his head to one side.

Aislin stared at him, her mouth open in disbelief.
What do I say to that?

His face grew dark when she didn’t answer. “You prefer Tristan,” he said, stepping toward her threateningly.

Her mind was blank. To tell him yes would infuriate him, something she had no wish to do. To tell him no would encourage him, an equally abhorrent thought.

He gave a low growl of anger, and gripping her tunic at the neck, ripped it completely open down the front. She staggered forward as he pulled, then regained her footing. She looked down in horror at the ruined tunic. She was completely naked to his eyes.

Shivering uncontrollably, Aislin met his grin with what she hoped was a look of strength. Duff stepped forward and, pushing aside the ripped tunic, slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her close to him again. She could feel his erection hard against her hip. His other hand roughly twisted her breast, making her gasp in pain.

“Do you like that?” he asked.

It was all she could stand.

“You disgust me. You’re a sickening little pig of an elf. Yes, I prefer Tristan. He is ten times the elf you are. Go ahead and kill me, but you’ll have to kill him too. When he finds out what you’ve done to me, there won’t be enough left of you to bury!”

With a shriek of rage, Duff stepped back and backhanded her again. She twisted backward, falling in slow motion. She knew once she was down, it would all be over. Duff would finish what he started, and she would not be able to stop him.

She was astonished to feel a strong arm break her fall by catching her across the back of her shoulders. The arm pulled her close, and she smelled him before she saw him—that wonderfully distinct smell of horses and leather and smoke—

Tristan!

Aislin turned into him and buried her face against his shoulder, sobbing hysterically, weak with relief.

“Are you hurt?” he whispered in her ear. She shook her head against him.

Duff staggered back. “How did you find us?” he gasped.

“I sleep lightly.” Tristan’s voice was cold as steel.

“Come now, I’ve seen you kill many a human woman. There’s nothing special about this one, is there? I have everything ready. We could share her tonight. I already know she is soft and warm. I’m sure she could be made willing.” Duff grinned and motioned toward the stakes near the fire.

Aislin felt Tristan pull her even tighter against him. “I am going to kill you, Duff.”

Duff started to laugh. “You would never kill me, Tristan. If council found out that you had killed me to save her, they would remove you as chieftain and banish you forever. Sylvan lives still hold more value than that of a human. You know you can’t kill me. And if you let me live, I won’t stop until I take her from you.”

“I never want to see you again. I swear if I see you within five miles of Oakenbourne, I’ll take my chances with council and kill you on the spot. You’re as bad as the worst human. You proved it here tonight. You don’t deserve to live among us,” Tristan said.

Duff started forward in anger, but Tristan raised the sword he carried to Duff’s throat. He stopped just short of the deadly point. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’ve never been more serious. What you have brought to this campsite tonight is all I’ll allow you to keep. I’m done with you. You are henceforth banished from Oakenbourne.”

Duff backed away from Tristan, a look of shock and disbelief on his face. Without saying a word, he turned and ran into the darkness of the forest.

Tristan blew out a breath of relief and dropped the sword before he turned his attention to Aislin. He untied her wrists and covered her face with relieved kisses, which would have been amusing had she not been completely paralyzed by terror.

He stood her back away from him, looking her over frantically. She pulled the front of the tunic closed around her and refused to meet his eyes.

“Are you hurt? He didn’t...”

Aislin knew what he meant, and she shook her head. Tristan put the sword back in the scabbard, picked her up in his arms, and carried her all the way back to Oakenbourne.

Chapter Twenty Three

A
ISLIN HAD EXPECTED HIM TO deposit her back in the cell, but he carried her past it, and up more flights of stairs. She knew where he was taking her.

Tristan eased her down onto his bed and studied her face. Her cheek burnt like fire, she couldn’t see very well out of her right eye, and she could feel a warm trickle of blood running from her nose. She was still shaking from an overload of adrenaline. Not even Jariath had ever terrorized her like that.

“Do I look as bad as I feel?” she whispered, trying to smile. The smile curved one side of her face. It was a little disconcerting to realize she couldn’t feel the other side.

Tristan smoothed her hair back and curved his body protectively over hers as he sat beside her on the bed. The raw emotion on his face left her breathless. “You have never been more beautiful,” he said softly. “I will
never
let anyone take you away from me.”

He left her, but returned quickly with a basin of warm water and a cloth. He lovingly wiped the blood and dirt from her face and wrists, his eyes never leaving hers.

The cocoon of comfort and protection that Tristan wove around her as he gently wiped her face was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. She’d always been the caretaker, the independent problem solver, the strong one. It felt strange to put herself in his hands and let him care for her.

I will never let anyone take you away from me.
Now she understood. Part of her still wanted to be furious with him for lying to her, but it was enough that she finally knew why he’d kept her.

When he finished wiping her face, he took it gently between his hands and lowered his mouth to hers. She met his lips firmly and kissed him back. He moaned against her mouth and deepened the kiss, slanting his lips across hers as if he were starving for her.

The woman in her decided to give up the fight. The carefully constructed brick wall was coming down tonight.

The cell is empty.

Tristan had known mind-numbing fear like that only one other time in his life. He never expected to feel it again.

What Duff had planned to do to her made him sick. That he found her before Duff had a chance to carry out his plan was nothing short of a miracle. His abilities hadn’t failed him this time.

Rage tore at his soul as he looked into her bruised face. She was his, and no one...
no one
...was ever going to hurt her like that again.

Tristan cleaned her up gently, reverently, his heart pounding with an emotion he didn’t understand. What was it about her that made him unable to think clearly? That she was human was inconsequential. He’d never wanted anyone the way he wanted her.

He’d done it without thinking—taken her face in his hands and dropped his mouth over hers. He half expected her to protest, but she’d kissed him back, her lips soft and yielding under his. A moan escaped him as a searing heat hit him in the groin. He hadn’t thought he could get any harder than he already was.

Tristan got up from the bed, slowly moved her hands away from the torn edges of the tunic, and quickly swept it off her. There was just a hint of fear in her eyes.

She’s almost murdered in the forest and you want to... What’s wrong with you?

Feeling guilty, Tristan reached for the coverlet and pulled it back up over her body. “I’m sorry. You’ve had quite an ordeal tonight, and I shouldn’t...”

Aislin grabbed his wrist, and with a peculiar light in her golden eyes, pulled his hand and the coverlet back down the length of her. “Please...don’t stop. I want you, Tristan.”

He shuddered at her words. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

His eyes traveled down her naked body as his hands followed. She was perfection, and he couldn’t get enough of her.

Impatient, he stripped off his own clothes and lay down beside her.

He pulled her onto her side next to him and began to kiss her, long and hard, his eyes closed as he lost himself in mindless pleasure. He’d dreamed of this since the first night he’d brought her to Oakenbourne, holding her close to him on the horse.

With a groan, he pushed her onto her back and raised himself up on one elbow. He wanted to look at her as he touched her, watch her reaction as he made love to her. He ran his hand lightly across her warm breast before lowering his mouth to the nipple. It grew large and hard in his mouth. She gasped softly and arched her back.

He caressed her breast as he suckled her, and before long he was rewarded with more insistent cries of pleasure. Aislin arched her back completely off the bed, pushing the nipple forcefully into his mouth as she put her hand to the back of his head and pulled him to her.