Page 20 (1/2)

Willa shifted on the furs and grimaced into the darkness of the tent She had a terrible need to relieve herself again It was a frequent probleh it had only beco of this journey

They were on their way to court Willa had no idea what the king&039;s h had returned to their roo for court the next day He&039;d said they were going to pledge their fealty and resolve the matter of her father once and for all Willa had felt a touch queasy ever since

Her father Lord Tristan D&039;Orland Theto kill her Or, at least, theto kill her presumably at his behest

Her discomfort forced her back to the matter at hand and Willa scoith displeasure They&039;d had to stop often and repeatedly that day to allow her to tend to this very need It was , since everyone had to stop and wait on the path for Hugh to lead her off into the woods to find a handy bush Of course, he would insist on acco for Willa She supposed it was odd after all the inti to relieve herself over a log while her husband stood guard inches away

Willa rolled onto her side and peered at the dark shape of her husband She wished she could hold it until

Making a face, she considered slipping out on her own to tend the h Besides, the idea of creeping about alone in the dark woods was rather daunting Then, too, even if she&039;d found the courage to do so, there was a guard sitting by the fire in the center of the camp She wasn&039;t likely to slip past hih snuffled in his sleep and rolled away froorously "Husband?"

He ed her hand away

Willa scowled She really had to go She punched his arm "Husband!"

"What? What!" He sat upright at once, taking the furs with him Willa slid off the caown

"Willa?" He hissed "What is happening?"

"I ao"

"Go?" She could hear the frown in his voice "Go where?"

"I have to go you know" She griown and pulled it on, then addedthe irritation in his voice It sparked a responding irritation in Willa It was not as if she wished to go Nor was it her fault She didn&039;t knohy she was so plagued by the need of late

"You needn&039;t exert yourself, husband I can tend the et upset withher shoes, she sailed out of the tent in a fine snit

"Willa!" Much cursing and rustling sounded inside the tent and she could i blindly about in search of his clothes Willa offered an elanced curiously her way, then began to tap her foot as she waited outside the tent flap Hugh charged out a round in his rush He sighed his relief as he steadied her

"I thought you had left without , Willa turned and led the way into the woods She hadn&039;t gone far when her annoyance petered out under nervousness and that ee in the midst of the woods She should not be so tense and anxious now But she was

"What is it?" Hugh asked in hushed tones when she paused

"I cannot see where I aht and the stars were shining brightly Her eyes had adjusted quickly and though she was not able to see as well as she could during daylight, she could s in her path as darker shadows She si her hand, Hugh stepped around her and began to lead her deeper into the trees

It wasn&039;t long before he stopped Apparently he&039;d found a place he felt was appropriate Willa peered at the dark spot he gestured to and grimaced She was suddenly beset with a vast list of concerns Snakes, poison ivy, insects and night creatures were ah prompted

Willa pushed her concerns aside anda chore in the dark than it had been in daylight and she decided that traveling - so she&039;d done rarely in the past - was perhaps not for her First off, Hugh would not let her ride astride He&039;d not even been willing to consider it No wife of his was going to wear braies and ride astride Even after a whole day riding sidesaddle, she still found the position uncomfortable Willa wasn&039;t one to think of herself as needing coddling, but this traveling business was a dah whispered and Willa rolled her eyes at the question Surely he could hear that she wasn&039;t done? To her, it sounded as loud as a down-pour of rain in the silent night It was on that thought that she suddenly realized how silent the forest was The rustle of night creatures had died The night was still She knew this was a bad sign

Finishing quickly, Willa straightened She set her clothes back in order as she joined her husband When she touched Hugh&039;s ar with it Willa let her gaze slide over the shadows surrounding the There was a tree, another tree, another tree that h&039;s arm, but he&039;d apparently seen it as well, and was even then grabbing her ar her behind a tree Willa listened to her thundering heart and watched the dark outline of her husband She was trying to judge by his pose whether he thought they had been spotted

After a few moments of tense silence, she uard"

Calling out for the guard at cah shook his head Willa settled in to wait, then nearly gasped aloud when Hugh&039;s grip suddenly tightened on her arh the trees When he paused again after a few ain and asked, "Why do we not just call the guard?"

"Because &039;twould pinpoint our position, and I left my sword behind in my rush to follow you," he hissed back Then he added, "He is between us and ca to relieve himself as well, but I cannot be sure, and without a sword I dare not - " His words died an abrupt death as soh suddenly whirled her around and shouted "Run!"

Willa broke into a sprint at once Crashing blindly through the trees, she winced as branches slapped at her face and pulled at her hair It was possible the guard at caht come to their aid, but it didn&039;t see past their heads - for that hat that whistle had been, an arrow sailing by Whoever the shadoas, he obviously wasn&039;t one of the h was at her back, vulnerable to any future arrows the s would carry her She had no desire to lose Hugh now

Her husband jerked on her arht, and Willa continued in that direction without breaking stride Sheturn that Lucan had shown her to avoid an oncoh&039;s hold on her, but when it returned seconds later, she guessed that he&039;d avoided the tree as well

After several h not as sharply as the first turn She again continued to run without faltering Willa was sure that her training during the last month was the only reason she was able to run as far and fast as she did She was just starting to tire when the trees suddenly fell away That was enough to make her slow Unprepared for this sudden action on her part, Hugh trod painfully on the back of her heel Despite that, Willa was grateful for her caution when she realized the deeper darkness yawning ahead was the edge of a cliff She stuh fro her to steady thee where she had halted A curse slid fro far below He turned away at once and Willa could see his eyes frantically searching for a hiding place in the ht Now that they were out of the trees, it was h to see features and expressions Light enough to be a good target

"The trees," he said at last and took her ar her back the way they had come "We will climb one and hope he does not see us"

"But what if he does?" Willa protested, dragging at his hold "We shall be pluh paused and turned to his wife, frustration boiling within hih the woods The man was not far behind the his decisions Why could she not just obey him? "Wife - "

"Husband," she countered quickly "The trees are the first place he will look He will not expect you to makehis gaze to the white shift she wore "I dressed in the dark I thought I had donned h sed as he felt alarh hiht

"Let us ju swi once we e"

The sounds their pursuer ly close, but still Hugh hesitated He considered their chances; hers, then his, then theirs Finally, he nodded and urged her back to the cliff edge He peered down and al way down, the jue his ainst him for a quick kiss, then instructed, "Swiest you try to make your way back to the caht run into our pursuer Instead, follow the river to the next castle and try to get help there"

Even in the night he could see her frown "Are you not coh&039;s expression was tortured "Willa I do not swim"

"You told ht be the time to make an exception?"

"Nay You do not understand I do not swim"

"Do not?" She was silent for a moment, and then her eyes widened in comprehension "Do you h winced He preferred the "do not" to the "cannot" He&039;d always forsaken such frivolous pursuits as poetry writing and swi for the more lauded skills of battle The skills he&039;d chosen to hone had served him well Until he&039;d encountered Willa Only lately had these less lauded skills seemed almost necessary Much to his relief, Willa did not force him to admit to this lack in his abilities Instead, she asked, "What will you do?"

"I will climb a tree"

"You cannot!" she cried "There is no time now He is alo Now" He urged her closer to the edge

"Husband Prithee, coh started to shake his head, but she caught his face with her hands Her gaze burned into his in the darkness "You must trust h froze at this revelation This was the absolute worst ti, and the absolute best But did he dare allow her to try to carry them both to safety? He believed he had no chance if he did not jump He also believed he had no chance on his own in the water But Willa Hugh was sure she had a chance on her own, but that he would be a burden that would much diminish her chances

"Trust in h closed his eyes Suddenly, the witch&039;s words ran through his head as if she hispering them in his ear "What I see is that you will be perched on a precipice If you choose one way, all will be well Do you choose the other death"

A rustling sound drew his attention and he opened his eyes to see that she&039;d removed her shift so it would not hamper her Willa stepped naked before hih hesitated briefly, then took it In the nexttoward the water below

Landing in the river was like leaping into a hill of snow Willa gasped at the shock, then closed her mouth as the water covered her head She shot doard and hit the river bottoainst the pain, she pushed upward Her hand tightened on her husband&039;s, dragging hih her as she broke the surface, but then Hugh began trying to free his hand Gulping in air, she turned in the water, he didn&039;t kno to stay afloat and was panicking Willa quicklyhiainst her chest to keep his head above water

"Do not fight," she panted, tightening her hold on hinored his instincts and obeyed alain They could do this She could do this Her gaze slid up the cliff and she spotted the dark shadow of athe river, but she didn&039;t think he could see the his bow at the the current, allowing it to carry theood distance like that before Willa judged that they had gone far enough; then she cut toward shore at a wide angle so she would waste as little energy as possible struggling against the current It was still a wearying battle as she dragged hi to assist by kicking his legs, but he was less than helpful, especially since he was kicking her with every other ainst it This would be hard enough on hiht have of aiding their escape Willa was very aware that her husband felt he&039;d failed her several tie His ht? If you are tiring, let h said, and suddenly Willa realized that she was tiring Herto ache and she&039;d unconsciously slowed her efforts She was not going to let hio, however

Willa twisted her head around to see that they had covered perhaps half the distance to the riverside They should have gotten farther than that, but then she realized that the current had groifter The riverto find the riverbed, but it hadn&039;t gotten that shallow Gritting her teeth, Willa renewed her efforts, grateful for the weeks of training that had strengthened her h the pain She did the sa she&039;d learned to do on the practice field; Willa ignored the pain and counted her strokes to distract herself The trick worked Still, when her heel suddenly brushed solid ground an eternity later, she could have sobbed with relief

Willa is drop and floundered briefly as she tried to gain her footing Apparently thinking her strength had given out, Hugh began to struggle, trying to catch at her and hold her above water even as he was sinking Then his own feet hit the riverbed and she heard him mutter, "Thank God," as he stood and helped her to her feet in the water The current was strong here and Willa was so exhausted, she needed his assistance in stu water, Willa collapsed to her knees on the ground Hugh knelt beside her, concern on his face

"Are you alright?" he asked, hugging her close as she began to shiver She felt his hands begin to chafe her skin, trying to wars, then started on her back and sides Willa&039;s an to relax and some of the chill left her They were safe They had escaped their pursuer and the river Nothing else mattered Not her exhaustion, not the cold, not her nakedness -

She pulled away froh asked, glancing swiftly around with alarrin covering his face as his chafing slowed to amovement "Aye That you are, my lady wife I rather like you this way"

Willa rolled her eyes and clucked her tongue iled to her feet Leave it to a man to see this calamity as a benefit He was not the one who had to return to cah stood beside her, his lascivious expression fading to concern "Mayhap you should rest awhile longer You strained yourself to save us"

"We saved us," Willa told hiht would lead the too pleased to say so

"Nay," Willa insisted, batting at the branches that tried to scrape her tender flesh as she struggled through them "We saved us You saved us first, then I saved us We saved us"

"How did I save us?" he asked with arab at a branch and push it out of her way

"You saved us in the woods by detecting the presence of our attacker and then shielding h snorted at that and reached past her to re us You could have run through the woods alone"

"But I did not I did not even realize there was a problem and would not have on , like a fat pheasant for hiine h the heart whilst draining the dragon&039; Dear God, theinto their sleeves"

She heard what sounded suspiciously like a snort of laughter froh; then he cleared his throat and asked, "Er where did you hear that term?"

"Baldulf," Willa told him, then cursed and paused to rub her foot She&039;d stepped on so her foot as the pain eased, she started to walk again and explained, "He used it all the ti to drain a dragon, though I was not sure how you would drain one, and of what, exactly I was curious to find out though, but Eada caught on and had to explain that &039;twas not what I thought"

"Hmm" He pushed another branch out of her way "Apparently, she did not do a very good job in the explaining"

"What do you nantly "Of course she did"