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"I will go with you," he offered

"I thank you, but no" She thought of the excuses she could make and then abandoned them "I would have this time alone with him We have ht, then"

"It shouldn’t take that long," she said

Harlech gave her an enigins at , as the air and the movements of the animal dispersed Kyn scent Jayr had never been particularly adept at the skill, but she knew Byrne’s scent better than any other save her own, and under htest trace of it She always sreat deal of time with the aniht she caught a trace of hie, where it took a turn to the north

"Why would he come out there?" Jayrpaths went through that part of their land, e and grapefruit trees As she wheeled her horse around, the skin on her ars came alive with nerves, and the pit of her stoer

She urged her allop and bent low over his neck as they rounded the lake She reined hiistering in her ears, the distant sound of a familiar voice

"Down here"

Jayr disular hole stretched out in the clearing just before the groves She ran over and stopped short of the edge of it The scent of heather, strong and burning hot, wafted up from the pit Her head spun for a moment as she looked down and felt as if she had been thrust back in ti under her feet and staggered back as a two-foot section of ground cruhost of Byrne’s voice drifted up to her "Stay back"

The hell she would

Jayr rounded the sinkhole, looking for a stable edge, and then dropped down onto her belly to peer inside She couldn’t see him "Are you injured?" When he didn’t answer she called, "Aedan?"

She crawled over to see past an outcropping of stone, and spotted Byrne He lay ten feet below her, his big body led on a rock Blood covered his face and stained the front of his tunic

He was not dead This could not kill him She would run back to the stables and fetch men, rope, and horses They would pull hie in the air

Copper fro, o for help; even as fast as she was, the poisonous copper ht kill him before she returned She kept a coil of rope on her saddle; she would fetch that and use it to lower herself to him She thrust herself up on her hands and knees and went still as the earth ru in more of its sides and Jayr

It happened too fast for her to react; the earth took her and flung her into its depths She screamed when she landed on her shoulder and felt bones crack Rocks pelted her, soil choked her, and then the dark pit sed her alive

So she didn’t know, she opened her eyes Her heart kicked in her chest and she coughed violently, clearing the dirt from her nose and mouth Rocks shifted and fell away from her as she tried to prop herself up with the hand she could feel, then bit her lip as h her left side Her left arony

"Lass" A big hand groped and pulled more of the rocks away from her Byrne’s battered face appeared before her eyes She tried to help hiasped "You’re hurt; be still"

He uncovered her and pulled her up against hiainst the side of a rock The roan from her

"Let me see" When she did, he felt the top of her arm and shoulder "It’s come out of place Be brave; this will hurt like the devil"

He turned her arm and jerked on it at the same time, and Jayr stiffened as her bones shifted and ten thousand daggers stabbed into her shoulder

"Good lass" He held her close, panting "It’s back now" He started to say so away fronored the pain and crawled over to hi, but blood soaked the back of his tunic With effort she dragged hi from the top of the hole Seven broken arrow shafts protruded from his back and shoulders, their barbs deeply e from the wounds told her that the barbs were copper

Jayr shoved her hand into her pocket and took out her knife She would have to do this quickly or the copper would taint his blood and stop his heart, and then nothing ht before my joust, h he was unconscious, she thought on soht be able to hear her "You have to be there to award the trophy to htly "Aedan, if you can hearout the copper noill be as quick as I can"

It sickened her to stab the blade into his body and root with it until she felt the barb and could pry it free of his flesh But he lay unconscious, and if she were swift she could have them out of him before he awoke

"There" The arrowhead she plucked out looked familiar, but the copper burned her hand and she threw it away froust "Six more and ill be done"