“Aye, love.”
From close by, his mothersang lullabies.He ran down an empty hall searching for her, hisfootsteps echoing off the cold floors and stone walls.Wallswithout doors.Walls without end.He ran and ran, his footstepsechoing, his mother calling to him from beyond the cavernousmaw.
“Mother,” he cried out.“Mother.Don’t go.”
“Shush,” a breathwhispered.“I’m here.”
“Sing?”hepleaded.
“Sleep,” the voicesang.
***
Talon opened his eyes and tried to gethis bearings.He lay beneath a ceiling of thatch over sturdycrossbeams of wood, a ceiling he’d never seen before.It wasn’tunusual for him to wake in a strange place, but he’d alwaysremembered how he’d gotten there.He tried to swallow.His tonguefelt like it was three times its usual size and as dry as theSpanish plains.His head throbbed and his body was as weak andhelpless as a swaddling babe’s.
He turned his head to the side and apull came from his neck to his shoulders.Lara slept in a chairbeside the bed he lay in, her hair a wild tangle of auburn curls,her usually rosy cheeks wan and hollowed.She wore a linennightshift and shawl of wool he didn’t recall seeing before, nordid he recognize the small table next to her chair.He didrecognize the waist belt and knife she wore and tried to think whyshe would be wearing them over her nightshift, then he remembered:chasing after her and fighting Lothair and the count’s men; thearrows in his side and thigh, how Lara had pulled them out andcauterized his wounds.Then the searing pain, floating in and outof consciousness, floating in and out of strange dreams, vagueimages of sky and trees and horses swaying and bobbing above him,his body burning up with fever—then nothing.
His instincts told him she’d draggedhim up the mountain to the place she and Sophie called the Hollowand that he’d have left his life’s blood on that meadow were it notfor her.Of course, it was because of her that his blood had beenspilt there in the first place, but then that seemed to be hisfate: to bleed for his thorny beauty.
He moved his left hand under thebedcovers and brushed the bandage wrapped around his waist and theone wrapping his thigh.He was naked except for his breechcloth.Hetried to shift his body, and a ripping pain tore through his rightside from his toes to his shoulder.He gritted his teeth so as notto cry out and wake Lara, taking slow, labored breaths in and out.The air smelled of rosemary and lavender, easing his chest andthroat, and two cups and several tubs and vials sat on the littletable by Lara.
He coughed, and his belly gripped.Heshut his eyes with a grimace and opened them to Wolf’s face in his,tongue lolling and tail wagging.He lifted a hand to pat the dog’shead, causing his side to grip again, and dropped it.
“Welcome back.”Larasmiled at him, the one true tonic that would cure him of any ill.Then her expression grew strained and somber.“I thought I’d lostyou a few times there.”
“Not a chance.”He triedto smile, but his lips were dry and caught on his teeth.He swipedhis only slightly damper tongue across them.“How long have I beenout?”
She shifted in her chair and picked upone of the cups and held it to his mouth.“It’s been three dayssince you took your wounds,” she said as he sipped the cool,slaking water.“You’ve been wandering between this world and thenext ever since.”
Her voice caught, and the same fearhe’d seen in her eyes when she’d woken from her dreams cloudedthem.
“Tell me, Lara.Tell mewhat you dreamt of me that night by the river, after we madelove.”
Color rose to her cheeks, then paled.“I saw you pierced by an arrow, slumped over the Black’s neck,” shesaid, her voice breaking.“Then you fell and lay in a pool of yourown blood, your eyes dulled and unseeing.”She held his gaze, andwhat Talon saw in hers pained him more than the prick in his side.“I thought I saw you die.”Her voice was a raw whisper.“I couldn’tbear to love you more, only to lose you.”
Talon swallowed past the stone-sizelump in his throat.“You should know by now I’m too stubborn to diesimply because you’ve seen it in a dream.”
Her eyes welled with tears and herbody was trembling, much as Talon’s had after a few especiallyharrowing battles.
“Come here.”He patted thebed beside him, threw the covers aside, and shifted over to makeroom for her, wincing and grimacing as his leg throbbed and hisside clenched.Lara was eyeing him closely, going nursemaid on him:the last thing he wanted her to do right now.“You won’t hurt me.”He reached for her hand with more difficulty than he let on andpulled her toward him.“I promise.”Still she hesitated, and Talonput his bullheaded, stubborn pride that’d gotten him nothing but acold, lonely bed aside.“Please, my rose.I’ve more need of youthan all the medicines in this world or the next.”
She smiled and swiped her tears awayand climbed into the bed, one long, lovely leg at a time,stretching them out alongside his.She leaned her head on hisshoulder, then ran her fingers back through his hair.He pressed achaste kiss to her forehead and reached his good arm around hershoulders, coaxing her tighter into his chest, kissing her mop ofcurls.
“This is the only placeI’ve ever felt completely safe.”She nestled in closer.
“Are you referring tobeing in my arms or here in the Hollow?”
“Both.”She gave acontented sigh.
A peace settled somewhere in Talon’schest.In his soul.
She craned her head and eyed him.“How’d you know this was the Hollow?I don’t remember speaking ofit to you.Or anybody, ever, other than Sophie.”
“It was Sophie who firstspoke of it.Your first morning as prisoner in my chamber, when youplotted to escape from the bathhouse.‘We have to get you to theHollow,’ were her very words, as I recall.I also recall herwarning you to stay out of my bed.”He gave her his best leer.“Youlistened to her about as well as you listened to me when I told youto ride.”
“A good thing too,” shesaid.“Else I’d be in this bed all alone and you’d be carrion forthe vultures.”
Talon tucked Lara closer and placed akiss on top of her head.“I take it nobody else knows of thisplace?”