he couldn’t bring himself to. He spared one last thought for making certain that his spells were intact and their horse and owl were safe, then he closed his eyes and allowed himself a sweet, peaceful, if very brief, sleep with the woman he loved in his arms.
Twenty-six
Sarah walked along a rather dusty road with her horse tucked into her pack and Tarbh walking sedately behind Ruith, and kept on with the cheerful face she’d been wearing since she’d woken two days earlier in that farmer’s stall to find Ruith standing there, silent as a tree, tending what she assumed were spells and no doubt listening for things she couldn’t hear.
When she’d stirred, he had pulled himself back from wherever he’d been and smiled at her. He hadn’t made mention of what he’d read to her earlier that morning, and she’d avoided the topic as well, quite happily. She’d found the book tucked back in her pack, and she had left it there, perfectly content to consign it to things better left examined when she had the leisure to, say in several years, when she was comfortably far away from her current straits and was spending the winter in front of some hot fire, knitting.
She suspected Ruith would have been happy to have lingered a bit longer in that farmer’s barn, but the spell she’d found had seemed rather bright for one of Gair’s creations, and they hadn’t wanted it to draw attention from someone who might have been able to see it.
Such as perhaps the mage who had left another scrap of the spell of Diminishing outside the stall where they’d been sleeping.
To say it had unnerved them both was a profound understatement. Ruith had remained as he ever was when faced with a crisis: calm and unfazed, though he had moved quickly and efficiently to get them out of the barn without delay. They had been running—or flying, rather—very quickly ever since. Ruith would have taken more time, but whatever horse they’d found themselves riding had never seemed to want to halt. Sarah hadn’t argued, for though she couldn’t see it, she could certainly feel that someone was watching them.
It couldn’t have been Morag. That vicious woman would have killed them as easily as to have looked at them. She wouldn’t have simply followed them to torment them.
That had, unfortunately, left her wondering just who it might be.
She looked up at the inn that had risen up quite quickly before them, happy to put the thought of her two-day-old panic behind her. She’d seen worse, so she didn’t feel any need to comment on its quality. It sported a roof, no doubt had drinkable ale, and likely boasted a hot fire inside. It was perhaps all they could expect.
“You realize,” Ruith said conversationally, “that I’m finished with sleeping without you within arm’s reach.”
Given that he’d scarce let go of her since they’d left An-uallach, she was perfectly ready to believe him. “Rogue,” she said just the same, lest he feel too comfortable with the thought.
“But an honorable sort of rogue.”
She looked up at him. “Those sorts of thoughts seem to continually distract from our purpose.”
“And hopefully distract you from things I think trouble you as well,” he said seriously. “Is it working?”
She had to take a deep breath, not because she was still overwhelmed by what she’d learned about herself, but because they had been running as if all the hounds of Riamh were after them, which, she supposed, they might very well be.
“Aye,” she managed. “It’s working very well.”
He didn’t believe her, that much was clear, but he was apparently going to refrain from pressing her. She was grateful for it, which she supposed he also knew.
He stopped her, then put himself in front of her. “I’ll go first.”
She didn’t argue. If he wanted to save her from wearing something sharp flung in their direction, he was welcome to it. She walked into the tavern behind him and was relieved to find that the inside was much less neglected than the outside. She made her way over to a bench set against the wall near the fire and sank down onto it with a grateful sigh. She took off her pack, set it down very carefully next to her on the floor, then leaned her head back against the wall and happily watched Ruith stand at the bar and order them a meal. He accepted two cups of ale, then made his way over to her, sitting