time he made it downstairs, he was almost certain that this was going to be a simple walk around the walls to make sure the walls hadn’t been breached.
A small part of him warned him not to dismiss her premonition, but he needed proof before he began to trust her visions. Even though he was skeptical of her dream, he wasn’t going back to bed. He was too experienced to take chances and head back to the room without even a cursory check. He gathered a few men from those on night duty within the Thent and went out to investigate.
The moment he stepped outside, a shiver raced up his spine. The chill in the air had nothing to do with it. Clouds blocked most of the moonlight making the courtyard dark. Just as Cami had warned. He still had his doubts, but he headed for the stables.
Just after he passed it, an unfamiliar scent teased his nose. Human. He raised his head and inhaled deeply. Two of them. He couldn’t locate them exactly, but the scent was much too strong to have drifted on the wind from the forest.
He stiffened. There was someone trying to get into the Thent. He growled, but inside he was stunned to find that she’d been right. It did make him wonder exactly what she’d seen or heard in her dreams to enforce her belief that he didn’t want a true mate.
Not that she was wrong in that belief. He hadn’t wanted to chance finding a real mate. The connection with Linc left him open enough to the pain. They were warriors. It was possible one of them could be killed. He’d been a coward by trying to avoid possible pain in the future and admitted it now.
With a grimace, he focused on the strange scent on the wind. He looked over at the three men with him and saw that they’d also picked up the smell of the intruders. He nodded to them. They silently began to move through the shadows toward the wall.
He took little satisfaction in the fact that his eyesight would be better than any human’s on this dark night. They had breached the walls of his home and meant to harm someone here. His fingers clenched around the hilt of his sword.
Anger pulsed through him. Part of him wanted simply to cut them down where he found them. He couldn’t do that as much as it would satisfy the territorial part of him. They needed to know what the men were after.
Colm could think of at least two groups who’d want inside access to the Thent. The most recent and most probable would be the family of the woman they’d taken from the gate town. They wouldn’t know that she’d live in a house outside the walls. Of course, if it had been him, he would have watched for at least a day to know where exactly his target was. Of course, it could be the other group or someone entirely different.
Colm clung to the dense shadows as they crossed the practice field. His eyes scanned for any sign of movement along the wall. The intruders were there somewhere. If he could smell them, they were already within the Thent. He wanted to get them before they had a chance to harm anyone. It wasn’t often they had notice before something such as this happened.
Movement along the base of the wall caught his eyes. It was hard to tell if it was wishful thinking since the shadows were especially deep there. As he watched, he saw it again. The two shadowy forms hugged the stone wall and stuck to the darkest areas. Moving in spurts the two men moved one at a time across the open spaces. Colm sent two men to secure the man in back while he and the other guard approached the man leading.
The man in back called out and took off running. He must have seen some hint of movement. Colm didn’t watch him. He drew his sword and rushed for the first invader as he too began running. Colm followed and the other guard ran almost beside him. They intercepted the man as he tried to slip around the stables.
Colm didn’t know where the man thought he could go within the walls. There wasn’t anywhere he could hide that he wouldn’t be found. The rogue drew a knife from his belt. Faced with the sharp end of two swords, he didn’t seem to be