Chapter 4
S he was going to die.
And if her mother didn’t kill her for this, she would just as likely punish her by refusing to continue to train her. She’s threatened more than once to do so. Only the knowledge that she was an only child prevented it. The first in many generations to have no siblings, Liana had been trained to read runes at a younger age than most. Without a seer, what would become of the Isle of Ely? Surely it would become a battleground, as much of England had apparently become these past fifteen years.
Her mother needed her, so much that she would not die this night. But with each step away from the cottage, every twig that snapped, Liana’s heart raced. What if he didn’t come?
Or worse, what if he did?
Was she really going to do this?
Unfortunately, it was too late to continue questioning herself. Slowing to a stop, despite never-ending mists rising from the marshes, she spotted a figure in the distance. Unless the trees of Ely had learned to walk, it was a man. One that should not be making his way through the forest on the outskirts of their village at this time of night.
Pulling her cloak closer, the brisk of fall giving way to the start of winter, Liana waited. Never mind the earl’s son was every bit as handsome as she remembered. Even before he stepped foot in their cabin, the legendary golden-brown locks of the next Earl of Ely, now clipped to his shoulders, were second only to his well-known features. Features every woman in the village discussed for days on end, all hoping that his betrothal would never come, as if the earl’s son would actually wed a commoner. Rubbish, such talk was. But Liana could understand the source of such dreams now, having been in his presence earlier.
He commanded a room, just like his father. It was impossible not to stare at him, though Liana had tried her best not to be one more simpering maid in love with the next earl.
With every step he took closer to her, Liana was forced to take deep breaths. Calm herself. There was no backing out now. She’d started this by boldly whispering to him, and now she must finish it.
Though his own cloak hid much of Sir Darien’s face, as he took those final steps toward her, the moonlight confirmed this was, indeed, the earl’s son. She began to bow but he stopped her.
“There is no need, Aeliana,” he said, lowering his hood.
He was no less handsome here than in their small cottage. Somehow, the opposite was true. She’d not known the Countess of Ellswood, but she must have been a beautiful woman indeed.
“Liana,” she blurted, before realizing that she should not be offering her given name. They were not equals, a lesson her mother instilled in her at a young age. “Apologies,” she said. “I am unused to my full name, but you?—”
“Will call you Liana. No apologies are needed.”
She pulled her own hood down.
“Ever. Not with me,” he added.
What a beautiful, unusual thing to say, given their stations. Permission to speak her mind was as unexpected as it was welcomed.
“Thank you for meeting me here. I am certain it was not a simple matter to leave the castle grounds undetected.”
“I am certain it was not a simple matter for you to do so either.” His voice, deep and smooth, was like a healing balm. If Liana needed healing.
“My mother,” she began, “is a skilled seer, as you know. I am simply her apprentice.”
“And yet, I sense there is little that is simple about you, Liana.”
Her name, on his lips, felt like a forbidden caress.
“You are mistaken, my lord. But I did not ask you here to discuss me.”
He stepped closer, his eyes lowering to her lips. Though she’d never been with a man in that way, Liana had enough experience being flirted with to discern that particular look. Or not. As quickly as it had come, his face was once again a mask of indifference.
Perhaps she’d only willed his interest in her, despite the futility of such a thing.
“What are we here to discuss?”
There was no turning back if she said the words.
“You asked my mother if she’d ever been wrong about a vision.”
His jaw flexed. “I did.”
“It was the wrong question.”
Sir Darien’s brow furrowed. “What is the right question, then?”
Mother, forgive me.
“What is missing? As my mother correctly told you, though the runes do not lie, neither do they offer a full vision of the future. At least, normally they do not.”
“Why do you believe something is missing from your mother’s vision?”
A twig snapping in the distance made Liana take a step toward Darien. He grabbed her arm, as if to position himself in front of her, when a deer ran through the trees. They were a rare sighting near the marshes, but a sign she was doing the right thing.
If one believed in signs, which she did.
She stepped back as the earl’s son dropped her arm.
“My mother has cast her runes many times, asking for the outcome of Empress Matilda’s claim.”
“At my father’s bidding, I’m certain.”
“And at times, of her own volition. She is not the only one who fears for the safety of the only child of our beloved earl. I’ve done so as well, and...”
She was here to say these next words, but they were stuck in her throat.
“Tell me, Liana.”
Sir Darien was his father’s son. It was a tone meant to be obeyed, but it wasn’t that command that freed her to say the words. It was Liana’s conviction that something more was written in the stars for Matilda’s claim than her mother read in her runes.
“My mother claims she does not see it, but each time either she or I attempt this reading, one of the runes, Sowilo, briefly glows with an inner light.”
“What does that mean?”
His intensity did not frighten her, though perhaps it should. Liana took a deep breath. “ Sowilo is the sun. Its glow hints at a renewal, or maybe even a victory.”
She let that sink in.
“You believe your mother’s reading is wrong? That Matilda will be victorious?”
Liana hesitated. This part was tricky, and why her mother wished Liana to hold her tongue. “I do not know. Perhaps, with continued readings, more will become clear. Or perhaps not. I know only there is a hint of more and felt that I should tell you. As Mother says, the runes do not lie. But perhaps they are being misinterpreted.”
She watched as doubt and confusion crossed through Sir Darien’s eyes. Finally, they fixed on her. “What do you believe?”
“I am but an apprentice,” she quickly explained. “My mother is more skilled, more?—”
“What do you believe?” he asked again.
Liana squared her shoulders. “That there is more to the reading we do not yet understand.”
It was Sir Darien’s turn to breathe in deeply, his head dipping back as he looked to the moon, as if it might offer some answers. Running his hands through hair that made Sir Darien a thing of legend—how many times had she heard of it, and his pleasing visage, these past years?—he finally looked back to her.
“Come with me.”
Liana was certain she’d heard him wrong. “Pardon, my lord?”
“Liana, if we are to travel together. It will not be a pleasant ride to Castle Blackwood, nor are there many women there. But I will not abandon the cause, or my friends. If any clarity comes from your visions, then even better.”
This was not at all what she’d expected.
What, then, had Liana expected? Hadn’t she wanted him to take in her information before making a decision? “What if I am wrong? If you are killed supporting a failed claim?”
Panic welled inside her. Liana could not breathe properly. What had she done?
He closed the gap between them, took both her hands in his, and met Liana’s gaze. “You had enough conviction in your reading to ask me here. Do not doubt yourself. Or blame yourself, if things do not go as planned. I was returning anyway, even before you called me here.”
Trying to ignore the pleasant feeling of her hands being gripped by his much larger, stronger ones, Liana let out a breath. “You were?”
“Aye. Against my father’s wishes, even hearing your mother’s reading. I understand my family has been advised well these many years. And have avoided conflict due to our bond with your ancestors. But...I am not my father. There must be a balance between the seer’s visions and my own mind and free will. Returning to Castle Blackwood, to the Order, is the right thing to do. And so I leave on the morrow.”
He released her hands, maybe sensing her panic had abated at his revelation. He was returning anyway.
“My mother will not allow me to travel alone with you.”
His smile was coy, making Sir Darien appear younger than his thirty years. Liana knew his age, remembering he was five winters older than she.
“Neither does my father plan to allow me to leave. But I will do so anyway.”
Oh dear. Could she really do this? Should she do this?
Liana turned from him, unable to form a coherent thought while looking at the earl’s son. She looked back to their cottage in the distance. What would Mother say if she did this? That she would ruin any marriage prospects by traveling alone with a man? Marriage eluded her anyway. She may be pleasing to look at, but no man wished to align himself with a witch, whether the claim was true or not. And Liana knew well the crushing weight of heartbreak and would happily avoid such a feeling ever again.
Liana knew how to write. She could leave a missive. Her mother would be extremely angry, but what was Liana’s other choice? To refuse him, and watch as Sir Darien left to continue fighting for, potentially, a failed cause?
An impossible choice.
She turned. “I could be wrong.”
“You could be right.”
Liana had already made her decision the moment he asked. The courage to actually say yes, though...that was another matter entirely.
“I’ve never left the Isle,” she said, more than a little afraid of what lay ahead.
“There is much to see beyond our borders. Think on it. There is a danger in coming with me. Though you will be safe at Castle Blackwood, if the tides turn and our Order is discovered...there is a risk.”
It was done. “And an even greater risk if the king keeps his crown. If there is a path forward for Empress Matilda...” She raised her chin. “We will discover it.”
Liana would say yes to this journey a thousand times over, despite the danger and her mother’s wrath, just for the way he smiled at her. And that, perhaps, was the biggest danger of all.