Chapter 7
“ Y ou ride well.”
The road had opened wide enough for the two of them to ride side by side.
“For a mage? Or a woman?” As soon as the words left her mouth, Liana wished to recall them. They sounded more like her mother than she. Liana loved her mother, but there were times bitterness tinged her thinking.
“Certainly not the latter,” Darien said, before she could recall the words. “There is a woman at Castle Blackwood, a fellow archer, who rides better than any man alive. As to the first? I’ve no knowledge of how well mages typically ride, so I will withhold comment on that.”
Glad he’d chosen not to take offense, Liana laughed. “My mother rides passably well, but I will admit to knowing few other mages myself.”
“Few? But you do know some?”
The steady clop of their horses’ hooves on the thankfully dry dirt roads was the only sound that reached them as she considered her words. Now that it was day, there were fewer animals to terrify her, apparently.
“There is a woman,” she said. “She’s come to our cottage a few times throughout the years, asking my mother for advice. I know little about her and Mother will not allow me to ask her questions, but I know she is a seer, like us.”
“Where is she from?”
Liana shrugged. “I know not. It has been years since we’ve seen her and my mother refuses to answer any of my questions about her, saying ‘some questions are best left unanswered.’” Hence her hesitation to speak of the woman Liana knew only as Elowen.
“Of all the mysteries rumored of Isle of Ely, that is a new one to me.”
“I do not believe my mother has mentioned Elowen to your father, though I could be wrong. Forgive me if I’ve spoken too freely. I do not wish to disparage my mother and am certain there is a good reason for her reticence.”
The way Darien looked at her then reminded Liana of his expression when she woke. The sun had not yet risen when he’d gently called her name. For so many years, she had heard of the fearsome earl’s son, more deadly with a bow and arrow than any man in England. None had been surprised when he left Ely to fight for Empress Matilda, though she and her mother alone were privy to the secretive nature of his quest with the Guardians of the Sacred Oak. Since her mother had foreseen Ely would not face the same scrutiny as many of the others King Stephen deemed as traitors, the Earl of Ellswood had encouraged his son to fight for their rightful ruler.
The man looking at her now, however, was not that fearsome warrior. His eyes were as kind and affable as any she’d seen; this was a man Liana could lose her heart to. The heart she’d guarded closely for many years.
“Our relationship is our own, Liana. Worry not about either of our parents. They forged their own paths, as their ancestors have done for centuries before them. You’ve no need to guard your words with me.”
“You are gentle, for a man raised by one such as the earl.”
“If you claim me to be gentle at Blackwood, my friends will laugh me from their halls.”
She smiled. “Will you tell me more of these friends I am to meet?”
Darien did so, explaining that he’d met the three men he considered his closest friends not long after arriving at Castle Blackwood. Although each of the recruits was considered among the finest warriors in England, the unique nature of their mission required them to continue to receive training at Blackwood in between missions, which fostered a camaraderie that made his friends—Alden, Roland, and Gareth—more like brothers than fellow recruits.
“So after the Master of Horse was killed, Gareth was offered his position?”
“It was not so easy a path as that, though aye, eventually he was, and he is now the new horsemaster at Blackwood.”
“Why was it not so easy? Because he’d begun as a recruit?”
“Nay, because he’d fallen in love with the daughter of Lord Ashcroft, the Guardians’ chief financier. The two married in secret anyway.”
She gasped. “Surely not. Did he accept the marriage?”
“Nay, at first he did not.”
She sensed there was more to his story. Indeed, as Darien looked at her, just as they’d begun to cross a slow-moving stream, Liana was certain of it. Concentrating on the crossing, it was only as they emerged from the stream back onto dry land that he continued.
“There are things I would tell you,” Darien said finally. “Of which very few are aware. It is not in my nature to do so but...you are different, of course.”
“Because I keep your family’s secrets?”
“Perhaps.”
Perhaps? What other reason could there be?
“There is another instructor. The swordmaster, Sir Eamon Thorne. He is a favorite among the recruits, a kind and wise leader, as well as a most capable swordsman. Evelina discovered that he was her true father, and the reason Lord Ashcroft had never been kind to her. In exchange for keeping such information secret, he did not challenge the marriage.”
“A scandal, to be sure.”
“And would be more so if others learned of it.”
“Is that not difficult, for Sir Eamon not to claim his daughter as his own?”
“Very much so, I would imagine. But until Matilda’s claim is secure, and while Ashcroft continues to finance the Order...”
Though he did not finish, there was no need to do so.
“And then...” Darien smiled. “There is the matter of Alden and Lady Elara.”
“The Strategies instructor?”
“Aye.”
“I look forward to meeting such a woman. Risking her life to join a cause, her father still serving the king...I could not imagine being in such a position.”
“Could you not?”
She peeked at him, Darien looking every bit the role of a knight despite his lack of armor. There was a regality to him that bespoke of both his upbringing and something more...
“This is different.”
“How so? You are risking as much as Lady Elara.”
“Her father could be killed if she were discovered.”
Darien said nothing, but he did not look convinced. Wishing to redirect the discussion away from herself, she returned to one of his earlier comments. “You said ’tis not in your nature to tell me things. Are you aware of your reputation in the village?”
His secret smile told Liana he was very much aware. “Am I aware they call me Shadow Knight?”
So he did know. “Among other monikers. They say you are more elusive than any man alive.”
“What do you think, Liana?”
That the way he looks at me now will see me returned to Ely broken-hearted.
“That the stories are exaggerated. That you trust me because my mother and I have kept her involvement in your father’s decisions throughout the years a secret. And that I planned to do the same with you, someday.”
“That someday is now. A surprise for us both, aye?”
“Indeed. Our paths were always meant to cross, but I thought it would be some years from now.”
A shadow crossed his face as they slowed. The stream ahead was deeper, and stronger, than the last. This one, she did not relish crossing.
Dismounting, Darien gathered his horse’s reins and approached her. “I will guide you both across.” Yet, despite saying as much, he did not move. “May I ask you something?”
“Of course,” she said, grateful for his guidance across the stream. Nothing scared her quite as much as getting a vision wrong, again. But this past day had brought other fears to the surface she did not know existed. Including being swept away by the current.
“Is that something you can see? How many years from now I would consult with your mother, instead of my father? Or how many years until we did so, you and I.”
A chill that had naught to do with the stream’s danger washed over her. Liana had been prepared for this. She knew either the earl, or his son, would someday ask this of her. But she was still an apprentice. And she thought that day would be many years into the future.
Liana echoed her mother’s words, the ones she had prepared her to say. “I can attempt to read anything you ask of me. Some visions will come readily and be easily interpreted. Others not at all. And some, like the one of Matilda, will come slowly and in pieces. And though the runes do not lie, their interpretation relies on my skill, one that is still being developed and tested.” That last bit, she added herself.
“So you can read...” It seemed Darien could not say the words.
“I can read your father’s death. And my mother’s too. As well as ours. But that is not the question you should ask. Instead, consider very carefully...do you want that reading? If I am able to conjure that vision clearly? Would you truly wish for it?”
He swallowed. Liana could not envision this man, the Shadow Knight, afraid of anything. But the look of doubt that crossed his features...she would not call it fear. But he refrained from a reply, and Liana was glad for it.
“Come,” he said. “We will ride hard to reach the Red Fox Inn this eve. I would have you sleep in a bed and not on the ground, if it pleases you.”
It pleased her very much. “We should not be seen traveling together, though. Aye?”
“It is true, but this particular inn caters to traveling nobility seeking discretion. You will pose as my scribe, and none will ask questions.”
With that, they began to cross, Liana’s trepidation about the inn lost to a more pressing one of remaining seated as the water rushed past them, a scribe and her Shadow Knight.