Page 158 of Forbidden

“I don’t know. I know only that something is wrong, black wings beating…”

The echo of her own words brought Amber’s attention back to Meg. The compassion in the Glendruid healer’s eyes was as clear as it was unexpected.

“A prophecy attended my birth,” Amber said. “‘A man with no name may you claim, heart and body and soul. Then rich life might grow, but death will surely flow.’”

Dominic’s eyes narrowed into slivers of beaten silver as he listened. He would have dismissed the words, but his own marriage had taught him that some prophecies were as real, and as deadly, as a drawn sword.

“‘In shades of darkness he will come to you. If you touch him, you will know life that might or death that will.

“‘Be therefore as sunlight, hidden in amber, untouched by man, not touching.

“‘Forbidden.’”

When Amber finished speaking, there was a silence unbroken by even the wind. She turned around and found what she had feared she would—Duncan standing behind her, watching her with wintry contempt in his eyes.

“You came to me in shades of darkness,” Amber said,” a man with no name. And I touched you. You claimed my heart and my body. We had better pray that my soul is still unclaimed, or death will surely flow.”

“Then we are lost, witch. Your soul was sold to the devil a long time ago.”

“Duncan!” Meg said, appalled.

“Don’t let your soft heart lead you astray, Meggie,” Duncan said. “There is naught but hell’s own calculations in that sweet-faced witch.”

“You are wrong. I haveseenher.”

“So have I,” he retorted sardonically. “I have seen her bend to me and whisper of love at the very instant she most deeply betrayed me.”

Amber’s head came up. She watched him with a falcon’s proud eyes.

“I have never betrayed you,” she said distinctly.

“You didn’t tell me my own name. I call that a betrayal.”

“I didn’t know who you were until you fought the outlaws with such lethal skill.”

Duncan said nothing.

“And even then I wasn’t certain beyond all doubt,” Amber said. “It made no sense. You had flashes of Learning, yet Duncan of Maxwell wasn’t Learned.”

Meg looked curiously at Duncan, as though seeing a side of him that she hadn’t known existed before.

“There could have been other warriors,” Amber said, her voice subtly pleading, “men whose names I didn’t know, men who had a strong hand with the hammer, men who were Learned.”

“Did you know who I was before we married?” Duncan asked bitterly.

Amber’s spine straightened and her chin came up. “Yes.”

“Did you know I was betrothed to another, a marriage arranged by my true lord, Dominic le Sabre?”

“Erik…told me.”

“Before we were married?”

“Yes.”

“And you say you never betrayed me. Such fine calculations they must teach the Learned, all the ways to split hairs until nothing remains but dishonor.”

The contempt in Duncan’s voice made Amber feel as though she were being flayed with a thin whip.