Page 208 of Forbidden

The ragged cry that came from Duncan’s throat sent more clouds of geese hurtling from the marsh, wings beating blackly, voices calling back in their thousands, telling Duncan that he had learned Amber’s truth too late.

She was beyond his reach.

Duncan cupped the pendant in his hands, trying to find her once more. He found nothing but the tears that blinded him.

He buried his face in his hands, knowing his own truth too late. He wanted the very thing he had driven away from himself, and he wanted it more than he wanted life itself.

“Amber! Come back to me!”

No geese lifted in response to Duncan’s raw cry. No wings beat against air. No wind stirred dried marsh grasses. There was no sound at all.

Whispering Fen’s uncanny silence touched Duncan as no cry could have. He came to his feet and looked around wildly.

What he saw was a fen such as he had never known.

Where there had been myriad birds there was nothing. Where there had been wind there was stillness. Where there had been misty silver light there was now clear gold.

And there was silence, complete and perfect.

It was as though the fen had been cut adrift from time and life, caught like a bubble in sacred amber, neither touching nor being touched by anything of the world.

Duncan closed his eyes and wondered if this was what death felt like.

“Dark warrior…”

The soft whisper pulled the ground from beneath Duncan’s feet. He spun around.

She was there, within reach, wrapped in her golden robes, watching him with eyes that were too dark in a face that was far too pale. She looked ethereal, more fragile than flame.

“Amber,” Duncan said, reaching for her.

In the moment before he would have touched her, she flinched away.

“No more,” she whispered. “Please. No more. I can’t bear it.”

“I won’t hurt you.”

“You won’t mean to. But you will.”

“Amber.”

She stepped back as Duncan stepped forward.

“You must go from this place,” Amber said urgently. “It is too dangerous for you. Erik and Cassandra never should have guided you here.”

“They didn’t.”

“They must have. There is no other way.”

Duncan opened his hand. Amber’s pendant lay on his palm.

“You guided me,” he said simply.

“That cannot be. We aren’t joined in that deep and final way!”

“But we are. I am here. If you will not come away with me, I will stay with you in this amber silence.”

Amber closed her eyes and fought against the grief and hope that were destroying her equally.