Page 23 of Forbidden

Rich life might grow, but death will surely flow.

“Perhaps I had better take the stranger to Stone Ring Keep,” Erik said.

“Nay.”

“Why not?”

“He wears sacred amber. He is mine.”

The flat certainty in Amber’s voice both surprised and worried Erik.

“What if he regains his memory?” Erik asked.

“Then he will.”

“You could be in danger.”

“As God wills.”

A surge of anger went through Erik. The falcon cried and his horse moved restlessly and champed at the bit. Erik curbed his mount and soothed his falcon without looking away from Amber’s steady gaze.

“You make no sense,” he said finally. “I’ll send my squires for the stranger as soon as we’re through hawking.”

Amber’s head came up defiantly. “As you will,lord.”

“God’s teeth, are you possessed? I’m trying only to protect you from a man with no name.”

“He has a name.”

“You told me he didn’t remember his name.”

“He doesn’t,” Amber retorted. “I gave him one.”

“What is it?”

“Duncan.”

Erik’s mouth opened, then snapped shut with a distinct sound of clicking teeth.

“Explain,” he demanded.

“I had to call him something. ‘Dark warrior’ suits him.”

“Duncan,” Erik said neutrally.

“Yes.”

In the distance a horn blew, telling of hounds being sent after birds, scaring them into flight for the hawks that rode on the arms of knights. The peregrine on Erik’s saddle keened restlessly, recognizing the call to a hunt that had left her behind.

Overhead, a merlin’s cry announced yet another hawk on the wing. Erik looked up, searching the brilliant sky with eyes that were the equal of any hunting bird’s.

A small, fierce falcon shot down like a dark bolt from the blue, trailing silver jesses that flashed in the sunlight. Though the falcon’s stoop ended behind a rocky rise, Erik had no doubt about the outcome.

“Cassandra will have partridge before I have mallard,” he said. “Maid Marian flies with her customary lethal grace.”

Amber closed her eyes and let out a soundless sigh of relief that Erik was no longer pursuing the uncomfortable subject of the stranger whom she had named Duncan.

“Cassandra will come to you at supper,” Erik said. “And so will I. Be here. See that the man you callDuncanis here as well.”