Page 130 of Dark Rival

Instead he heard her weeping.

He started to rush down the ridge. Her image came another time, as forcefully. She crouched against an earthen wall, and he saw the snakes seething about her feet.

Royce.

She’d been put in a pit with snakes. And in that moment, a shocking memory returned, a memory he hadn’t recalled in over eight hundred years. When he had vanquished Kael and rescued Brigdhe, he’d heard a woman crying out to him. He’d tried to find her, but failed.

In that exact instant, he remembered it as if it were but yesterday. He recalled leaping into a pit filled with snakes, only to find it empty.

Yet he’d heard her calling to him.

He’d heard Ailios through the centuries.

Royce reached the tree line, so enraged he could barely see. Ahead lay Eoradh, and he threw all of his power at the huge front gates. Nothing happened.

In dismay he turned and saw Ruari coming down the hill, intent on rescuing his wife. Furious, he turned back and blasted the front gates again. They did not even shudder.

His power was gone, taken by the holy laws of the universe, and he roared in rage. Ailios needed him, but he was powerless to help her. Still, damn the Code now! He’d free her as an average man would with ordinary human power. There was nothing ordinary about his will.

Royce, help me.

He went still, filled with a sense of helpless rage. How could he get past the archers on the walls without his powers? And even if he did, how could he get past the giants with their lances?

Ruari had reached the front gates and Royce thought he faltered, as if hearing Ailios, too. But then Ruari wrested them off their hinges, flinging the huge doors aside. The barrage of arrows began.

Ailios needed him now. He could not stand aside. He was about to run forward, behind Ruari, when he saw Moffat standing in the courtyard.

The deamhan was grinning, waiting for him.

This was Moffat’s plan.

Moffat had lured him here so he would be powerless, so he could be destroyed.

And then he would mercilessly use Ailios for his own demonic ends.

His mind raced. He would gladly die if he could free her. But dying and leaving her to Moffat served no one, not even Ailios. And in that moment, he knew he needed Ruari to rescue her. Raw frustration, the rage of sheer helplessness, overcame him.

Ailios needed him, but now, he had to depend on Ruari to hear and heed her cries.

ALLIE HAD MANAGED to finally calm herself. She had done so with prayer. In fact, she felt certain she was not alone now. One of the Ancients was nearby and he was most definitely male. But even that could not truly comfort her. She was acutely aware that the snakes were very close to her sandal-clad feet, and she remained frozen, her back digging into the earthen wall. If there was any one thing she despised and truly feared, it was snakes—even the nonpoisonous ones.

Where was Royce?

And if he did come, what did Moffat plan?

She didn’t dare move. The mass of snakes continued to writhe not far from her feet.

She felt the majestic presence hovering near her somehow increase. The air seemed to caress her skin. Some of the chill in her gut, her bones, receded.

And she heard men shouting.

Allie was afraid to focus on what was occurring above her, afraid to take her eyes from the snakes. But she had to know what was happening, and she tried to listen, to feel.

The shouts were faint and they were cries of alarm.

She felt pain.

She jerked, finally forgetting the snakes, worried about Brigdhe. But instantly she realized that men were being wounded and dying. A violent battle was in progress. Her heart leapt with hope. Had Royce come? If he was above, why couldn’t she feel him?