The Queen's Rising (Untitled Trilogy #1)(79)

I dismounted on tingling legs and hurried to the tree. I knew this was the one, yet I couldn’t help but run my hands over the massive, furrowed trunk. And there, nearly worn away by years and seasons, was the carving of T.A.

I fell to my knees, searching my pockets for the little spade. I began to dig, settling into an urgent rhythm, feeling the muscles burn between my shoulder blades. The earth was soft; it spilled around my skirts as chocolate cake, stained my fingers as I continued to seek the locket and the stone.

My ears suddenly popped, and there was the sound of thunder, although it had been a perfectly clear morning. I felt the shift starting to happen, Tristan taking over. I couldn’t allow him to overcome me, and I dug faster, harder, and bit down on my lip until it bled, the pain and the metallic flow over my tongue keeping me anchored to my time and place.

Again, it took all of my focus to fend him off, to resist surrendering to him. It was like swimming against a strong current; I felt ragged, exhausted, when I finally tamped his urging by addressing him.

“What you have done, I will undo,” I whispered to him, my ancestor who had started the decline of Maevana.

I almost felt his surprise, as if he were standing behind me. And then he faded, giving way to my persistence.

There was a hollow thud at the tip of my spade.

And deep within the hole lay the wooden locket.

I had been prepared for it to have rotted away, but it was whole and well; the years of burial had not affected it, as if it had charmed itself to survive. Carefully, reverently, I reached down and took the chain, bringing the locket into my palm. My fingers were shaking as I worked the latch open.

The stone was just as I remembered, even though the memory had not been mine. It was smooth, luminescent, like a moonstone. Until it sensed my presence, and a blue light cascaded through it, like sun shining through rain. The awe poured over me like honey, thick and sweet. I wanted to sit and watch the magic dance through the stone. And I might have done so, fallen shamelessly captive to the quiet beauty of it. But the colors melted away, leaving the stone pearly white again, dim and mournful.

I was no Kavanagh. There was no trace of magic in my blood, and the stone had gone dormant after sensing me. It wanted Yseult, I thought, and thinking of her brought me back to the urgency, the danger I was flirting with.

As I latched the locket, I heard voices, the crunching of horses trotting through the woods. I was trembling as I shoved the wooden locket down the front of my dress, into the cage of my corset. Then I sent the spade tumbling down the hole and furiously refilled it, patting the earth firmly, scattering leaves and acorns and twigs over it. Just as Tristan had done one hundred and thirty-six years ago.

I heard the breaking of a stick, the swishing of feet in grass, just behind me.

Frantic, I tried to form a response for why I was kneeling here, beneath a tree, my fingers lined with dirt. I waited for a hand to fall on my shoulder and spin me about, to demand to know what I was doing. But it was a wet nose instead, nudging beneath my elbow. I sat down, the relief hot and prickly beneath my skin, as the wolfhound Nessie nudged me again, as if she wanted to play.

“Amadine!”

Now it was Sean, nearly upon me.

With what little time I had left, I ripped the hem of my dress, wiped the dirt from my hands onto the skirts, and tucked a twig into my hair. Nessie watched me with solemn eyes, as if she sensed my distress. Then I stumbled to retrieve the gelding, who was munching on the thin grass that flourished here. The locket pressed against my stomach, uncomfortable, but it would hold steady.

“Sean!” I called out to him, leading the horse back into the woods, Nessie on my heels.

“Amadine?”

We continued to call to each other until we met in the woods. His face went pale at the sight of me; he dismounted in a rush.

“What happened? Are you all right?”

“My horse spooked, right after Merei’s,” I said, making my voice waver. “He went for the woods.”

“Gods above, did you break anything?” He was looking at my lip, which I had forgotten about. A little trickle of blood had dribbled down my chin.

“No, it just rattled me a bit,” I said. “How is Merei?”

“She’s well.”

I glanced over his shoulder to see her and the mare approach us. Her gaze took me in, my dirt and my torn dress and my blood. Her fear finally roused, crossing the space between us as a shadow.

Bri, Bri, what are you doing?

“I swear that I chose the steadiest of horses for this tour,” Sean said with a shake of his head. “I cannot believe they both spooked. I apologize.”

“It’s not your fault,” I said, laying my hand on his arm. “All the same, do you mind taking me back to the castle?”

“Of course,” Sean said, offering his knee to help me mount.

We rode back to the courtyard, where Merei’s consort was about to go on a walk. They eagerly invited me to join them, but I declined. All I could think of was two things: I needed to change my dress and scrub the dirt from my nails before Allenach returned. And I needed the privacy to cry in relief that I had the Stone of Eventide.

I did both, and then made myself scarce until dinner, giving my heart and mind plenty of time to settle and realign to what now was to come. Not until after dinner, when I was back in my chamber pacing, trying to give Cartier enough time to leave the hall before I met him in his room, did a knock sound on my door.