The lord of the castle

chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

Channa Leigh's gaze swept the land around them.

She was all too conscious of time passing, all too aware that soon she would be trapped in darkness again.

But for now, she delighted in everything she saw.

As Darkfest had predicted, their animals had not gone far.

He lifted her onto the back of her mount, swung agilely onto the back of his own.

When they stopped to rest the horses later that day, she saw a spiderweb stretched between two

bushes.

She watched, fascinated, as a spotted spider slowly and carefully cocooned its unwitting prey in

white silk.

They stopped again several hours later, this time near a river teeming with dozens of silver fish.

Darkfest dropped down beside her.

Stretching out on his stomach, he plunged his hands into the water up to his elbows and, to her delight, caught six fat fish with his bare hands.

Wrapping them in leaves, he put them in his saddlebags.

"Dinner," he explained.

They rode until dusk, then made camp near a small blue pool surrounded by pale lavender ferns,

flowering vines and tall slender trees with silver-blue leaves.

It looked like a fairyland.

She would not have been surprised to see unicorns peeking through the bushes.

She watched Darkfest unsaddle the horses and hobble them nearby and then, with a wave of his hand and a muttered incantation, a small fire sprang to life.

Needing to feel useful, she spread the bedrolls on either side of the fire, filled their water skins.

She had never cooked fish over an open fire, but when she offered, he told her there was no need.

He took care of it quickly and efficiently.

He cut off the heads and tails, gutted the fish, removed the bones, then cut the fish up into chunks, which he put on sticks to roast over the fire.

The meat was juicy and tender.

"Delicious!" she exclaimed. "Where did you learn to do that?"

He shrugged. "I dinna recall."

"That seems passing strange."

He nodded.

There were many things he could do that he had no memory of knowing or learning.

The knowledge simply came to him as needed.

Some of what he knew he had learned from books, but some of his magic seemed inborn.

His power over fire and the elements was simply there, a part of him for as far back as he could remember.

A heaviness fell over Channa Leigh's mood as the sun began to set.

She stared at Darkfest, wanting to imprint his image on her mind.

"Thank you for this day, my lord," she said, and even as she spoke, her vision began to fade, to darken, until blackness descended on her once again.

"Channa Leigh?"

She turned her face away lest he see the tears forming in her eyes.

She was grateful to have been able to see for one whole day, and yet having seen the beauty of the world around her only made the darkness that engulfed her seem all the worse.