Nightshade (35 page)

“Yes.”

“Is she?”

Jessa studied his expression and knew at once that something was terribly wrong. “Where is she, Bentley? Where is Darrius?”

“And are you her friend in return, Lady Jessa?”

Jessa’s heart twisted and she pulled her hand from Cecelia’s face, afraid that her emotions might affect her in such a vulnerable state. Something inside her began to tremble and it stirred the Vhaelin in her blood. She understood then the majik that hung so thick in the air. It
had
been familiar. It was Darry. “Yes.”

“I don’t know where she went, but she’s been greatly wronged. I’m not sure what she’ll do. I need you to find her, my Lady, please. She’s very angry and I’m not…she is angry, do you understand?”

“The panther is awake, I can smell her,” Jessa said. “I understand, Bentley.”

Her comment startled him.
Sweet Gamar, she knows. She knows.

“Go,” she said. “Find the healer, do you hear? Tell him what I said. I left Emmalyn in the solar when we went riding earlier. My Queen will need her, I have no doubt. Leave
Akasha
to me.”

Bentley frowned at the use of a name other than Darry’s. It sounded terribly intimate, though he was ignorant of its meaning.
She loves her
. Jessa’s heart was as open as the sky.
She’s bloody well in love with Darry. Holy fucking he—

“Go, you ass!” Jessa commanded, anger flashing in her gaze as she lost her patience. “May the Vhaelin help you for a fool,
move
!”

Bentley obeyed, hurrying through the door of Darry’s old chambers, the quickest way to the inner keep. He managed the inner door and kicked it open, his voice booming as he shouted Emmalyn’s name.

Jessa lifted her face and the heat of the Vhaelin moved within her blood. It was scorching and it was thrilling, her heartbeat hastening beneath its sway. Pulling her cloak tight about her tunic and riding skirt, she followed the scent of the panther.

The expansive stalls of the main barn were filled with anxious animals. Many of the horses shied away and tossed their heads as Jessa passed. A board was kicked and Jessa flinched but kept moving. Their instincts served them well. Something dangerous was in their midst and could not be ignored.

Darry threw open one of the farthest stall doors and disappeared within.

Jessa quickened her pace and as she approached, Darry reemerged, grabbing the blanket and saddle that sat waiting. Darry was pale and her eyes were distant, caught somewhere other than where she stood. Her body was torn between here and there. She disappeared into the stall once more.

Jessa was cautious as she grasped the gate. Darry threw the blanket onto the filly’s back and tossed the saddle after it.

“I want to come with you,” Jessa said.

“No.”

“I want to come with you.”

Darry pulled the cinch and the filly backed up. Darry followed and yanked again until the sash was fully tightened.

Jessa stepped to the opposite side of the gate and seized the bridle from its peg. When Darry turned she had no choice but to face her, though she eyed the bridle and refused to look up. Jessa held it out and Darry seized the leather. Jessa’s grip tightened in response, and her refusal to let go finally prodded Darry to look up.

“I want to come with you,” she said gently.

“Let go.”

Darry could barely contain her wildness, Jessa could feel it. Darry’s control seemed tenuous at best. “So take it.”

Darry moved so fast that Jessa barely saw it. Darry’s hands were rough on her upper arms and Jessa backed through the straw at her feet until the stable door was behind her. The filly screamed and threw her head up.

Jessa felt Darry’s muscled thighs and breasts pressing close and moving as Darry breathed. She closed her eyes and lifted her face along Darry’s skin, her blood pumping hard and pooling low within her body as her stomach filled with wings. “Take me with you,” she whispered.

Darry’s body was trembling and Jessa brought her hands forward as much as she was able. The bridle still dangled in her grip as her fingers brushed Darry’s hips. Darry’s lower body pressed closer in reaction and a wave of pleasure shuddered in Jessa’s belly. Her lips brushed an earlobe and Darry faced her, then slipped her right leg between Jessa’s thighs. Darry’s hands opened and Jessa slid her own hands down Darry’s slim hips, searching slowly for the leverage she intended to use to pull Darry nearer.

Their lips were so close Jessa could taste the warmth of Darry’s breath, her entire world hanging on that single, aching moment.

Darry let out a strangled sound and backed away, ripping the bridle from Jessa’s hand. Jessa leaned heavily against the door as Darry whispered to the horse. She slid the bit into the filly’s mouth and the forestall over her ears, then did up the buckles with trembling hands. When Darry pulled her mount toward the gate Jessa stood in her way.

“Do you think you frighten me?” she asked.

“Jessa, please.”

“I want to go with you.”

“We cannot be friends anymore.” Darry spoke harshly, her tone terribly cold, but Jessa saw something completely different in her eyes. “I cannot be your friend.”

“That is fine,” Jessa said. “You may do what you want, just take me with you.”

Darry blinked. “Move.”

“Take me with you.”

“Jessa,
move
!”

“Take me with you.”

They stared at each other. “If you have any feelings for me at all, please just move.” Darry spoke in a trembling voice. “Please, Jess.”

Jessa took a bold step forward, lifting an eyebrow in challenge.

“I meant
out
of the way,” Darry said.

Jessa thought she saw a glint of something familiar move in those striking eyes. “You should be more specific. Take me with you.”

“I don’t know where I’m going.”

“All the better.”

Darry closed her eyes. “What must I say to make you go away?”

“There is nothing. Take me with you.”

Darry stepped back and lurched to the side, grabbing the filly’s mane for balance as the earth tilted beneath her. Jessa slid forward and reached out, but Darry rested her forehead against the horse’s neck, using the filly to keep her feet. “Sweet Jessa, please…just let me go.”

“Do you wish to go riding?” Jessa dropped her arm. “Or stand here for the next thirty years and argue with me?”

Darry tried to ignore the fear she could smell. The instincts of the animals around her were dense and violent. “Thirty years is a long time.” The only scent that Jessa gave off was the hint of jasmine.

“I’m very stubborn.”

“Seven hells!” Darry said, and threw the reins.

She stalked across the corridor and yanked open the opposite stall. The magnificent bay stallion within threw up his head as she slammed back the gate. He reared away as he caught Darry’s scent. Jessa’s heart leapt into her throat as the animal’s legs lashed out, missing Darry’s head by inches. Darry grabbed his mane and hit his neck with her fist. “
Talon
!”

Jessa was thinking fast as Darry calmed him and assembled his tack, moving with the same urgency she had the first time. She stepped into the filly’s stall, holding out her hand, to which the filly lowered her nose. “Will you help me?” Jessa asked in whisper. “I need your help, my pretty.”

Jessa took the reins, slipped her left boot into the stirrup, and mounted the horse. The filly snorted and stepped backward as Jessa ran a gentle hand along the horse’s neck, feeling the power and enjoying the thrill it sent through her blood. She tapped a heel and the filly stepped forward obediently. Jessa lowered her head as they passed through the gate.

At the sound of hooves on wood Darry left Talon’s bridle and stepped to the door. “What are you doing?”

Jessa looked down from her seat. “You would think to outrun me, saddling me with that
plough
horse?” she said, managing to sound insulted.

“Talon is no plough horse, I assure you.”

“We will see.”

Darry stared at her.

“Have you named her yet?” Jessa ran her hand along the muscles of the filly’s shoulder. “It’s bad luck to ride a horse without a name.”

Darry did not answer, clearly uncomfortable at the question.

“You didn’t name her something foolish, did you? Something like Sunflower perhaps?”

“Her name is Vhaelin Star,” Darry answered with a rush of anger.

Jessa felt her face flush and her emotions rose as the filly stepped to the side. “
Hesta, Vhaelin Barrosha,
” she whispered. “Easy.”

Talon burst from his stall with Darry sitting easy in the saddle. The filly reared, and Talon turned in a tight circle and threw his head back as Jessa leaned forward and pulled at the reins. Vhaelin Star’s right foreleg pounded the boards.

Darry met Jessa’s eyes. “Last chance.”

“For what? To play the shy foreign Princess and retire to my rooms?”

“If it pleases you.”

“Try to keep up.”

Darry let out a shout as the filly bolted forward. She yanked at the reins in an attempt to wheel Talon to the side. Vhaelin Star slammed into Talon’s shoulder and Darry slipped in her seat. Darry grabbed on as Talon backed up and shifted beneath her, saving her from falling completely like the well-trained war-horse he was. She kicked her boot back into the stirrup and dug her heels in.

Vhaelin Star thundered from the stables and onto the lane that led past the small paddock. Several groomsmen looked up and another jumped from the path with a shout of surprise. A moment later Talon shot through the doors in pursuit.

Vhaelin Star turned at the pull of the reins and the touch of a heel, wheeling to the right and heading for the gateway that led to the postern arch. A nearby stable hand yelled as he raced along the fence where the gate was still bolted shut. Vhaelin Star was too fast, though, and even as they neared, Jessa heeled her with purpose, feeling the filly gather her strength. She leapt, Jessa pushing back in her seat as they cleared the fence with several feet to spare. Jessa let out a hard breath as she was thrown forward in the saddle. She leaned into it smoothly and turned them yet again. Dust kicked up at their change in direction, but Vhaelin Star never lost her stride as Jessa glanced over her shoulder.

Talon cleared the fence easily. Darry took the jump with more ease and turned the stallion, letting him have his head.

Vhaelin Star flew beneath the postern arch with an echoing clatter of hooves and then she was gone, hitting her true stride as Jessa steered her from the road and into the grass. They were headed north where she knew there was nothing but miles of open land. Her hair whipped against her back as she kept low, her riding cape rippling out behind her. Darry kicked Talon hard in chase, her right hand on the reins and her left flat against his neck and urging him on.

The ground disappeared beneath them, Vhaelin Star moving with absolute power and grace as Talon slowly closed the gap, striding with equal beauty but not quite as much power as the Ibarris filly. Darry spoke to him as they ran. Something inside her burned with a new anger that they did not have open land before them but, instead, the backside of an apparently faster horse.

With a soft hand Jessa pulled back the reins, and the filly’s gallop changed just enough to allow Talon to pull closer. Darry’s smile was pure as she heeled her mount, letting him know what she wanted and that she needed more. His muscles responded, as did his heart, and they pulled alongside Vhaelin Star’s thighs and then her rider. Darry looked straight ahead with a purpose that involved nothing but the hunger for freedom.

There were no limits then, nothing but tall grass and the setting sun as Talon took the lead with a final burst of speed and power. Darry let him run for all he was worth. Some dark part of her was content to let him race until they both folded into the ground; some part of her even wanted it.

Jessa stayed near but not too close, maneuvering the filly to the side and away from the stallion. She had not ridden this hard in years and had forgotten how exhilarating it was, not only for the danger it presented but for the abandon as well.

The ground passed away beneath them and after a time the landscape began to change. The hills in the distance that signaled the start of the Gonnard Forest became larger and more pronounced. When a stand of ancient maples gradually rose to the right, Jessa heeled the filly. “
Drassa matisse, Barrosha
!” she called. “
Drassa
!”

Vhaelin Star answered the call. Jessa smiled, knowing that she had never ridden a more splendid animal. They gained on Talon and Darry glanced over in surprise as Vhaelin Star passed them. She was forced to pull up as the filly cut across their path.

Vhaelin Star was on their left and they were being guided to the east. Darry saw the maple grove in the falling dusk and knew they had come nearly ten miles. Vhaelin Star was suddenly very near and Darry kicked Talon with a curse. The horse obeyed and Jessa adjusted swiftly. The filly swerved away. Darry heard the shout and looked back, sitting up straight and afraid she had cut too close. Talon’s hooves dug roughly into the dirt as he slowed and Darry turned him roughly about.