Passions of the Ghost (18 page)

I am free,
cariad!
Why should I stop? But don’t fret, we will meet again. Soon, very soon.

The dragon unfolded its wings, stretching them out so that the leathery tips brushed the sides of the tunnel. It began to flap them, slowly and strongly. As it reached the entrance to the tunnel, it rose into the air. Clumsy at first, it seemed to be having difficulty remembering the technicalities of flight. And then, as if it had got the knack, it began to move more gracefully, wings beating rhythmically, and soared beyond their limited vision.

Rey staggered to the entrance and knelt, shading his eyes and gazing up. Amy followed him. The day was ending. Dazed, she stared at the sky of blue and gold and apricot, the sun’s rays streaming down. The snow had passed, and although there was little warmth in the sunshine, it felt so good on her face.

“Beautiful,” she murmured, and understood completely what the dragon felt after seven hundred years alone in darkness.

It was simply good to be alive.

Reynald knew where they were. Soaring
high above them was the north tower of his castle, and below them was the dangerously sheer side of the ravine. He straightened, sheathed his sword, and began to climb out of the tunnel. There was a narrow path running around the entrance, leading up the rocky hillside to the base of the tower.

“This way,” he said, holding out his hand to Amy. She came willingly, obviously very glad to be free of the darkness and the stench of dragon.

“Is it possible the dragon will be happy enough just to be out of there?” she asked, panting slightly as she climbed. “Why would she come back and risk everything?”

“Because freedom is not enough,” he said, pausing to gaze down over the ravine and the trees that clustered deep within it.

“What does she want then, Rey? Why is she so bitter and angry?”

“It is a woman, is it not?” he said, turning his gaze to search her face. “You feel that too, damsel?”

“Yes, it is a woman.”

“She wants me. And you. She wants revenge for something she believes has been done to her by me, or in my name. And she wants this land. She will come back.” He shook his head. “I have failed.”

“No, Rey, you haven’t failed,” she said. Her hand was warm and comforting in his. “When the dragon returns, that will be your chance. This idea of yours, hunting it down in the tunnels, it was never going to work, the dragon was always going to win. But next time, that really will be your turn. You can prepare, you will have the advantage.”

Reynald felt his mouth twitch. He couldn’t help it. She had stripped the sense of failure and melancholy from him, and instead he felt confident and alive. His blood was singing. He had missed his chance, yes, but Amy was right, next time would be better. More fitting. The dragon would come again, and next time he would succeed.

With her beside him, how could it be otherwise?

“Come,” he said, and squeezed her fingers in his.

She followed him in silence for a few steps, then she said, as if she couldn’t hold the words inside any longer, “What about Jez?”

“We’ll go back to the beginning of the tunnels. We need lights and men. Now that the dragon is gone, it is safe for others to help in the search.”

“Yes,” she brightened. “You’re right. We’ll find him, won’t we?”

Reynald wasn’t so certain, but he let her keep her hopes. Amy did not deserve to lose her brother, and Jez did not deserve to die, but the Ghost had seen many injustices in the world.

“What will happen after you kill the dragon?” Amy asked, as if it were a foregone conclusion.

“I do not know.”

“Will the witch send you straight back to 1299?”

“Amy, I do not know. I am not even certain whether or not that is the task she has set me.”

“It’s just that I want to be ready. If I know how it works, then I can be prepared for you to disappear, or whatever happens. I don’t want to make a fool of myself. I want to be the brave lady of the castle, with a smile on my face.”

“I will not go without saying good-bye,” he said gently.

“Do you promise?”

He smoothed her cheek with the backs of his fingers. “I promise, my heart.”

“I’ll be disappointed not to be able to teach those children to read,” she murmured, with a wistful smile, “but I imagine the present day has its compensations over the thirteenth century. I don’t suppose anyone bathes more than once a year, and all you eat are pigs’ insides.”

He threw back his head and laughed.

She watched him irritably, but her eyes were sparkling. “I didn’t mean to be funny.”

“Amy, we bathe often,” he lectured her. “And we eat well. But you are right, we do not waste anything. I promise you, though.” And although he was still smiling he was serious now. “If you came back with me to the thirteenth century, I would never insist you eat the insides of any pigs.”

He wanted her to go with him.

“It isn’t fair,” she breathed. “Why is this happening to us?”

“Julius would say it is to make us better people.”

She sniffed, as he knew she would. “What would Angharad say?”

“She would say we are wasting her time with such nonsense, and that there is no rhyme or reason to anything that happens in this world.”

Amy pondered on that, and Reynald let the silence grow.

They had walked around the base of the castle wall, and now the gatehouse was just ahead. Once they’d crossed the drawbridge over the frozen moat, they would be back inside.

Back inside!

For the first time, Reynald realized he was actually outside the castle walls. Whatever the witch had put in place to keep him a prisoner within his own home was gone. He was free.

Did that mean the witch was pleased with him? That he had passed some test?

He turned to tell Amy his news, just as someone shouted from directly above them.

“Who goes there?”

They looked up, and Amy shrieked, “Jez!”

Her brother was leaning over the battlements, his face a pale blur in the dusk, but it was definitely Jez. He was alive.

“Where did you go?” she called, and she was smiling.

“Let me come down and I’ll tell you.” His face disappeared.

Amy turned to Rey and threw her arms about his neck. “Jez is alive,” she gasped. He picked her up and swung her around, then he was laughing because she was laughing. And then she was crying, and he kissed her to comfort them both.

Jez told them that he’d followed the ball of light for a time. “But it was a trick. It wasn’t a real person, instead it was as if someone was projecting an image in front of me,” he said in disgust.

They were sitting in Jez’s room in the castle, and he’d rung room service to order food and drinks. Jez had already showered and changed, but Amy hadn’t had time, and although she’d stripped off her jacket, she still felt as if she had the smell and feel of the tunnels clinging to her.

“And then it vanished altogether,” he went on, “and I panicked. While I was running after it, I lost my flashlight, and I was all alone in the dark. I tried to turn back the way we’d come, but although I walked for miles, I never found either of you. Then I started to run again and fell over. For a time I just lay there feeling as if I’d never get out. I hadn’t felt like that since Dad caught me selling his booze to the kids in the upper grades.”

Sympathetically, Amy reached out to take his hand. “It was horrible down there.”

“I really was starting to think I’d be lost in the dark forever, and the ground was still shaking, and that…that thing was still howling.”

“The dragon,” Rey said primly.

To Amy’s amusement, Jez ignored him. “I must have taken a wrong turning, because the next thing I knew I was inside the castle wall. Actually
inside
it. A secret passage. There were arrow slits or peepholes, and I could see well enough. Anyway, eventually the secret passage led me to a room in the gatehouse. It was like a movie.”

“Horror,” Amy murmured.

“I was wondering whether you were okay, but I knew I couldn’t go back into those tunnels. I just hoped that Rey would look after you.”

He shuddered at the memories, and Amy knew he was shattered. She didn’t blame him; she’d felt the same, but she’d had Rey to hold her hand.

“I was standing up there, trying to work out what to do, when you appeared.” He glanced at Rey and gave a grimace. “Something else appeared, too, not long before you and Amy. I still don’t believe it, but I think it was a dragon.”

“Oh Jez…”

“I know I must be crazy, but I swear I saw it,” he burst out, as if she was doubting him. “Flew up from the direction of the ravine. It was big, not quite jumbo-jet size, but bloody big. I watched it until it faded into the sun.”

“So you do believe us now?” Rey said, looking down his nose.

“I have to whether I like it or not, don’t I?”

“You don’t sound very happy about it,” Amy scolded him. “Not many people get to see a dragon, Jez.”

He looked at her as if she was the one who was crazy. “And I envy them. So, what happens now?”

“Can’t the castle be evacuated?” Amy asked.

“I heard that Coster had everyone outside while the shaking was going on,” Jez updated them, “but once it stopped, everyone went back to their rooms. With the roads closed, and now the phone lines down, there’s no help and nowhere else to go. Besides, the castle hasn’t been damaged. It seems to be business as usual.”

“The dragon will return,” Reynald said with grim certainty. “She believes she alone has the right to all that is mine. She will return and kill everyone who stands in her way.”

Jez sat up straight. “Then we should go. Now. Even if we have to ski out.”

Amy gave him a bemused look. “And leave everyone else to die? Jez, you can’t be serious!”

“We can warn them,” he said feebly.

“And do you think they’ll believe us? No, Jez, we can’t just leave. I don’t believe you’re suggesting it. We have to stay. Rey has to kill the dragon this time, so that he can…” She stopped, aware she had said too much.

Jez’s eyes narrowed. “Kill the dragon
this
time?” he repeated. “Rey? Is your name really Rey? How do you spell that?”

“He spells it R-e-y,” Amy muttered. “Short for Reynald de Mortimer.”

Jez’s face went chalky. “Oh God, you’re going to tell me that he’s the Ghost, aren’t you? Amy, that’s impossible!”

“Like dragons, do you mean? It’s not impossible, Jez, it’s…it’s wonderful.”

He just shook his head as if he didn’t want to know.

“Rey
is
Reynald de Mortimer. He’s been sleeping for seven hundred years in the between-worlds, but he’s back now to right the wrong and save himself and his people.”

Jez’s eyes seemed to have glazed over. “Don’t tell me any more, please. I can’t take it. I’ve reached my limit.”

Amy sighed. “Please yourself. Although I don’t know how you can find scheming to steal Nicco’s diamond exciting and challenging, yet act like a nervous wreck just because Rey has returned from the dead. He needs help to kill the dragon so that he can go home to 1299.”

“Amy, believe me, I’d rather O’Neill sent me to prison than help Rey kill the dragon.”

Disgusted, Amy got up and went and sat by Rey, glaring at him when he put up his hand to hide his smile. “I’m trying to help,” she said, “and Jez doesn’t want to know and
you
think it’s funny.”

“I appreciate your help, damsel, believe me. I am smiling because I find the manner in which you and your brother argue amusing. It is strange to me; I was an only child.”

“You were lucky, mate,” Jez muttered.

“Thanks so much!” Amy aimed a blow at his shoulder.

There was a knock on the door. Thinking it was room service, Jez got up to answer it.

The door opened into the room, hiding whoever was standing in the corridor, but Amy recognized his voice. “Jez, I wonder if I might come in?”

“Nicco,” said Jez. “I don’t see why not.”

Amy was desperately shaking her head and
waving her arms, but it was already too late. Nicco was inside the room. He stopped, frozen, seeing Amy and Rey sitting cozily on the bed, then his face creased in distaste as he took note of the grubby state they were in.

“We were caught in the earthquake,” Jez explained easily. “What about you?”

“I did not venture from my room,” Nicco replied, implying that anyone who had was insane.

Amy watched him seat himself elegantly in a chair, smoothing down his sleeves, straightening his tie. Then he put his hand in his jacket pocket, before he looked up at her and gave a bland smile.

“You are feeling better, I hope, Amee?”

“Better?”

“Maybe you have not taken your medicine again today? Jez told me of your problems. I am sorry to hear you have an illness with your brain.” He clicked his tongue and shook his head.

Amy shot Jez a furious look, but he was studiously ignoring her as he poured the drinks. “What will you have, Rey? What was the usual in 1299?”

Rey said nothing, his eyes on Nicco.

Amy wondered whether the Russian was religious. Did he have rosary beads in his pocket? The idea was a hard one to swallow, but he was certainly playing with something, his fingers turning the object over and over.

“This place,” Nicco said, “it is lacking in sophistication. I can’t believe someone of importance really lived here; it is fit only for peasants. Why would anyone want to take a holiday in such a cold and miserable castle? Next time I come here they should pay me! If the roads weren’t closed, I’d drive back to where it is more civilized. Perhaps I should walk.” He recrossed his legs.

“You’d die in the snow like an unsophisticated peasant,” Rey said evenly.

Nicco gave him a look of dislike.

“You’d ruin your nice shoes,” Amy added.

Nicco turned the look onto her, but now it was far more venomous. “I can afford more shoes,” he let her know. “I am a wealthy man, Amee.”

“You can always stay in your room and watch the porn channel,” Jez suggested. “They won’t be putting on this medieval rubbish now, will they?”

Nicco couldn’t wait to give him the bad news. “Ah, my friend, but they are! That fool, Coster, told me it will take our minds off our predicament. The calling will be performed tonight, at nine o’clock. Sharp,” he added, with a smirk.

“The calling?” Amy repeated, but there was a memory stirring in her head. Something she had missed; something she should have remembered before.

“The dragon-calling,” said Nicco, and gave a scornful laugh. “Perhaps we can use its fiery breath to toast marshmallows. Isn’t that something you English like to do, Jez?”

“Something like that,” Jez said quietly, but he was staring over at Rey, and his face had lost all the animation it had gained since Nicco came into the room.

Amy turned to look at Rey, too.

His colorless eyes were blazing.

“The fools!” Reynald raged. “Lackwits, slimy frogs, turd-eating knaves.”

He said lots of other things, too, but they were in French.

Amy and Jez were staring at him in silence. His uncharacteristic explosion of anger had shocked them both. Nicco had left after “shit-crawling worms.”

“We have to stop them.”

“But how can we?” Amy said reasonably. “No one will believe us.
I
wouldn’t have believed us before I saw it for myself.”

“Then we must try!”

Amy knew he had seen what a dragon was capable of, that he was a man who knew of these things, and he should be listened to. But this was a world where science and rational thinking were the new religion. How were they going to convince Coster and his guests that there really was a dragon out there and calling to it was a very bad idea?

“Rey,” she began.

Jez interrupted her. “Amy, what was Nicco doing in his pocket?”

She frowned. “I…I thought he must have some worry beads in there, but he isn’t religious, is he? Whatever it was, he was getting off on it, smirking and preening and—”

Suddenly Jez grinned. “I think it was the Star of Russia. I think he had it with him in his pocket!” He laughed aloud, pounding his fists on the arms of his chair. “The stupid bugger, he’s brought it with him.”

Amy laughed, too. “Jez, I think you’re right! It’d be just like him, wouldn’t it? He probably plays with it when he thinks no one’s watching. What a turn-on for him, sitting there with one of the most famous diamonds in the world in his pocket and no one knowing.”

“I can’t believe my luck. I’ll wait until he goes down to dinner—he’s too greedy not to—then I’ll get into his room and look for it. Shouldn’t be difficult to find. Knowing Nicco, he probably has it under his pillow.”

“Or in a sock in his drawer. Jez, do you think—”

“Stop it!”

The voice was loud and furious and cut through their chatter like a battle-axe. They both froze, then turned slowly to face the Ghost. If his eyes had been bright before, now they were burning with emotion. How could anyone ever have called this man cold? Amy felt her heartbeat speed up.

“You are talking of stealing a ring when we are all in danger of being killed?”

“I’m sorry,” Amy murmured.

“Can it be you still don’t believe in the dragon? But you have seen it. You have felt its power. It exists!” Rey shook his head in disgust.

Jez turned and made a face at her, making her feel like they were a couple of schoolchildren sent to the headmaster’s office. “Rey,” he said, matter-of-factly, “I hear what you’re saying, and I know it’s important. But I want that diamond ring. I need it. And this is my chance. A chance I never thought I’d have, by the way. Nicco isn’t going to know who’s taken the diamond, and he probably won’t want to admit he’s lost it. He’ll be worried about his insurers. And I’ll be long gone by the time he puts two and two together.”

“You are stealing—”

“Think of it this way,” Jez interrupted. “Nicco is the kind of man who’d starve his peasants just so that he could afford to go to Paris to shop. He probably sold his grandmother for that diamond.”

“So you’re going to give the money to the poor?” Amy asked innocently.

Jez stood up, opened the door, and cleared his throat.

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I need some time to get ready.”

“To slip into your Robin Hood costume?” Amy murmured.

“Ha-ha. I’ll see you both later.”

Reynald rose up to his full intimidating height, and he was not amused. “You are a fool, Jez,” he said, and his words were all the more significant because of the quietness with which he said them. “This jewel is more precious to you than your own life.”

“It isn’t that,” Jez protested. “I just figure I can kill two birds with one stone…eh, diamond.”

“If you were brought before me at my manor court, it would be my duty to sentence you to have your hand chopped off.”

“Lucky we’re here then, isn’t it?”

Rey stared at him a moment longer, as if hoping for some sort of enlightenment for himself or Jez, then he walked out of the door.

Amy followed, but as she passed, Jez whispered, “Are you really into the sheriff of Nottingham? Don’t you find him a bit much?”

She smiled. “He’s perfect.”

Jez shook his head in bewilderment and closed the door behind her.

“He baffles me,” Rey said, as they walked toward the elevator.

“It’s just that you don’t understand. You think he doesn’t care, but he does. Jez and I lived through some terrible times when we were children. Humor helped us to survive. It was like we’d put things into compartments. The bad stuff was shoved aside for a while, and we concentrated on something fun. What’s the point in wringing your hands and being permanently miserable? It never helped us. The bad stuff was still there in the morning.”

He was listening to her, and she could see that he was trying his best to understand a concept that was completely alien to him.

“You’re different, Rey,” she went on. “You’re a hero. I don’t think Jez was ever a hero, except to me, and…I’m just plain, ordinary Amy.”

He turned and his gaze swept her from head to toe. “There is nothing plain, or ordinary, about you, damsel.”

She smiled. “Isn’t there?”

“No.” He frowned at her smile, and she bit her lip to make it go away.

“Maybe you can show me what’s special about me, then?” she suggested demurely.

“Amy, we have to warn…”

“The calling isn’t until nine sharp. For all we know you could be gone forever, and I’ll be all alone. Let’s spend some time together. Please.”

He wanted to, she could see the longing in his face. Amy stretched out her hand and brushed her fingertips lightly over his lips. “Please?” she repeated, but now there was a sensual invitation in her voice.

Rey leaned forward and caught her index finger between his teeth, nipping it gently. Amy moved in close, pressing her body lightly to his.

Rey groaned in defeat, opened the door, and went inside.

With a smile, Amy followed.

He’d never get tired of the feel of her, so warm and vibrant. Amy was like no other woman, sweet and yet with a fiery passion that took his breath away. One moment he was raging with lust, and the next…he wanted to rock her in his arms and never let her go.

She kissed his jaw, tasting him, like a cat in a dairy.

“You need to start enjoying life, Rey,” she purred. “You can’t be a hero all the time. I know there are a great many people depending on you, but sometimes you just have to be a man.”

He cupped her breasts as she leaned over him from her position astride him. The muted light from the windows made her skin pale as the snow outside, while her hair was a glorious halo of curls. She slid down over his rod, embracing him with the warmth of her sheath, and he moaned in ecstasy.

“You’re mine, Reynald de Mortimer,” she murmured, kissing his mouth. “Every inch of you.”

It was true, he thought, he was hers. He let her ride him at her own pace, holding back, enjoying the sensation. She was gasping now, reaching for her peak, and he caught her hips and held her, thrusting upward, wishing the moment would never end.

While knowing, with an aching melancholy, that it must.

“Are you sorry now that you waited so long to break your vow?” she asked him, when they had their breath back.

He turned and kissed the tip of her nose. Her eyes were very green and he read the spark of longing and jealousy in them. “I did not break my vow,” he reminded her. “I waited for the right woman. You. And no, I am not sorry that I did wait, for my time with you has been beyond mortal pleasure.”

The corners of her mouth curved upward, pleased with his answer, and he wanted to take her again. The desire in him was so strong that he was reaching out for her when he heard the sound.

A scream. Like an echo from far away, and yet so clear and chilling in his head.

Reynald sat up, looking around him, despite the fact that he already knew the sound had not come from nearby. Not even from the time he was in now.

“What was that?” Amy whispered.

One glance at her anxious expression, and he knew that she had heard it, too. “I do not know. Some trick of the witch’s, mayhap. Or the dragon…”

“Morwenna,” she said.

He glanced at her sharply. “Again?”

She nodded. “I think we should warn Coster now.”

“Aye.” He began to dress, his mind already moving ahead to practical matters, to taking charge.

“Rey?”

It took him a moment to register that she was speaking to him again. He was already heading for the door.

“Damsel?”

“Wait for me,” she said. “
Stay by me
. Remember?”

She was right. For a moment he had forgotten he was no longer alone. The realization was sweet. He watched her finish pulling on her sweater and jeans and boots before she hurried to his side. He took her hand in his.

“If I do return to 1299, I will instruct my stonemasons to carve that motto above my gate,” he said. “‘Stay by me.’ For you, Amy.”

She stretched up and kissed his cheek. “I’d like that very much, Rey.”