"I will go with you," he offered.
"I thank you, but no." She thought of the excuses she could make and then abandoned them. "I would have this time alone with him. We have much to discuss."
He nodded. "I will see you tomorrow night, then."
"It shouldn't take that long," she said.
Harlech gave her an enigmatic look. "Only remember that the joust begins at moonrise."
Few Kyn could ride horseback while tracking, as the air and the movements of the animal dispersed Kyn scent. Jayr had never been particularly adept at the skill, but she knew Byrne's scent better than any other save her own, and under most conditions could detect even the slightest trace of it. She always smelled heather around the stables, for Byrne spent a great deal of time with the animals, but rarely did it lead far from the stalls. Tonight she caught a trace of him outside the barn, and trailed it to the water's edge, where it took a turn to the north.
"Why would he come out there?" Jayr murmured as she scanned the north embankment.
No riding paths went through that part of their land, much of which was covered by long diagonal rows of orange and grapefruit trees. As she wheeled her horse around, the skin on her arms and legs came alive with nerves, and the pit of her stomach clenched.
Danger. He is in danger.
She urged her mount into a gallop and bent low over his neck as they rounded the lake. She reined him in to look carefully, but saw no one. Then, barely registering in her ears, the distant sound of a familiar voice.
"Down here."
Jayr dismounted and ran toward the sound. A large, irregular hole stretched out in the clearing just before the groves. She ran over and stopped short of the edge of it. The scent of heather, strong and burning hot, wafted up from the pit. Her head spun for a moment as she looked down and felt as if she had been thrust back in time.
"My lord? Is that you?" She felt the ground loosening under her feet and staggered back as a two-foot section of ground crumbled.
A thready ghost of Byrne's voice drifted up to her. "Stay back."
The hell she would.
Jayr rounded the sinkhole, looking for a stable edge, and then dropped down onto her belly to peer inside. She couldn't see him. "Are you injured?" When he didn't answer she called, "Aedan?"
She crawled over to see past an outcropping of stone, and spotted Byrne. He lay ten feet below her, his big body motionless and spread-eagled on a rock. Blood covered his face and stained the front of his tunic.
He was not dead. This could not kill him. She would run back to the stables and fetch men, rope, and horses. They would pull him out. Jayr took in a deep breath and tasted a vile tinge in the air.
Copper from open wounds.
"I am coming, my lord." She could not risk leaving him to go for help; even as fast as she was, the poisonous copper might kill him before she returned. She kept a coil of rope on her saddle; she would fetch that and use it to lower herself to him. She thrust herself up on her hands and knees and went still as the earth rumbled beneath her.
The hole spread wide, pulling in more of its sides and Jayr.
It happened too fast for her to react; the earth took her and flung her into its depths. She screamed when she landed on her shoulder and felt bones crack. Rocks pelted her, soil choked her, and then the dark pit swallowed her alive.
Some time later, how long she didn't know, she opened her eyes. Her heart kicked in her chest and she coughed violently, clearing the dirt from her nose and mouth. Rocks shifted and fell away from her as she tried to prop herself up with the hand she could feel, then bit her lip as more pain stabbed through her left side. Her left arm wouldn't work, and her shoulder had become a ball of agony.
"Lass." A big hand groped and pulled more of the rocks away from her. Byrne's battered face appeared before her eyes. She tried to help him and gasped. "You're hurt; be still."
He uncovered her and pulled her up against him, propping them both against the side of a rock. The movements jarred her arm and forced a groan from her.
"Let me see." When she did, he felt the top of her arm and shoulder. "It's come out of place. Be brave; this will hurt like the devil."
He turned her arm and jerked on it at the same time, and Jayr stiffened as her bones shifted and ten thousand daggers stabbed into her shoulder.
"Good lass." He held her close, panting. "It's back now." He started to say something, then groaned and slumped over, rolling away from her.
"Aedan." Jayr ignored the pain and crawled over to him. The gash on his head was already healing, but blood soaked the back of his tunic. With effort she dragged him into the dim light coming from the top of the hole. Seven broken arrow shafts protruded from his back and shoulders, their barbs deeply embedded in his flesh. The smell and the blood coming from the wounds told her that the barbs were copper.
Jayr shoved her hand into her pocket and took out her knife. She would have to do this quickly or the copper would taint his blood and stop his heart, and then nothing might bring him back.
"You can't do this the night before my joust, my lord," she muttered as she tore his shirt away. Although he was unconscious, she thought on some level that he might be able to hear her. "You have to be there to award the trophy to me, for I intend to win." She gripped the knife tightly. "Aedan, if you can hear me, I am taking out the copper now. I will be as quick as I can."
It sickened her to stab the blade into his body and root with it until she felt the barb and could pry it free of his flesh. But he lay unconscious, and if she were swift she could have them out of him before he awoke.
"There." The arrowhead she plucked out looked familiar, but the copper burned her hand and she threw it away from her in disgust. "Six more and we will be done."
One by one she removed the arrowheads, their curved points rending his flesh and making the wounds bleed faster. When she had taken out the last, she tore at her own uninjured arm with her fangs, carving deep gouges into her own flesh. She then held her arm over each gash, letting the blood from her wounds drip into his.
Slowly Byrne's wounds stopped bleeding and the edges began to pull together.
At last it was done, and she fell back, staring up. Above them she saw dirt, rocks, and, distantly, the night sky. Her fall had caused the sinkhole to expand; her best guess was that they were at least forty feet down in the earth.
The immediate danger was past now that Byrne's wounds were free of copper, she thought. Soon the men would come and rescue them—and then she remembered what she had said to Harlech back at the stables.
I would have this time alone with him, Jayr rolled her head against the rock under her, laughing helplessly. No one would come looking for them tonight. Harlech wouldn't let them. They probably wouldn't be missed until the joust tomorrow night.
"This amuses you?" Byrne rasped.
"My lord." She turned and saw him propping himself up on his elbows. "How do you feel?"
"Like a pincushion." He rolled his shoulders and looked up. "Can we climb out?"
She tried to lift her left arm, but could barely move it. "Not without help. Who shot you in the back?"
"I dinnae see, and then the horse threw me in here." He paused, turning from side to side before he eyed her. "What did you do?"
"I cut out the barbs," she said. "They were copper."
"What else did you do?" He seized her right arm and turned it up, exposing the slowly healing gashes from her fangs. "For the love of God, lass."
"I couldn't leave them in you, and it was the only way to stop the bleeding and close the wounds once they were out." Tears welled in her eyes. "Aedan, who would do this? What if they come back?"
"Shhh. We are alive; we will get out of here." His arms came around her and he pulled her against him. "But you must stop jumping into holes after me. It never turns out well for you."
She choked back her tears. "That is your opinion."
Byrne brought her onto his lap and held her, rocking a little as she pressed her cheek against his heart. They sat that way together until the moon passed over, and Jayr eased away from him to check her arm.
He watched her carefully rotate her shoulder. "How is it?"
"The pain is gone, but the arm stiff." She flexed her fingers. "Fortunately I carry a lance on the right side, or I would have to forfeit my place tomorrow night."
"The men will find us, and then you can see Cyprien's leech."
She had to tell him. "The men won't be looking for us tonight. I had thought you were walking, and before I rode out after you I asked Harlech to give us some time alone together. He will not send anyone to search. If we wish to get out of here, we must do it ourselves." She stood and reached up, testing the stability of shelves of coral rock above them. "If you can give me a boost, my lord…"
His hands spanned her waist and turned her around. "You cannae climb with that arm. We are staying put for now. Why did you wish to be alone with me?"
Jayr reached up to dislodge a root tangled in his hair. "Ever since the full moon, things have been different between us. More intimate than perhaps they should. I had thought we should talk about it."
His fingers brushed at something on her cheek. "Only talk? You could think of nothing else to do with me once you had me at your mercy?"
Jayr felt relieved that he was not angry with her, and angry that he found it amusing. "I am serious, my lord."
"So am I. The men told you that I spent most of the morning sitting outside your bedchamber." His brows rose as he studied her face. "Ah. The men didnae tell you." He ran his thumb along the line of her jaw and traced the curve of her ear. "I dreamed of you there, and I think you knew it. Do you remember being in the seraglio with me? You were reading books covered in pearls."
Her throat tightened, and she thought shame might finish her off then and there. "It was not real. It did not happen."