Beneath the Forsaken City Read Online Free PDF Page B

with him. Her siblings   —Calhoun, Gainor, and Niamh   —had undoubtedly been slaughtered after Lisdara’s fall. And now Conor had been taken from her by an unnatural storm.
    She pushed away from the table, lay down on the narrow bunk, and sobbed.

    That night, Cass supped with Miach in the first mate’s small cabin. They had anchored just off the coast of Dún Caomaugh, within sight of the harbor lights, close enough that they should have docked and allowed the men to take their shore leave for the evening. But that would have meant finding an inn for his special passenger, and he wasn’t quite ready to relinquish her, nor answer questions about how she had come to be aboard his ship.
    She could have no idea of the difficult position her arrival put him in. She was much too young to remember the conflict between Alsandair Mac Tamhais and his Lowlander cousin. It had already been fanned into a blood feud by the time Mac Tamhais rejected a suitable Lowland bride in favor of the Seareann queen, Lady Ailís. Ostensibly he had meant to build alliances across the Amantine, but most thought Mac Tamhais just refused to dilute Highland stock with Lowlander blood. And so the feud had festered for nearly thirty years.
    The whole situation was not without irony. The only thing a Highlander hated more than the Lowland clans was magic, something Seare had in abundance. There had even been some rumors about Lady Ailís, considering her eldest son had been sent to Ard Dhaimhin in the old tradition.
    All of which led Cass to his unfortunate lie. He had no choice but to notify Lord Riagain of Lady Aine’s presence, and the chieftain would want her sent on to Brightwater. Lord Alsandair’s daughter was too valuable a hostage to be given up so easily.
    Cass tapped his foot anxiously under the table. It was only then he realized the pain that had plagued him all season was gone. Frowning, he stuck his booted foot out beside him.
    “What are you doing?” Miach asked.
    Cass yanked his boot off. The swelling in his ankle was completely gone. He probed the flesh experimentally, but the expected twinge never came.
    Impossible. Just this afternoon he was cursing his gout and limping around deck. And now . . .
    He thought back through the day’s events. A slow smile spread across his face. The girl. When she had touched him, a jolt of energy had flashed through him, so quickly he’d written it off as imagination. Oh, this just kept getting better.
    “What are you looking so pleased about?”
    Cass’s grin widened. “Miach, my friend, the gods have smiled on us today.” Perhaps that comfortable retirement was not as far out of reach as he’d thought.

CHAPTER FIVE
    Aine sat up in the berth and rubbed her swollen eyes. It must be morning, though she couldn’t tell from the windowless cabin’s unchanging light. It took several moments to register the change in the ship’s motion from the rocking of waves at anchor to the forward momentum of the oars. They were going ashore.
    Her stomach backflipped at the idea. Would she hear that the Resolute had been among the storm’s casualties? Or would there be no word at all? Dún Caomaugh was far from Fermaigh. Wreckage would be washing up on the Aronan coast for weeks, and if Conor had perished at sea, she might never learn what had happened to him.
    Aine splashed water from the basin onto her face and neck. She couldn’t lose hope until she knew something for certain.
    A sharp rap on the door made her dry her face quickly and straighten her borrowed clothing. The captain poked in his head, his eyes averted. “Lady Aine. May I enter?”
    “Of course, Captain. It’s your cabin.”
    “We’ve docked,” he said, and Aine realized that the motionhad indeed stopped. He held out a cloak. “We will be going ashore soon. You should put this on.”
    An unexpected spike of fear skewered her as she took the garment. She clutched it to her chest as if it could offer her some protection against