The Raven's Moon Read Online Free PDF

his black cloak filling out eerily behind him. Rowan noticed that the second rider, another dark blur of speed, followed steadily.
    Leaning low, his senses alert to the dangers behind him as well as in front of him, Rowan let the bay gallop at a reckless pace. The road sloped down, dipping left. Valentine hurtled ahead, veering with the incline, through the steady downpour.
    In the next instant, Rowan saw that the nearby bog had spread, filling the dip in the road. He pulled on the reins, but could not prevent the horse from sinking to its knees in the deep muck. As Valentine stumbled further and lowered his head, Rowan was thrown loose. He landed on his side in ooze, like a sausage flung into porridge, and rose sputtering to his feet.
    Spinning in the cloying stuff to grab the reins, he guided the struggling, whinnying stallion to stand. As Rowan stepped back onto a patch of solid ground, he heard the snort of another horse close behind him.
    Dropping the reins, he grasped his sword hilt and began to draw the blade, turning as if in the slow grip of a nightmare. The black-cloaked rider loomed just behind him, his companion, a blond fellow, nearby. Rowan raised his sword.
    The blond man's horse surged forward. Rowan saw the sudden gleam of a blade in his hand as the man angled an ax-headed lance at him. Reaching up as he swung his own sword, an awkward position, Rowan managed to knock the long staff aside briefly.
    As he drew back to thrust, he shifted his weight. The earth sucked at his heels, and the bog gave way. He stumbled, taking a precious second to glance down and regain his stance.
    From the edge of his vision, he saw the lance arc again. He lifted his sword blade and swiped upward. Then the first rider, who had been circling Rowan and the blond horseman, yanked a pistol out of a saddle loop.
    Rowan stepped sideways in the slippery muck, twisting to avoid the wicked point of the blond man's staff. When Rowan turned, the other rider advanced, leaned forward, and swung his arm.
    The pistol butt slammed into Rowan's brow, wrenching his head sharply backward. Flashing brightness exploded into searing pain. The bog seemed to whirl around him, and the strength drained from his upheld arm. His knees slumped under him.
    As he went down, the highway rider bent over the saddle. A gloved hand stretched outward. The wide hood slipped back.
    Glancing up into the rider's face, Rowan felt an odd sense of surprise as he fell. Time and urgency disappeared, and he became suspended in the wonder and awe that filled him.
    She had a tranquil, innocent beauty.
    And as the light faded curiously around him, he tried to remember where he had seen her before.

 
     
     
    Chapter 4

     
    "Ye are the sleepiest young man," she said,
    "That ever my twa een did see;
    Ye've lain a' nicht into my arms,
    I'm sure it is a shame to be!"
    —"Clerk Saunders"
    "Oof." Mairi said. "Ach. He's heavier than he looks. Here, Christie, take his legs. We got him this far. We can surely get him down the steps." She slipped her arms under the unconscious man's armpits and lifted. His dark, wet head lolled on her shoulder. Behind her, the wind shoved at her back as she stood at the top of an exposed staircase.
    The tower walls in this corner of Lincraig Castle were collapsed and broken beyond repair, but the steps leading down into the dungeon were still sound. While Christie took hold of the man's legs, she listened to the heavy rhythms of the rain that pounded on the fallen stones in the courtyard, and on the earth and grass between. A lonely, deserted sound. Yet she had never felt any fear of this place.
    As Christie angled toward the stairs, Mairi glanced once more at the man's face. His eyes were closed, lashes black against ghastly pale cheeks. But the gentle rise and fall of his chest reassured her that he was breathing still.
    The messenger's total collapse, just after she had hit him with her brother's pistol, had frightened her deeply. She had jumped down