Medieval 02 - Forbidden

your Learning tell you?” he demanded.
    “Something I can scarce believe.”
    “God’s teeth,” Simon hissed. “What is it?”
    “She took the Druid way,” Cassandra said simply.
    “Then follow!”
    “We can’t.”
    “Why not?”
    Cassandra turned and looked at Simon with glittering silver eyes.
    “You haven’t the Learning to understand,” she said. “Nor do you wish it. You have contempt for anything less tangible than a sword.”
    With a snarled word, Simon vaulted onto his war stallion. Soon the three riders were headed back forStone Ring Keep at an even faster pace than they had left it.
     
    “H OW is Duncan?” Dominic and Simon asked Meg simultaneously.
    Meg looked from the great hall where she was sitting to the lord’s solar just beyond. Duncan was there at a table, listening to Ariane’s mournful tunes while staring into the costly, ancient pendant that Amber had once worn.
    At least Meg assumed that was what had captured Duncan’s attention. He had his hands cupped around the pendant, protecting and concealing it as though it were a fragile flame in the wind.
    “Duncan is the same as he was yesterday,” Meg said. “If I speak loudly enough, he will answer. Otherwise, he ignores everyone but Dominic, to whom he feels indebted.”
    Simon grimaced. “God’s blood. ’Tis like he has no…”
    “Soul?” Meg offered.
    “No emotions, certainly,” Dominic said.
    “’Tis the cost of locking away much of yourself in order to survive,” she said. “You should understand that, husband. You once did the same.”
    “Aye. But I hadn’t met you then. Duncan has already met his witch. If he cuts off so much of himself in order to live…” Dominic shrugged. “I fear it will be like a poisoned wound, with no healing short of death.”
    Simon muttered something about the foolishness of giving that much of yourself to a woman and stalked into the lord’s solar. Meg and Dominic followed. Even when all three stood in front of Duncan, he didn’t look up from his study of the amber pendant.
    “He is bewitched,” Simon said bluntly.
    “He is no more bewitched than Dominic is,”Meg said. “Duncan’s heart and body and soul have chosen a mate despite his vow. That mate is not Ariane.”
    “Yes,” Dominic said simply. “I fear you are right.”
    Duncan’s suffering has just begun .
    Simon looked over at the violet-eyed heiress who drew such mourning from the harp’s taut strings.
    “Don’t you know any joyful airs?” Simon asked. “’Tis enough to make a stone snivel.”
    Ariane glanced at him and set aside the harp without a word.
    “Duncan,” Dominic said.
    Though quiet, Dominic’s voice commanded Duncan’s attention. He looked away from the pendant concealed by his hands.
    “I cannot watch you die. I release you from all obligation to me,” Dominic said clearly. “Your marriage to Amber is intact. It will remain so.”
    Duncan’s fingers tightened on the pendant’s chain, making the concealed amber jerk against the tabletop. He looked at the gemstone again. It was dulled, as though from too much handling.
    Yet he had touched it only once. The grief he had felt then had brought him to his knees.
    He had been careful not to touch the amber again.
    “I am released from no obligation,” Duncan said.
    His voice, like his eyes, lacked animation. Neither lacked conviction, however. He meant what he said.
    “Don’t be—” Dominic began.
    “Without Stone Ring Keep as your ally,” Duncan said, ignoring Dominic’s attempt to speak, “Blackthorne will soon be at war with the Disputed Lands.”
    Dominic wanted to deny it. He couldn’t. He badly needed allies, for he couldn’t afford to hire more knights until he brought Blackthorne back from the ruin its previous lord had made of it.
    “Without Ariane’s dowry, I can’t hold Stone Ring Keep,” Duncan said. “Nor can you give me money without stripping Blackthorne to the bone.”
    A low curse was Dominic’s only answer.
    “In five days I will wed Ariane,” Duncan concluded.
    “Nay! I’ll not see you live like a man half alive,” Dominic said grimly. “Or worse.”
    “You have no control over the matter. You are no longer my lord.”
    “I’ll refuse to put my seal on the annulment.”
    “’Tis but a formality,” Duncan said indifferently. “The Church won’t care. The keep’s chaplain will marry us. I am lord of this keep, not you.”
    Dominic opened his mouth to argue further, but Meg’s hand on