Shadows and Light

think?” Lyrra asked.
    He didn’t want to think about anything for a little while. Brushing his lips against her forehead, he said, “
    We’ll find out in a couple of days.”

Chapter Twenty-six
    Liam rode through the arch at a gallop, but reined in quickly. Too many people about the Old Place these days to ride into the midst of them so recklessly. But taking care of the people who were his responsibility had taken time, and the day was making that long, soft slide into twilight. Still plenty of daylight left at this time of year, so close to the Solstice, but it wasn’t bright, burning sunlight.
    “Where are the children?” Liam snapped as soon as Clay approached to take his horse. “Where’s Breanna?”
    “The children are about here and there, same as they’ve been for the past few days. Breanna and Keely walked to the far pasture. That stallion of yours has been spooked all day, and he’s got all the other horses stirred up. Even I couldn’t get close enough to him to do anything. He likes Keely, so she and Breanna went out to see if they could lead him in.”
    A chill went through Liam, swiftly followed by a shimmer of heat beneath his skin. He’d been fighting that heat all afternoon, ever since one of his tenant farmers had come running to the manor house to report a heavy smell of something rotting near a tree the man swore hadn’t been dead a couple of days ago.
    “Where’s your far pasture?” Liam asked, fairly sure he already knew. He’d noticed some horses grazing when he and Squire Thurston had ridden out to see what his tenant had found.
    Clay jerked a thumb in a northerly direction. “Borders your land. We don’t use it much—at least, we haven’t until now. So if you’re worried about your cows straying across the creek to graze—”
    “We found signs of nighthunters a little while ago,” Liam said abruptly. “On my land, but near that pasture. I’m going after Breanna and Keely. You alert the other men. Make sure the children stay close enough to the house that they can get to shelter quickly if they have to.”
    “We’ll see to it,” Clay said, looking pale. “A few of us will follow after you to bring in the horses.”
    Nodding, Liam urged his gelding forward. He heard Clay shout at someone and saw an adolescent boy dash for the gate that opened into the near pasture, not more than a couple of acres of land that was used for grazing and exercising the horses that were usually here. With all the horses that had come with Breanna’s kin, they’d needed to use the other pastures.
    But why that one? Liam asked silently as he galloped toward the gate at the other end of the pasture.
    And why today? Why hadn’t anyone paid attention to Oakdancer’s uneasiness and brought the horses in sooner? The stallion might have the habit of leaping a fence and going visiting whenever it suited him—
    which is why, with Nuala’s permission, he’d left Oak-dancer at the Old Place since trying to keep him at the estate had been pointless—but he was a fairly easy-tempered animal when approached the right way.
    Clay should have realized there was a reason for the horse being spooked. He shouldn’t have allowed Keely and Breanna to go out to that pasture.
    Liam smiled wryly as he reined in and maneuvered his gelding so that he could open the pasture gate without dismounting. With the informality and the way everyone at the Old Place worked together, it was easy to forget that Clay actually worked for Breanna’s family and wasn’t a male relative who was entitled to strongly voice an opinion about what his female relatives did or didn’t do. Not that those females would pay any attention, but he would have been entitled to voice an opinion. Which, come to think of it, Clay tended to do anyway.
    The earth in the next pasture had been turned and now held planted fields, except for the wide green stretch of grass that served as a road between the fields. Winter feed for the animals, Liam noted as his horse galloped over the grass road. It hadn’t been planted that many days ago, but the plants looked as big as the ones in his own fields that his tenants had planted in the spring. Earth magic. A calling to the land to yield what was needed. Were there other witches here now to help Keely draw out that branch of the Mother? Breanna’s kin were wary of him because he was a baron, so he hadn’t asked many questions. But his mother would know.
    The gate to the far pasture was