The Pillars Of The World

remained clear-sighted instead of being clouded by the glamour. She should have considered that children sired by Fae men would seek out a place like this where their mixed heritage would be tolerated, if not accepted outright.
    She pushed the thought away when the strongly built, gray-haired man turned away from the paddocks and approached her. There was no welcome in his dark eyes, nor any sign of deference in his manner.
    “Lord Ahern,” Dianna said courteously.
    “Huntress,” he replied gruffly.
    He knew who she was. Not just that she was Fae, but who she was. And it made no difference to him.
    “I’ve come to ask a favor,” she said, offering a smile that normally had other men eagerly promising to fulfill her slightest whim.
    “You can ask.”
    She hadn’t really expected that smile to work, but she would have felt better if it had softened him just a little. “I need the loan of a horse.”
    He studied her mare for a long moment. “Why? What’s wrong with her ?”
    Dianna’s teeth clenched. It took a little effort to get her jaw relaxed enough to answer civilly. “There’s nothing wrong with her. I just want a horse that’s less likely to attract notice.”
    “Why?”
    “That should be obvious,” Dianna said coolly.
    “You’ve a mind to go into Ridgeley?”
    Despite the fact that the surrounding land was where she rode the most often when she brought the Wild Hunt to the human world, it still took her a moment to remember that Ridgeley was the name of the nearby village. “No, just a ride through the countryside.”
    “Where?”
    “What difference does it make?”
    He studied her too long, and there was a violence in the back of his eyes that threatened to turn ugly at any moment.

    “Take care where you ride, Huntress,” he said quietly. “Take care what you do here. If you bring harm to those at Brightwood, the only time you’ll feel four legs under you again is when you change to your other form.”
    Dianna’s mouth fell open. “Are you threatening me? Me ?”
    “You can take it any way you like,” Ahern replied, turning away from her, “as long as you don’t forget it.
    Come along. I’ve a horse you can use.”
    A few minutes later, Dianna trotted away from Ahern’s farm, relieved to be gone. The bay mare she now rode had a blaze and white socks, but nothing that would make it stand out.
    Not a Fae horse, Dianna thought, wincing a little at the loud clopping of hooves on the road. Not even one of the horses Ahern bred from both Fae and human animals. But still a fine animal ... by human standards.
    With Ahern’s warning still ringing in her ears, she slowed the mare to a walk when she came within sight of the cottage. From that distance, it seemed ... pleasant. Sturdy. Except for the broken kitchen door, she hadn’t paid much attention to the cottage the other night ... or any other night when she and her hounds had skirted the meadow on their way to the surrounding countryside. Now she studied the building, trying to determine what was here that Fae males found so attractive.
    Was it simply that the cottage was built in one of the Old Places and the Mother’s power swelled around it so ripe and rich that it enticed Fae men like pollen enticed bees? Or was it the female herself who was so intriguing? If it was the female, what was it about her that could make the Lord of the Horse protective and territorial . . . and infatuate the Lightbringer?
    Beside the cottage was a large plot of land surrounded by a waist-high stone wall. The female working there was too involved in her task to hear the horse’s hooves. Or, perhaps, she paid no attention to travelers. And since the female hadn’t noticed her, Dianna faced her first stumbling block. Would a gentry lady speak to a servant?
    Of course she would, Dianna decided, if only to be presented to the cottage’s owner.
    “Good day to you,” Dianna called as she guided the mare close to the wall.
    The female’s head whipped around. The expression in her eyes, before it turned to just wariness, reminded Dianna of prey scenting a hunter.
    Was it possible the female realized she had been addressed by one of the Fae? Dianna wondered.
    The female turned away and fumbled with the laces of her tunic before getting to her feet. She brushed her hands on her thighs, with no regard to the dirt she was leaving on the cloth, before approaching the wall.
    Dianna breathed out slowly. No, she decided. The creature was simply trying to