The Pillars Of The World

she didn’t respond, he looked up. She was staring at him as if he, too, seemed familiar but she couldn’t quite place him.

    Finally accepting his assistance, she was mounted before the mare could decide to play any more games.
    “If you’re going to ride alone, you should ride astride,” he said, checking to make sure her foot was secure in the stirrup.
    “It isn’t ladylike,” she replied coolly.
    “Even gentry ladies are practical enough not to use a sidesaddle when they don’t have an escort to help them mount and dismount.”
    “Indeed.” She frowned a little, as if chewing over his statement.
    Not a lady’s maid, Neall decided. An upper servant would know it was acceptable for a lady to ride astride, if for no other reason than knowing different garments were worn for riding astride. And she wasn’t gentry. He was certain of that. So what, exactly, was she? And why was she in Brightwood?
    Neall stepped away from the mare. “Blessings of the day to you, Mistress.”
    He wasn’t sure why he used his mother’s—and Ari’s—usual greeting. Maybe just to see if she recognized it as a witch’s salute rather than a gentry one.
    Her light brown eyes narrowed. The look she gave him was thoughtful—and a little puzzled. She tipped her head in acknowledgment, then commanded the mare to walk on.
    He watched her, moving enough to keep her in sight while she crossed the road and rode across the fields to Ahern’s farm.
    Ashk, why does your face look blurry when you first come to our house?
    She stared at him for so long and in such a way that, for the first time, he felt afraid to be alone with her.
    “You can see through the clamor?” she asked.
    Later, he had asked his father what “clamor” meant. When told it meant “noise,” he’d puzzled for a while over why he could see through noise, then decided Ashk had been teasing him. Since it only happened when he saw her, he never mentioned it again.
    So what was it about this stranger who was interested in Ari that made him think of Ashk after so many years?
    Too edgy to sit, Dianna paced one of the smaller rooms in the Clan house until Lyrra and Aiden hurried to join her.
    “Have you seen Lucian?” she asked.
    “I’m surprised you didn’t pass each other going through the Veil,” Aiden said. “I guess he was feeling randy enough that he didn’t want to wait until sunset.”
    Dianna stopped pacing. Couldn’t move at all now. “He’s already gone? How could he just leave?”
    “He’s been doing exactly that since the Summer Moon,” Lyrra said, puzzled. She shifted her voice to a soothing tone. “I know you’ve been concerned about him becoming too . . . attached ... to this female, but I’m sure it’s nothing more than an indulgence in carnal pleasure. Besides, it will be the dark of the moon in a few more days, and then the affair will be over.”
    “It’s what happens when it’s over that concerns me,” Dianna said.
    “Why?” Aiden asked sharply.
    Dianna took a deep breath to steady herself. “Because the woman who lives in the cottage, the woman Lucian has taken as a lover, is one of the wiccanfae. She is a witch.”
    Silence.
    Aiden shook his head and began to swear, quietly and viciously.
    “How— Are you sure, Dianna?” Lyrra asked, sinking down on the nearest bench.
    “She told me. When I was there today, I saw a pendant she wears. A pentagram. A witch’s symbol.”
    “Lucian has said nothing,” Aiden said savagely. “ Nothing .”
    “I don’t think he knows,” Dianna said. “I’m sure of it.”
    “That doesn’t make it any better, does it?” Aiden snapped.
    “Why would the wiccanfae want to hurt us?” Lyrra asked.
    “Haven’t you ever wanted to hurt a lover who had tired of you?” Aiden said so bitterly Dianna and Lyrra stared at him. “What better way to hurt a Fae lover than to destroy a piece of Tir Alainn and all the Fae within it.”
    “We don’t know the Clans who are lost have been destroyed,” Lyrra protested.
    “We don’t know anything about them. There’s no word from them, no way to reach them.” Aiden paced the room. “There are enough Fae males who indulge themselves in the human world, and if a pendant is the only way to distinguish a witch from any other human female, they wouldn’t have known the difference. What if what’s happening to Tir Alainn is nothing more than the vengeance of spurned lovers?”
    “That’s enough,” Dianna said firmly. “The only thing we