Page 137 of To Touch A Silent Fury

“It suits you,” I said, and he turned to me. “The lowly door guard.”

He grinned and walked over to me, pulling me into a hug a few feet from the door. I embraced him back, and he murmured into my ear. “There is more to this posting than meets the eye, friend.”

“Let me guess,” I said, matching his volume. “You guard an empty room.”

We pulled back from each other, and he glanced around us.

“Wrong,” he said.

My heart skipped a beat. “She is in there, then. You have seen her?”

“I have.”

Relief and excitement hit, and then confusion. Septillis was hiding something, but if it wasn’t this deception, then what was it? “So, she is ill after all?”

He shook his head, his voice still low. “She is perfectly well.”

It made less and less sense. “Why are you here, then?”

“Septillis left me very specific instructions,” Foxlin said. “Let no one and nothing in, besides food delivered by Kallie.”

“The cook?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“I don’t understand it,” I admitted. “What happened?”

An aggravated sigh came from behind the door. I heard the sound of something heavy moving, and then she appeared. Her braid was loose, her dark hair falling out of it. She rubbed at her face and pinned me with those sapphire eyes.

I hated how delighted I was to see her.

She frowned at me, and I reveled in her ire. “If you are determined to speak about me outside my door, please remember my hearing is far better than yours.”

I bowed deeply. “Lady Vorska, I am pleased to discover you are well.”

Tanidwen wrinkled her nose, closing the door a little as if realising herself. Then she glanced up at the sky, and back into her room. When she returned her piercing gaze, she was resolved. “I would like to take you up on your offer of a tour.”

Foxlin took a step towards her. “Is that wise, my lady?”

She sighed. “I have been in these walls for nearly a day and in this castle for a tenday. If I cannot step outside it, I will scream.”

He gave her an uneasy look. “I am not permitted to let you leave, my lady, for your own safety.”

“I know what your orders are to protect me against. And who.” Her eyes flashed as she said it, then she stared back at me. “Lang will not hurt me.”

Again, she called me Lang. Was she aware she was doing it? It did something to me, hearing her address me like that, so casually.

But her comments finally made it fall into place. Septillis had sent Foxlin here for Tanidwen’s protection, not to cover up her escape. Someone else must have tried to hurt her. Wainstrill himself? Or Daffinia perhaps, acting through my aunt?

Anger flared, hot and fast, as did the strange need to hold the girl.Lang will not hurt me, she said. By the Five, this woman owned my heart.

“Go get ready,” I said to her, and she turned, disappearing back into the room. I placed a hand on Foxlin’s shoulder. “It’s fine, Foxlin. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”

“Fine.” Foxlin shot me a warning look. “But don’t be gone too long or you’ll return to a new handsome head on a spike.”

“Watch who comes and goes from here.”

Foxlin rolled his eyes. “Of course, I am but yourhumble door man.”