Page 11 of Highland Spy

Ariana could imagine the glow of a warm hearth and soft beds. Where the endless, rocking sway of a horse would stop.

“Did you hear, Liv?” Ariana leaned in her saddle to peer at her friend.

A pale face with lackluster gray eyes peered from a triangle of parted fabric. “I’ll believe it when I’m there.”

“Then you’ll believe it very soon,” Ariana said with as much encouragement as possible.

Liv gave a weak nod beneath her pile of cloth, and her eyes showed the smile all the blankets hid.

“There,” Sylvi said. “In the distance.”

Ariana searched the dulling skyline until she noticed a fleck of black in the distance.

It was far away, but noticeable nonetheless.

They were almost there.

No more sleeping on the cold, hard ground or facing the winds with little more than sodden wool and chapped cheeks for protection.

A gurgling sound filled the air, soft at first and then louder, like the rushing of water.

And, indeed, as they approached, the snow fell away to a ribbon of churning river too large to cross.

The castle stood on the opposite side.

Each fall of the horse’s hooves toward the bridge jarred her bones, each shift she made in the saddle cramped her muscles. Each step forward seemed so ineffective, they might as well have been stepping back.

Their entire journey thus far had not lasted as long as the final grueling hour.

Finally the darkened face of a castle rose before them, preceded by a stone bridge.

The muffled slush of the horse’s hooves in the snow became hard clapping strikes upon the bridge, an almost deafening sound by comparison.

Mortar had fallen in large chunks from the sides of the bridge, leaving the boulders within seemingly loosely stacked rather than solidly constructed. The castle itself did not appear any sounder. Fractures were visible on its surface in dark, jagged lines, and several stones were missing altogether.

Ariana brought her horse close to Liv’s. Her friend’s pale hand came out and curled around hers. Liv’s eyes were wide with worry. “Have we made a mistake?”

Ariana ignored the ball of unease tightnening in the pit of her stomach and shook her head.

“Murdoch,” Sylvi shouted into the wind.

The sun had already begun to sink, dragging with it any vestiges of warmth.

Sylvi’s cheeks and nose were brilliantly red in the fading light, the rest of her comely face little more than shadows.

A squealing creak rent the air and the gate opened before them, revealing a shadowed courtyard.

Ariana’s temples thundered with the fluttering of her pulse and her breath came faster, puffing into the air in front of her. But she would not show her unease any more than she would reveal the discomfort of her saddle.

She might be a pauper and a cheat entering a castle that appeared to be falling in upon itself, but she was a still a noblewoman.

“Let us be strong.” Ariana squeezed Liv’s icy hands. “Like spies.”

Liv gave a weak nod and her hand slipped away.

Ariana drew herself fully upright despite the screaming protest of her back, and rode through the gates with the grace of a queen.

She hoped.