In the Wake of the Wind (44 page)

Sarah sank to her knees, her head bowed, her shoulders shaking with the sobs that wracked her. He wouldn’t listen. No matter what she said, he refused to hear. “If that’s what you believe, then why don’t you banish me as well?”

“Because I love you too much,” he said,
his voice
breaking. “God help me, I still love you.”

She raised a tear-streaked face
to
him. “Then believe me, for I love you more than life, Adam. Do you think I could have lain in your arms last night, been
with
you in the way I was if that were not the truth? How could I even think of being with another man when we have such happiness together?”

Painful uncertainty chased over his features. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “I don’t know. God in heaven, I’ve prayed I’m wrong. I’ve prayed for that harder than I’ve prayed for anything in my life.”

She reached up and took his hands. “Then your prayer has been answered. For I swear to you on everything I hold holy that I have not been unfaithful. May God strike me dead if I’m lying.”

He dropped to his knees and took her face between his hands, searching her eyes. “I want to believe you. Oh, God, how I want to believe you. But why would my mother lie?”

“Because she has never liked me,” she said simply. “And because she was frightened that Michael would tell you the truth and you would believe him. So she struck first.”

Adam looked at her long and hard, and she returned
his
gaze evenly, praying he would hear her.

And then he squeezed his eyes shut for a
long
moment. When he opened them again they were filled with tears. “Sarah—my love. You really are telling me the truth, aren’t you.”

“I have never lied to you. Not about anything,” she said, her own tears falling freely.

“No, you haven’t. Dear God, you haven’t. I don’t think you could.” He rested his forehead against hers. “I’m sorry. I should never have doubted you, never have taken my mother’s word over yours, not for any reason. Can you forgive me?”

“Anything,” she whispered. “But it is Michael’s forgiveness you should worry about.”

“Lord above, but I’ve made a mess of things,” he said, rubbing his hands over his face. He sighed.
“I
’
ll
go find him, apologize. Try to explain that I’m the fool he called me.”

“It is too late. He has left, Adam, and I don’t know if you can ever bring him back. I don’t even know where he was going.”

“I’ll think of something,” he said, standing and holding his hand out to her. “I’m bound to hear of his direction sooner or later. But Sarah—about this other business, my mother’s plan to invade Famagusta.
I know that she
has been annoyed with the king and his policies for years, but our army will not act unless it is on my father’s orders.”

“Then you had better pray that she does not try to talk him into
giving
that order,” Sarah said, taking his hand and rising. “For if he does, we will all pay and pay dearly.”

“I will have a word with him. And with her. And I will let her know what I think of her, of her filthy lies about you and Michael.”

Sarah nodded. She knew Adam was good to his word.
But
she couldn’t shake
off
the feeling that
it
might all be for naught.

The scene faded and
Serafina
could see nothing at all but the thick fog that reengulfed her. And yet a hand held hers, Aiden’s hand, for she knew the touch of his fingers. No. It was Adam’s hand, clutching at hers, pulling her through the castle.

“Run,
Sarah, run! They’re storming the south walls!”

Shouts of confusion. Screams. And the smell of smoke. Smoke everywhere. The crackle of fire.

Adam dragged her out through the lower passage into the open air. Her eyes burned and her lungs sucked at the air. But there was no escape. The invading soldiers were everywhere, their swords flashing high, sweeping down
in
brutal
strikes, shields
clanging as they cut their way through Kyrenia’s army, an army taken badly off guard. And Michael was there, fighting in the front
lines.

He saw
them, shouted even as he fought. “Betrayed
—a spy in
the court! I came back to give warning. Get to Paphos—seek sanctuary
—we
are
lost
here!”

Michael’s sword clashed again and again, but he was no match for the
two
soldiers who attacked him. His armor was pierced by a single well-aimed thrust to his chest, and he fell before Sarah’s horrified gaze, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. And lay still, the wound to
his
heart a mortal one.

Adam cried out in anguished fury. He raced to Michael’s side, taking up his sword, viciously slicing at
Michael’s
attackers, bringing them both down. Another soldier came at him and he fought him
off,
his face a mask of rage.

Sarah grabbed up a sword from a fallen man, holding its weight in both hands. She skirted the edge of the battle, making her way to Adam.

“Sarah! For God’s sake, escape,” he cried frantically, looking over at her, blood trickling down his forehead. “This is no place for you!”

“I will not leave your side,” she said. “We will die as we have lived—together.”

He opened his mouth, but his protest was cut off by a woman’s scream that came from high above.

Clio stood at the edge of a castle window, her dress aflame. And then she jumped, her body tumbling through the air to land
with
a heavy thud in the courtyard, her broken limbs twisted up underneath her.

Adam had seen. The expression of shock on his face told Sarah everything. And that one moment of inattentiveness cost Adam his life. Sarah screamed out a warning as a soldier rushed up behind Adam, his sword descending in a blinding flash on Adam’s shoulder, biting into his neck.

Adam dropped to his knees with a strangled cry, then collapsed onto his side.

Sarah threw herself on top of him, her arms pulling him close, her sobs wracking her body. “Adam—no … Adam!”

He shivered, then whispered against her ear with his last breath. “I love you, Sarah. I’ll always love
you…”

And Sarah heard no more, a cold stab of steel piercing her back, surprisingly painless. Her last thought before darkness took her was that it wasn’t an end. There would never be an end. Only another beginning.

Light floated over
Serafina,
lifting her, carrying her high out of the mist to a place so bright it was blinding in its clarity. So joyful, peaceful, so full of love. All the darkness was washed away, the terror, the helplessness. She was safe, safe at last.

Time
was …
time
is …
she heard, the whisper faint, like the gentlest of breezes.
The circle is complete…

The whisper grew closer, a voice in her ear, the most beautiful voice she’d ever heard, singing a song composed of starlight and moonbeams, a heavenly chorus. And in the song were words, and in the words were knowledge and reason, a message of hope, a litany of love.

And then she was home. Hands lifted her, drew her close. Tears fell on her face, hot, human, the very essence of life. Aiden’s
tears,
Aiden’s
voice, huskily murmuring to her. “Thank God … thank God.”

Serafina
opened her eyes and smiled.

“My love. Oh, my love,” Aiden said, cradling her head against his chest. “You’ve come back to me. You’ve come back.”

He kissed her hair, her forehead, so full of relief and love that he didn’t know how to contain it all. The journey he’d taken with her, the heart-wrenching story that had unfolded had humbled him beyond belief, taken him beyond doubt to understanding, memory flooding back as if they had experienced it all over again.

Sarah. Adam. A life lived long ago and far away, a love untouched by time. She had always known. It was he who had been blind.

She stirred in his arms and gazed up at him, her eyes hazy, dreamlike, a smile lingering on her lips.

The silence hung unbroken, Raphael’s face streaked with tears, his eyes fixed on a point in the distance. Aiden glanced over at his father, one of his hands resting on Serafina’s head, his own head bowed. Aiden shifted his gaze to Elspeth.

The light that had enveloped her during the ritual had faded now, and she had assumed her normal proportions. Everyone had gone back to normal, as if the last half hour had never been.

But he was prepared to believe anything now, anything at all.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your
philosophy…

And then he looked at Charlotte. Her face was wooden, her gaze fixed on
Serafina,
fear sharp in her eyes. Charlotte. Clio of Curium. And not the first time she had leveled a false charge of adultery.

“My dear sister,” she said, wringing her hands together, “thank God you have come back to us! All your strange babbling had me fearing for your sanity.”

Serafina’s smile faded. “There is nothing wrong with my mind, Charlotte—it is perfectly rational, although I did go on a strange journey. And I was given a message to deliver to you.” She released a heavy breath. “Deity cannot be used for personal gain or to further a hunger for power. As one sows, so will one reap. Evil begets evil and the chains that bind you can only be broken by true faith and love for your fellow man.”

Charlotte’s fists slammed down on her chair. “Blasphemy, I say! All of you have been taken in by this witch’s ramblings, and yes, I condemn her as a witch and her evil aunt with her. I know what you think, that I was this Clio, that I brought disaster down on your heads.”

“And ended that life, your body broken, as it was once again broken in this lifetime,” Elspeth said. “A just payment of a debt, Charlotte.”

“You’re wrong,” Charlotte cried. “I am blameless, and I can prove it, curse you!”

Aiden watched in frozen shock as his sister heaved herself to her feet, taking three steps toward the bed, her eyes blazing with fury.

“You see? No chains bind me. I am sound in body, sound I tell you!”

Raphael moved so quickly that Aiden hardly had a chance to register. He grabbed Charlotte in a viselike grip. “You damned little liar,” he shouted. “How long? How
long
have you been deceiving us?”

Charlotte twisted frantically in his arms. “I—I haven’t been deceiving you. I wanted it to be a surprise. I was going to tell you the night of the ball, but then I heard what you said about me.” She clawed at his face. “I hate you, I hate you for leading me to believe you cared about me, that you would marry me if I could walk.”

“Marry you? Are you out of your mind?” Raphael said incredulously, tightly restraining her. “What in hell ever gave you that idea?”

“You gave every indication. Every indication,” she sobbed. “And then you took it all away from me because of her.” She pointed an accusing finger at
Serafina.
“Not one of you sees what she really is. Evil—corrupt!”

“Is that why you tried to kill her?” Elspeth asked abruptly. “Did you think that removing
Serafina
would put an end to your problems?”

Aiden drew in a sharp breath. Charlotte? His sister was responsible for pushing
Serafina
down the stairs? He opened his mouth, but the words wouldn’t come, fury robbing him of speech.

Charlotte’s head snapped around and she glared at Elspeth. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she snarled. “You’re nothing but a spiteful old witch. You’d say anything to malign me. You’ve always despised me.”

“Sweetheart?” Aiden asked, praying Elspeth was wrong. He had seen for himself how vicious Charlotte could be, but he couldn’t believe she would go so far as to attempt murder. “Do you remember what happened?”

Serafina’s fingers tightened around Aiden’s hand. “My aunt speaks the truth,” she said quietly, turning her level gaze to Charlotte. ‘You were there that morning. You stood up from your chair and you hit me over the head. And I think you and I both know why.”

Charlotte’s face turned white as chalk. “You’re lying. You’re lying.” She looked around frantically. “Don’t believe a word the whore says. None of it’s true!”