The Pool of Two Moons by Kate Forsyth Page B

be easy enough to say the seeker had died trying to reach them. He frowned and picked up the sealed scroll the seeker had carried, gripping it tightly. It was marked with the Banrigh's own scrawl, and he dreaded having to read what was concealed below the seals.
    Unfortunately Anghus was reasonably sure the Banrigh had some method of scrying out those she liked to keep an eye on. Several times she had known things she should not have known. Like the stronghold of rebels that had taken up residence in the Tower of Searchers five years earlier. Anghus had been happy to let the rebels have the burnt-out pile of ruins, as long as they did not hunt out his forests. He could not see what harm they could do there, so far away from anyone.
    The Banrigh had thought differently. She had sent companies of soldiers into Anghus's land and had taken his young daughter hostage in a clever and underhand move, capturing the child as she played by the burn while the women washed the linen. The men had all been absent on a hunting trip and had only heard of the outrage when they returned, six days later.
    "She is hostage," the seeker in command had said coldly, "due to the Prionnsa Anghus MacRuraich's failure to root out rebels and witches as the Righ had decreed. If ye do no' lead the Banrigh's guards to their hiding place, your little girl will be killed."
    Anghus's daughter was dear to his heart, and only six years old. As much as Anghus disliked the Red Guards, who had grown cruel and arrogant since the Day of Reckoning, he had agreed to lead them to the Tower. He had been half tempted to try and warn the rebels but had been too afraid of the danger to his daughter to attempt it.
    So the rebels had been wiped out, and Anghus had ( been set to find any who had escaped. He had done so reluctantly but efficiently, wondering who had told the Banrigh he could find anything once he knew the quarry. For there was no doubt she knew. The wording of the message had been cleverly phrased to show he should not attempt to deceive her by protestations they had escaped him. Only one witch had he let escape, his sister Tabithas's apprentice, and only because he had known Seychella Wind-Whistler for years. As a young woman she had saved both him and his sister from drowning. The three of them had been boating on the loch below Castle Rurach when a fierce storm had blown up unexpectedly. Seychella had controlled the turbulent winds, taking the boat to safety and diverting the storm's path. In memory of that day, he had let Seychella escape, shielding his thoughts when they interrogated him as he had been taught in his years at the Tower.
    With a cold and heavy heart, Anghus said, "Nay, tend him, and when he is well enough take him to the castle and put him in the third best bedroom. I will see him when he has recovered his wits."
    "Be ye sure, my laird?" Donald said in a low voice. "It be no trouble to dispose o' him. We can do it early this morn, when all are asleep . . ."
    Anghus shook his head. "It is too dangerous, my auld friend. Let him live. I shall accept what comes." When he climbed the stairs to his own quarters, Anghus found his wife Gwyneth waiting for him. Dressed in a warm velvet gown, edged with fur, her fair hair rippled down her back, almost to her knees.
    "I heard there is a seeker at the gate," she said in a tense voice. Once beautiful, her face was marked with grief and sorrow now, the luster of her green eyes dimmed. He nodded.
    "Have they brought back our bairn?" she asked, twisting her hands together until the knuckles gleamed white. He shook his head, unable to meet her eyes. She slumped in disappointment, turning away.
    "I think the seeker has come with further orders for me," he said in a gruff voice. His wife said nothing, just left the room swiftly, her downcast face glistening with tears.
    Anghus tossed back a full dram of whiskey and poured himself another, his red-bearded face somber. For a moment he considered defying the