Montbryce Next Generation 01 - Dark Irish Knight Read Online Free Page B

him. “ Non ! Don’t kill her.”
    The arrow skimmed harmlessly into the water.
    Rhun shoved back. “Stupid Norman,” he yelled.
    Rhoni landed on her derrière in the sand. Rhun reached into his quiver for another arrow, but his father waved him off. “Put it away, Rhun. The seal is not attacking.”
    Rhoni struggled to her feet and ran to join the group approaching the seal, frustrated by her shoes bogging down in the sand, impeding her progress.
    The animal seemed to sense it had an audience. It lumbered into the water, then out again, in then out, barking furiously. Rhoni had seen their dogs do the same thing when they wanted—
    “She wants us to follow her.”
    Several faces turned her way, derision writ plain, but only the sneering Rhun voiced the opinion. “And how are we supposed to do that?”
    Rhoni frowned, sure in her heart the seal was trying to convey a message. She shaded her eyes with her hand and looked out to sea.
    “There!” She pointed, shouting over the roar of the surf. “What’s that?”
    Everyone strained to see what she had seen. Out on the water bobbed a strange object, round, adrift.
    “Looks like a boat,” Myfanwy observed.
    “There’s someone in it,” Rhoni yelled, not understanding how she knew, but certain of it.
    Rhun bristled beside her. “It’s too small to be a boat.”
    Rhodri suddenly unbuckled his scabbard and tore off his doublet and boots. “Rhun, get more bowmen. Rhoni might be right. It’s a coracle.”
    He strode into the water and swam towards the craft. The seal followed him like a sleek shadow. Men came pouring from all directions and several joined Rhodri in the water.
    The women huddled together on the sand, watching Rhodri and the others haul the boat to shore. The men dragged the coracle out of the water. Rhoni broke away from the nuns and ran to the swirling foam at the water’s edge, deafened by the thudding of her heart in her ears.
    Dripping water, and winded, Rhodri stopped her. “Don’t look, child.”
    She grasped the side and pulled against him, compelled to look inside. Curled up in the waterlogged craft were the bodies of a young boy and the biggest, most striking man she had ever seen, a man who had been cruelly tortured. His suffering tore at her heart. She wanted to soothe away the pain of the abominated eye, the burned and bruised leg, the scarred wrists. A sob lodged in her throat. She leaned on Rhodri, trembling from head to toe.
    He issued commands, pulling her from the scene. “Get them out of the boat. We’ll see to their burial.”
    She wrenched away from him. “ Non ! They can’t be dead. The seal thought they were still alive.”
    Rhun seemed ready to utter another scathing remark about her sanity. She put her hands on her hips, braced for an argument.
    “Water.”
    All heads swivelled to the bodies. The boy had levered himself up on one elbow, eyes wild, lips parched.
    Rhodri sprang into action. “Rhun, get water from the cart. Quick.”
    Rhodri easily lifted the boy from the coracle, but it took six men to extricate the man and lay him on the sand.
    If the boy lived, the man might also have survived. Rhoni dropped to her knees at his side, took his hand and pressed it against her cheek. He was ice cold. She leaned over to listen for breath.
    Faint, but there. She turned to look at him and found herself gazing into a dark eye more compelling than the brutally marred flesh that had been his right eye.
    “ Mo aingeal ,” he rasped.
    An overwhelming desire to kiss his wind-ravaged lips swept over her. She wanted to fill his lungs with the breath of life. She squeezed his hand. “He’s alive!” she screamed, laughing through salty tears, rocking back and forth on her knees, speechless with relief.
    Rhun came running with water skins and helped the boy drink. Rhodri knelt at Rhoni’s side and spread his doublet over the man’s chest. He held a skin to his parched lips and poured a little water into his mouth. The man