Free The Night Dance by Suzanne Weyn Page B

her.”
    “Do you think it’s possible that she is alive?” Helewise questioned.
    “Anything is possible,” Eleanore replied. “But ifshe is in the next life and comes to us as a spirit, then we still owe it to her to uncover her intention in contacting us.”
    “But the tunnels are dark,” Cecily reminded them with a shiver in her voice. “If it hadn’t been for that mouse, we might be in there still.”
    Rowena reached in her pocket, remembering the earring Millicent had handed her. “The new servant found this and gave it to me,” she told Eleanore, handing it to her.
    Eleanore took it from her. “What did you think of her?”
    “Unpleasant.”
    Eleanore nodded and then turned back to Cecily. “We will carry lamps next time,” Eleanore told her. “As long as we bring enough oil, we will have light.”
    The sisters began to plan their next descent into the tunnels, but Rowena couldn’t keep her mind on the discussion. Instead she gazed out the window at the courtyard bathed in the soft light of an early spring evening. The goose boy had once again put on his now-clean boots and was stretched on a mat in front of the opening. No doubt Sir Ethan had stationed him there to guard it.
    Where was her Bedivere now? She saw again his beautiful face in her memory, once again felt his kiss. Her eyes closed as she recalled the sweetness and warmth of it. She relived the feel of his arm enfolding her, and saw anew his crippled hand with its twisting scar. Even in its ugliness, it made him dearerto her. She winced to think of the pain he had felt when it happened, and somehow she understood the humiliation it caused him now.
    He wanted to meet her in the forest tomorrow. He would be there, but she would not. Would he think she did not care to come to him? The thought of him misunderstanding formed a knot that tightened painfully in her stomach. This was an unbearable torment. How would she go on if she could never see him again? She simply could not endure life without the possibility of seeing him.
    “Rowena!”
    Her sisters were all looking at her. “Pay attention please! We’re going down through the trapdoor again tonight,” Eleanore told her. “Tonight after supper we’re going to try to sneak an extra lamp or two out of the dining hall. The small lamps at the tables by the doors might suit perfectly. Each of us will wear a shawl to supper so that we might hide a lamp under it.”
    Rowena nodded. The idea of going into the tunnels was no longer as thrilling as it had once been. All that mattered now was Bedivere, her beautiful love from the North Country.

C HAPTER S IXTEEN
Morgan Follows
     
    Morgan chortled in delight as she sliced bread for the night’s supper. She still was not exactly sure what was going on and, it was true, she had suffered a few setbacks, but, all in all, things seemed to be rolling her way.
    Imagine—Vivienne suddenly appearing like that in a scrying bowl after all this time! Well, realistically, she’d probably been attempting it for years. There simply had been no one on the other end to receive her signal. But her patience had paid off at last. That Rowena had chipped her way out of the egg, eager little chick that she was, and come upon her mother’s precious bowl, which apparently had been sitting right where Vivienne had left it.
    Such clever girls , she thought as she placed the bread on a carved wooden platter. But not so clever that they didn’t manage to get lost in the darkness . If she hadn’t guided them out, they’d be there still.
    At the time, she’d wanted to keep them from perishing there in the bowels of the earth. She thought that perhaps they’d find their way to Vivienne, who might have gotten free and regained possession of Excalibur.
    If this was true, she needed to know about it.
    The poison she had given to Mordred—a concoction made from the toxin of a puffer fish and the venom of a rattlesnake, both attained from sorcerers from distant lands at a