Free Knight Defender (Knight Chronicles) by Rue Allyn Page B

interior for later.
    Eventually, Maeve dropped back to ride with Dougal. Jessamyn smiled inwardly. The couple was so obviously besotted with each other; they would ignore her and Artis for most of the day. Jessamyn could safely question the younger girl about the MacKai holding and its baron without fear of any interference.
    “The Dungarob coastline is very dramatic and quite beautiful,” Jessamyn remarked. They traveled a well-worn path along the top of a low cliff, the crash of waves on the shore a reminder of how close the sea lay.
    “I’m so glad you like it. Many of my favorite places lie along this path. Would you like to see them?”
    “Certainly. Where will you take me first?”
    “To the selkie’s grave.”
    “Are selkies not water creatures? Why would anybody dig a grave for one?”
    From her saddle the girl leaned closer to Jessamyn. “’Tis a watery grave, and marked only by the selkie’s footprints. ’Tis the footprints that keep the selkie’s soul tethered to earth. On moonless nights ’tis said that the selkie will hunt anyone unlucky enough to be near in hope of stealing that person’s soul and imprisoning it here in her place, so the selkie can be set free.”
    “That’s a fascinating legend. Are you not afraid?”
    “Nae, ’tisna now a moonless night.” The girl grinned. “To get there we must take the lower path.”
    Jessamyn sighted along the line of Artis’s pointing finger. Their current track followed a shallow decline before splitting, one branch descending through a break in the cliff face, the other ascending then disappearing into a stand of pines.
    She cast a quick glance back to make sure Maeve and Dougal were in sight.
    They’d fallen farther behind, but the glance was enough to assure Jessamyn that the couple was behaving properly.
    With Artis leading the way, Jessamyn guided her mount down a sharp rocky incline to a thin curve of beach. With the tide ebbing, they traveled along the curve for quite some distance.
    “Artis, stop.” Becoming concerned about the distance they traveled and the problems occurring when the tide returned, Jessamyn reined in her own mount.
    Artis followed suit. “Why?”
    “How much further is this watery grave?”
    “See that headland?” The girl pointed a few yards away where the cliff jutted outward cutting off the beach.
    “Yes.”
    “Well, you canna see it because of the shadows, but the grave is at the base of the cliff just back from the point.”
    “You mean where the waves seem to disappear straight into the rock before rushing back out to sea?”
    Artis nodded. “Right.”
    Jessamyn looked back but did not see Maeve or Dougal. She gauged the distance from the start of the path at the top of the cliff to what must be a cave. Since she and Artis were nearly at their destination, they should have sufficient time to see the cave and return safely. She shook her head over the dawdling sweethearts. By the time she and Artis returned to the cliff top, the couple should have caught up with them. “All right. Lead on.”
    The cave was much larger than Jessamyn had imagined, so they guided their mounts through small waves until they were well inside.
    “Here,” Artis indicated a dry patch near the far wall. “The selkie’s footprints are easy to see.”
    Jessamyn halted Persia beside Artis’s mount. A trail of footprints frozen in rock started near a wall of broken stone and led straight into the sea.
    “Amazing.” Who made the trail? How had the prints existed for any amount of time without being washed away? Those questions would doubtless never be answered. But perhaps Artis could supply other information. They were not so far from Dungarob keep as the crow flies. What if this cave was the clan’s escape route? Would not Edward like to know that? Though could she give such information to her godfather when the end result would bring harm to people she was coming to like? Maybe she’d not tell Edward.
    “Does this cave go