Free Dreamer's Daughter by Lynn Kurland Page B

would also do well to find out who had taken that magic, though perhaps that would be easier than he feared. All they would need to do was look for any black mages of note lingering in the area.
    â€œAnd then?”
    He looked at her steadily. “I also have the feeling that we might want to find out where that seventh dreamspinner came from.”
    She looked positively ill. “Perhaps we could put that off for a bit.”
    â€œPerhaps we could,” he agreed quietly. “Let’s first find our way to Beul and see what’s to be discovered there. Then we’ll plot our course.” He looked at Soilléir. “Given all your recent experience with crossing that border, perhaps in this at least you might offer a suggestion or two.”
    Soilléir smiled briefly. “I suppose I could, for I have rather definite opinions on those borders and the perils associated with them.”
    â€œDon’t tell me there’s a curse attached to Bruadair’s,” Rùnach said in disbelief. “What absolute rot.”
    â€œLet’s call them safeguards instead,” Soilléir said. “In days past, they were rather benign safeguards, but I can’t say the same for what watches the border at present. It isn’t pleasant. I would venture to say it’s a fairly recent addition, if that eases your mind any. Our good Aisling could walk across the border at any spot and Bruadair would only welcome her, though the land would indeed take notice of her entry.”
    â€œAnd would it tell potential enemies the same?” Rùnach asked.
    Soilléir shrugged. “That hasn’t been my experience so far, but I’m a very small player in this drama and easily overlooked. I can’t guarantee that there might be those watching who would find Aisling reentering the country to be upsetting to their plans, no matter where she did it. I’m not sure Bruadair has the means to prevent that.”
    Rùnach suppressed the urge to shake his head. He’d been doing too much of that recently. “You speak of the country as if it had a mind of its own.”
    â€œIt is an unusual place,” Soilléir conceded. “The magic is connected to the land in a way that I would say isn’t replicated in very many other places.” He smiled faintly. “I know far less about it than I would like to claim, but it doesn’t lend itself to outside speculation. That so much of the magic has been drained from the country says much about whoever managed the feat.”
    Rùnach supposed he might not want to think too hard about just who that mage might be. If Acair was behind the theft, then he had grown powerful indeed. Then again, his bastard brother had always been more powerful than Rùnach had ever been comfortable with.
    â€œBut if Bruadair knows who crosses the borders and unpleasant mages will possibly know the same, then how will we manage to get back inside?” Aisling asked. “And when you were in Bruadair, how did you manage to move about so freely? Or was I one of the ones still asleep?”
    Soilléir smiled. “I can’t say that you weren’t still blissfully unaware of many things at the time, but even had you not been, you wouldn’t have noticed me.”
    â€œI noticed your clothes,” she said with a shudder. “Blindingly gaudy, those.”
    Soilléir laughed a little. “One does what one must to accomplish the task at hand.”
    â€œBut surely clothing wasn’t enough,” Aisling said. “Was it?”
    â€œNay, Aisling,” Soilléir said seriously, “It wasn’t. I took the precaution of hiding my magic.”
    â€œOh,” she said, sounding rather relieved. “Then I’ve nothing to worry about there.”
    Rùnach couldn’t help but look at Soilléir. It was so seldom that he had the opportunity to see the man looking anything but perfectly at ease that he