Free Susan King - [Celtic Nights 01] by The Stone Maiden

cautiously down the slope.
    The boar snorted, wagged its long head, and trotted toward her. She began to run, stumbling a little on the steep hill. Crashing noises behind her told her that the boar followed.
    They were fast, dangerous, and temperamental animals, she knew, with poor vision but for what lay directly in their path. If she ran a crazed path and got out of its sight, and if she could find a tree to climb, she would be safe until her kinsmen could reach her.
    If the beast came near her now, it would swipe its powerful tusks at her ankles, following an instinct to cut prey down at the feet, rendering it helpless to escape.
    That horrifying thought gave her renewed strength. She turned and ran past a cluster of gorse bushes, ignoring the stinging needles that pierced her skin through her woolen trews. She began to zigzag in an effort to confuse the boar.
    She glanced back, stumbling again, nearly falling, dropping her bow in her haste to get up. The boar swung stubbornly after her, crashing through the gorse. Alainna pushed onward, running through dry bracken toward another group of trees.
    Behind her, she heard shouts, barking dogs, and the thunder of hooves, but could spare no more backward glances. The boar's relentless snorting was loud and insistent.
    She saw a wide alder tree ahead and ran toward it, reaching for a lower branch. Leaping into the tree's sanctuary, she steadied herself on a thick limb, and glanced down. Without her bow, she had no defense, and clung desperately to the tree.
    Seconds later, the beast rammed the trunk, jarring her perch. Her foot slipped with the impact. The boar swiped at her dangling boot. She jerked her leg out of the way and scrambled higher, shaking in terror. The beast slammed into the tree again and again, bellowing its fury.
    A movement nearby caught her attention. She glanced up, startled, as a pale horse approached, carrying a rider in steel and indigo. A blue shield with a single arrow gleamed on the saddle. Sebastien le Bret, lance couched under his arm, guided his horse quickly toward the alder where Alainna clung.
    Quickly, efficiently, he wheeled sidelong, lifted the lance, and hurled it at the boar. The point sank into the target, and the boar grunted and fell heavily at the base of the tree. The wooden shaft quivered in its flesh.
    Alainna stared, stunned, at Sebastien. Her breath burned in her throat and her heart slammed. She could not seem to move her limbs, could not seem to think, her mind emptied by panic. Nor could she shift her gaze from the knight's.
    He reined in his sidestepping horse. Men gathered behind him, Highlanders and Normans both. Alainna saw only the knight who rode close to the tree. He turned his mount so that he could lean toward her, and extended an arm, his gaze steady on hers.
    Clinging to the branch, she clung to his gaze as well. She felt as if she were drowning and he held the only rope. All else but his eyes, his outstretched hand, faded around her.
    "Alainna," he said gently. He moved his fingers, beckoning. "The beast is killed. Come out of the tree."
    She nodded stiffly, her panic clearing. She felt foolish. Refusing his hand, she edged along the branch, and paused uncertainly when she saw the dead boar.
    "Alainna," Sebastien said firmly, "come with me."
    Come with me. His words brought back the memory of her dream, where the golden warrior had held out his hand to her—although she had not been up a tree, shaking like a terrified child—and had said the same words. In the dream, she had known that her life would change—might even end—once she took his hand.
    She hesitated. Sebastien reached out and grabbed her arm, tugging her toward him. She swung into place behind him, looping her arms around his waist for balance. He urged the horse forward, and her kinsmen ran toward her.
    "Alainna girl, are you harmed?" Lome asked. He looked so old, she thought, his long face gone gray with worry, his white hair straggling, his shoulders