LC02 Crystal Flame Read online

  For the second night in a row, he found himself wondering if she had simply fled. But even as the thought entered his mind, he didn’t believe it. He knew Kalena too well now. If she decided to leave, she would announce her intentions in a loud, clear voice—a very loud, clear voice. She would not sneak off in the middle of the night. That certainty gave way to a strong dose of annoyance over the fact that she hadn’t displayed more common sense. She had stayed out much too late. This was a strange village and she had no business loitering with strangers until all hours.

  Women. Put a bunch of them together and they lost all sense of time and propriety.

  But after the annoyance, Ridge suddenly found himself suffering from a nagging sense of uncertainty. It had evolved quickly into genuine urgency which, in turn, soon bordered on the savage edge of fear. No one knew where Kalena was, He had forced the innkeeper’s wife to summon some of her friends. They remembered Kalena having been in the pool cave, but only when Ridge talked to a rounded little blonde named Tana did he realize that Kalena might have gotten lost in the huge caverns.

  “She was still there when I left,” Tana admitted. She was nervous in the presence of this stranger whose temper was clearly on a very short leash. “I think she might have been the last to leave.”

  “If she left at all,” Ridge had snapped, glaring at Tana’s wary-eyed husband as he sought someone to blame for the situation.

  “She couldn’t have gotten lost,” Tana assured him quickly “The cave is well lighted and so is the exit passage. Perhaps she’s fallen asleep in the warm waters or lost track of time.”

  “I’ll get you a lamp if you want to take a look for yourself,” Tana’s husband had volunteered, anxious to placate the grim-faced stranger.

  A few minutes later, Ridge had been on his way alone to the cavern entrance. As soon as he stepped inside he had realized that the lamps meant to light the passage weren’t functioning. Not one of them. The thought of Kalena trapped somewhere in the vast darkness had sent another jolt of fear through Ridge.

  Following the string of non-glowing firegel lamps to the main pool cavern had been easy. Using his own lamp as a guide, he made his way quickly through the passage. As soon as he rounded the last bend in the tunnel, he had seen the faint flare of Kalena’s lamp. The sight of her crouched in the small pool of light had enraged him anew. He wanted to lash out at someone or something for having left his woman in such a frightening situation. He knew his own sense of guilt was riding him hard. He should never have allowed her to go to the cavern alone.

  When Kalena answered his call and raced toward him, Ridge had trouble finding words for a few minutes. He set his lamp down at his feet and crushed her to him.

  “Do you have any idea what I’ve been through for the past hour?” he muttered into her hair.

  “It couldn’t have been anything compared to what I’ve been through. Ridge, it was the most horrifying experience. The lamps kept going out and all the while this cold, endless darkness was snaking down the tunnels into the pool room. I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.”

  “It’s all right,” he said thickly, stroking her back in an effort to reassure himself as much as her. “It’s all right. It’s all over now Let’s get out of here.”

  “Yes,” she agreed wholeheartedly. “Let’s do that, by all means.” Her eyes widened as she pulled back to look at him. “But I wonder why your lamp is still functioning. None of the ones in the tunnel worked, and when I tried taking one from this room into the tunnel, it went out, too.”

  Ridge glanced around the darkened cavern as he reached down to retrieve his lamp. “I don’t understand either. There must have been something faulty in the last batch of firegel put into the lamps. But this one works fine. Let’s get moving.”

  “I think it was more than a bad firegel mixture,” Kalena murmured as she took the hand he extended and moved quickly beside him out of the cavern. “The shadows weren’t normal. I could feel it, Ridge. When I looked into this tunnel earlier it was like looking into the farthest, darkest end of the Spectrum.”

  “You’ve had a terrifying experience,” he said gently “Being trapped in this place would loose anyone’s imagination. But it’s all right now.”

  She fell silent beside him, and Ridge knew she didn’t appreciate being told that she had been a victim of her own imagination as well as the very real darkness that had surrounded her. The truth was, he didn’t believe it himself. But none of the other possibilities offered much comfort. He thought it would be easier on both of them if he could convince her that the coincidence of all the lamps fading simultaneously had probably been a natural accident.

  Ridge was relieved when Kalena didn’t argue. Her fingers gripped his with an intensity that made him feel keenly protective. The thought of Kalena actually seeking his protection was deeply satisfying. It was the way things were supposed to be. He kept a tight hold on her hand as they made their way out of the tunnel.

  Anger simmered in him at the thought of what she had been through. He would make damn certain the Village Council was aware that Trade Baron Quintel would learn of tonight’s incident. Ridge’s chief regret at the moment was that there wasn’t any one person he could blame for what had happened. He would have enjoyed taking someone apart for this night’s work. Soon, he promised himself, before this journey was finished, he would learn the truth of what had happened. And then he would take his revenge.

  Kalena didn’t release her grip on his hand until they were inside the inn. The innkeeper and his wife inquired anxiously about what had happened, and Ridge responded with a controlled ferocity that cowed everyone within hearing distance.

  “My wife,” he began in a voice that was far too soft, “is all right, no thanks to whoever is in charge of maintaining those cavern lights. In the morning I want to know just who is responsible for those lamps.”

  “Ridge…” Kalena tugged at his hand, trying to urge him toward the stairway.

  Ignoring her, Ridge took a step toward the innkeeper, who backed hastily out of reach. “Furthermore, I want to talk to someone on the Village Council. Someone who cares about maintaining the trade route contract with Trade Baron Quintel. Lord Quintel is not going to like hearing about what happened tonight.”

  Kalena tugged again on his hand. “Please, Ridge. Don’t yell at them. They had nothing to do with what happened. It was no one’s fault. I don’t want to hear any more about it. Let’s go upstairs.”

  He hesitated, torn between his desire to please Kalena and an equally strong wish to make someone pay for what had happened to her. In the end Ridge found himself surrendering to the pleading look in his wife’s eyes. Reluctantly, he allowed himself to be led toward the staircase. The sigh of relief from the innkeeper and the other villagers was audible.

  With one booted foot on the bottom step, Ridge paused to glance back at the innkeeper, reluctant to let his only available prey escape completely unscathed. Pinning the hapless man with his gaze, Ridge said again, “Remember. I want to talk to someone in charge tomorrow morning.”

  “Yes, Trade Master. I will contact a member of the council,” the innkeeper assured him, grateful not to have to bear the brunt of Ridge’s attack.

  Kalena was still pulling on his arm, Ridge realized. He finally gave in to the gentle tug. When they reached the landing, Kalena turned down the hall to their room. She stood waiting silently while Ridge thrust the key into the lock.

  As soon as he had the door open Kalena slipped past him, moving across the room to sink wearily onto the stool beside the hearth. She sat looking forlorn and withdrawn, her hands resting in her lap as she stared blankly at the wall on the other side of the room. Ridge started to close the door.

  Kalena’s head came up quickly. “The light,” she whispered as the glow from the hallway started to fade behind the closing door, leaving the sleeping chamber in shadow.

  He realized what she was trying to say. “I’ll turn on the lamps.” He did so before he
closed the door and then he knelt to start a fire on the stone hearth. It was going to be cold this evening.

  He took his time with the fire, aware of Kalena’s too-silent figure huddled on the stool. It occurred to Ridge that he didn’t know what to do next. He had gotten her out of the cave and she was safe. There was nothing more he could do to solve the mystery tonight. He was good at dealing with a crisis that demanded action, but he had very little experience offering comfort to a woman who had suffered what must have been a terrifying experience.

  Kneeling on the hearth as the blaze caught and flared, Ridge covertly studied Kalena’s withdrawn expression. She was very quiet. Perhaps she was in shock. He knew some of the Healers’ tricks for dealing with physical shock, but he knew nothing about soothing a woman after an emotional trauma.

  The nagging sense of masculine helplessness began to irritate Ridge. He sought to counter it the only way he knew; he got angry again. He had a general rule on the trail: When someone screwed up, you made damn sure he or she didn’t do it twice.

  Getting to his feet, he ran a blunt-fingered hand through his dark hair and frowned at Kalena. “You should never have gone to the pools tonight. I should never have let you talk me into it. The local people know their way around in that damn cave, but outsiders don’t. You could have panicked and run down any one of those side caverns that feed into the main pool chamber. I would never have found you. This is what comes of indulging females. Every time I give you your head, you get into trouble. As your husband it’s my responsibility to keep you out of mischief, so from now on I’m going to keep a tight rein on you.”

  Her brooding eyes swung to his. “Responsibility, duty, obligation. Is that the only way you know how to define a relationship, even a marriage?”

  “Those are the fundamental elements of any relationship, especially a marriage,” he shot back, gratified to have finally gotten some response from her. Any reaction was better than the silence that had gripped her while he was preparing the fire.

  “I have lived most of my life with an embittered woman who felt obliged to instruct me in my duties and House responsibilities. As soon as I’m free of her, I turn around and find myself married to a man who devotes himself to the same kind of lectures. One of these days I shall be free of both you and Olara. When that day arrives, I’m never going to look back.”

  Ridge’s back teeth clenched with sudden tension. “Perhaps if you didn’t spend so much time dreaming of freedom, you wouldn’t get yourself into trouble so frequently. And don’t compare my lectures on duty and responsibility to those of that crazy aunt who raised you. She brought you up with the sole purpose of using you.”

  Kalena smiled thinly. “Didn’t you marry me with the sole purpose of using me?”

  Ridge felt the fragile hold on his temper slackening. “Our marriage was equally undertaken as a business arrangement.”

  “It was never that.”

  “No, because you signed the contract merely as a way of getting yourself into Quintel’s house. Talk about using someone. You fully intended to use me, didn’t you? You were more than willing to drag my honor and reputation through the mud while you got yourself arrested for murder.”

  “I think we’ve already had this discussion. Let’s skip it and go to bed. I’m very tired, Ridge.” She got to her feet and picked up her travel bag.

  Frustrated at finding the argument terminated before he could release his pent-up anger, Ridge watched her disappear into the small privacy chamber off the main room. When she closed the door he swore softly and went to check the locks on the shutters.

  He had handled her all wrong. He knew that now. Back in the cavern she had been overjoyed to see him. She had clung to his hand so trustingly…For a while she had turned to him the way a wife was supposed to turn to her husband when she needed his strength and protection. But he had managed to sever the delicate bond with the sharp edge of his temper. He had never meant to start yelling at her, Ridge told himself bleakly. He had wanted no, needed—to yell at someone for what had happened this evening, and she had deprived him of any other likely target.

  If he were honest with himself, he would admit that he should be blaming no one but himself. He should never have allowed her to go off alone to the cavern pools.

  Ridge sat down on the edge of the pallet and yanked off his boots as he listened for small sounds of movement from the little chamber. She was too quiet in there, he decided. Probably brooding. He finished undressing and dimmed the lamps until only the glow from the fireplace lit the room. Still he heard no sound from the small room. He slid under the covers, his arms crooked behind his head and stared up at the shadowed ceiling. He had definitely handled her badly this evening. The trouble was, he didn’t know how to go about rectifying the situation.

  A long time later, the door to the small privacy chamber finally opened with a faint creak and Kalena stepped back into the main room. She was wearing her demure, high-collared sleeping shift, and as she made her way over to the pallet, Ridge decided she looked very lost and alone. She managed to crawl into the pallet beside him without touching him.

  She had perfected the technique, Ridge told himself grimly. Kalena rarely touched him of her own initiative. He could pull her into his arms and coax a passionate response from her, but never had she initiated the passion.

  He lay for a long while thinking of the few times Kalena had touched him spontaneously. There had been the time when he had fetched her and her so-called friends from the arms of the Crosspurposes Town Patrol. And then tonight when she had run to him in the dark cavern. In both instances she had been grateful to him. Neither case constituted what might be called a passionate plea from a woman who longed for her lover’s touch. Ridge wondered what it would be like to just once have Kalena beg him to hold her.

  “You don’t believe me, do you, Ridge?”

  Her question took him by surprise. “Believe you about what?”

  “About that dark mist that filled the cavern tonight.”

  “I think you had a good reason to be terrified, Kalena. Anyone would have been panicked at the thought of being trapped in an underground cavern.”

  “Do you really think it was just a freak accident that all the lamps went out at once?” she challenged softly.

  He hesitated and then admitted, “No. But I don’t have any other convenient explanation for what happened in those caves tonight, Kalena. Not yet.”

  “It could be connected with the Sand trade trouble, couldn’t it?” she pressed.

  “That’s a possibility. But none of it makes any sense. The Healers have cut off the trade, but they wouldn’t pull a stunt like this. Why should they do such a thing in the first place?”

  “There were those two men who attacked us back in Adverse,” she reminded him.

  “I know.”

  “Those black glass pendants...”

  “I know,” he repeated. “But I don’t have any answers.”

  “You don’t believe that there was something strange about the darkness, do you?” She sounded sadly resigned. “I don’t blame you. It must have been gone when you came through the passage. If I hadn’t seen it myself, I wouldn’t have believed it either.”

  “Kalena…”

  “I wish you good night, Ridge,” she said very formally. “Thank you for coming after me this evening.”

  Her cool, distant words made Ridge groan silently. He turned on his side and found himself confronted with Kalena’s slender back. Tentatively, he put his hand on her shoulder and felt the stiff tension that gripped her.

  “You’re still frightened, aren’t you?” he asked with concern. “It’s all right, Kalena. You’re safe now. You’re here with me and I won’t let anything or anyone hurt you.” When she didn’t respond, Ridge edged closer, stroking his hand a little awkwardly over her shoulder. Making love to a woman was one thing; comforting her was another. He didn’t know what to do. But he thought she relaxed slightly as he ran his palm back and forth alo
ng her arm.

  For several minutes, they were both silent. Kalena didn’t move, but the tight muscles of her shoulders began to loosen as Ridge continued his stroking.

  Then, without any warning, Kalena turned to face him, burrowing into his arms as she sought the warmth and strength of his body. Startled, Ridge hesitated momentarily, and then resumed his slow, massaging touch.

  There was nothing overtly sexual about the way she was cuddling with him, Ridge realized. Kalena wanted to be comforted and she had turned to him for that comfort. It was only right, he told himself. He was her husband. He fell asleep with that thought.

  Ridge awoke shortly before dawn the next morning to find the pallet beside him empty. A small clattering sound in the corner of the chamber near the hearth made him open his eyes. Kalena was dressed to travel and she had a steaming mug of yant tea in her hand. Apparently, she had just finished making it on the small fire she had built. When she realized he was awake, she brought the mug toward the bed, holding it out to Ridge with grave politeness.

  “I thought you might like to drink your tea while you dressed.” She didn’t quite meet his eyes.

  She was embarrassed, Ridge thought with sudden perception. She had never before performed the traditional wifely duty of bringing him the morning tea in bed. For that matter, the moment was a little awkward for him, too. Ridge had never had any woman bring him tea in bed. Of course, he had never been married before. There was a first time for everything. He could get to like this small ritual, he decided as he took the mug from Kalena’s hand.

  “Thank you,” he murmured as he took a sip of the invigorating brew.

  She hesitated by the pallet. “You were kind to me last night,” Kalena finally said very earnestly.

  “You implied I was a short-tempered, abusive trade husband,” he said dryly.

  She waved the night’s argument aside as if it were an entirely separate matter. “I meant later, in bed. You held me and soothed me. I was very tense because of what had happened. I appreciate your concern and care.”