“Talking with the others! Now hear me! I will come for you at dusk. Be ready!”
Semirah was gone before Zora could reply and she whirled from the window, her heart in her throat, as Nellwyn rapped upon the door.
“Shall I help you disrobe, my lady? Your bath is waiting.”
Zora had to fight to keep her voice calm. “No, thank you, Nellwyn, I can manage. I’ll be out in a moment.” Her hands were icy as she brought them to her burning face, her legs weak with relief. Rurik wouldn’t see her in that damnable sleeping gown after all!
Suddenly she gasped in horror. Oh, no! Nellwyn had said she was to be escorted to Rurik’s longhouse after she was bathed and dressed, which would be long before Semirah came for her at dusk. What was she going to do? Would the concubine know where to find her? Mother of Christ, why hadn’t she thought to say something before Semirah had fled?
Caught up in her quandary and pacing the room, Zora didn’t hear the second rap at her door. She only looked up when Nellwyn entered, the slave woman’s eyes filled with concern.
“Are you all right, my lady? Your cheeks are so flushed.”
“I’m fine,” Zora began, then she heaved a ragged sigh as an idea suddenly came to her. “No, Nellwyn, I’m not fine. I feel terrible…dizzy. I think I should lie down before–”
“Now don’t be fainting on the floor!” cried the slave woman, rushing forward to take her arm. She swept aside the filmy gown as Zora sank upon the bed. “You’re just overanxious about tonight, aye, I’d swear to it. I was like that myself when I first went to my Vasili’s bed, a quaking virgin if ever there was one. He’s a good man, but so big that he struck the fear of God in me. Yet he couldn’t have been more gentle, and so Lord Rurik will surely be with you.”
Rurik, gentle? Willing away all too compelling memories of his steely embrace, Zora said shakily, “Perhaps you’re right, Nellwyn.” She disliked that she must deceive someone who had been so kind to her, but she had no choice. “Perhaps I’ll feel better if I rest for a while. I’m sorry about the bath.”
“Don’t trouble yourself, my lady. We can heat up the water quick enough when you’re ready. Now close your eyes and if you need anything, I’ll be right outside.”
Zora waited until the door thudded shut behind Nellwyn before she allowed herself to breathe a sigh of relief. It was no more than a few hours before dusk. Surely she could feign her malady at least that long. She must!
“You’re going to find a cold empty bed when you return tonight, my lord husband,” she whispered, imagining the look on Rurik’s face when he realized that she was gone. It was not hard to do. The image she conjured was so grave and menacing, she shuddered and quickly chased it from her mind.
Chapter 17
Zora had to be shaken awake, and when she opened her eyes to find Nellwyn leaning over her, she could not believe that she had actually fallen asleep when there was so much at stake. Yet after two sleepless nights, she was not surprised that exhaustion had overcome her.
“You look to be feeling better, my lady. I let you rest a good long time, but it’s growing dark—”
“Yes, yes, I feel much better.” Zora raised herself on one elbow, trying to shake the cobwebs from her brain. “You said it’s dusk?”
“Aye, and according to Lord Rurik’s summons, he said he’d be back not long after sunset. We’ll have to hurry if you’re to be ready in time—”
“Then prepare my bath, Nellwyn.”
“I already have, my lady. The water’s steaming and I’ve poured in an extra measure of rose oil just to please you.”
Seized by desperation, Zora had to think of some way to get the slave woman to leave her chamber. If it was almost night, Semirah would arrive soon. Zora didn’t even want to consider that she might have missed her. “Please, Nellwyn, I need a few more moments alone…so I can gather my thoughts. Surely you understand.”
Sighing, Nellwyn nodded. “Very well, my lady, but no longer than that. Lord Rurik’s not one to have his orders disobeyed.” She began to close the door, then paused. “If you think it would help, I could fetch you some wine. A half goblet or so might relax you and I’m sure Lord Rurik wouldn’t mind.”
“Thank you, Nellwyn, that sounds lovely. But there’s no need to bring it in here. I’ll enjoy it with my bath.”
Finally alone, Zora waited an interminable moment just to make sure that the slave woman wouldn’t return. Then she rose and flew to the chest that held her new clothes.
Throwing back the lid, she pulled out a cloak and whisked it around her shoulders, then she snatched up a small embroidered bag that held the gold circlet she had worn at her wedding. Now all she had to do was watch for Semirah. She was barely to the window when she heard men shouting outside and a woman screaming shrilly, then frantic shouts of “Fire! Fire!” split the air.
“Holy Mother, protect us,” Zora prayed aloud, wondering if the compound might be under attack. As she flung aside the fur covering she got her first acrid whiff of smoke, carried to her on a strong breeze that whipped her hair about her face. Fearing that her own longhouse might be aflame, she was tempted to jump out the window right then and there.
To her relief, she saw that it wasn’t her dwelling but the roof of a distant longhouse that had become a bright orange inferno, thick black smoke boiling into the darkening sky. As warriors began to run toward the building from all directions with buckets of water, she realized at the same moment that she spied a cloaked figure hurrying toward her window that her guards had joined the fray.
“Come! Now!”
Semirah’s urgent voice shocked Zora into action. With a racing heart she climbed onto the sill and jumped to the ground, and after covering her head with the hood of her cloak, she clasped the concubine’s outstretched hand and dashed with her alongside the building. Men, women, and children seemed to be running everywhere, the confusion and noise like a swirl of chaos around them. Then Zora saw that another roof was burning, the gusty wind having swept the soaring flames onto a neighboring longhouse that was ominously close to the assembly hall.
“You…you started the fire, didn’t you?” Zora rasped as she and Semirah darted between buildings, keeping close to the walls and well into the shadows.
“How else could I come for you without anyone noticing? Faster now, we’re almost there!”
Zora was gasping for breath by the time they ducked into a small storehouse. The musty-smelling interior, its walls lined with barrels, would have been pitch-black if Semirah had not kept the door slightly ajar.
“Over here.” Dropping to her hands and knees, the concubine began to claw at the dry rushes strewn upon the planked floor until she had uncovered three heavy-looking iron bolts. One by one she drew them back, grunting with exertion as she then pulled up a trapdoor. “Go! It will be dark, so you must feel your way. You will find a horse and guide waiting for you when you leave the tunnel.”
Zora looked from the gaping black hole to Semirah. “How will I get out?”
“When you reach the other side, feel for a latch, then push up hard.” The concubine thrust a small, heavy bag into her hand. “Here is the gold! Go! By now the flames may have gone out!”
Only too eager to oblige her, Zora plopped down at the edge of the opening. She had barely swung her legs into the hole when Semirah shoved her from behind.
“Farewell, Princess.”
“Oh…!”
Zora had never known such a terrible fright as plunging feet first into blackness, the wind knocked from her body when she landed hard on her backside. It hadn’t been a long drop, perhaps only five feet, and she realized as Semirah slammed the trapdoor shut above her and secured the three bolts that she would have to crouch when she stood or risk bumping her head. Yet the walls were farther apart than her outstretched arms, which made sense if the tunnel had been built to accommodate men the size of Rurik.
“Farewell to you, too, Semirah, but you didn’t have to push me,” Zora muttered. She could
just imagine the bruises she would bear from her fall.
All alone now, she took a moment to catch her breath. She tried not to dwell upon the fact that there were probably rats down here and spiders and God only knew what else, telling herself to think instead about how she was finally going to be free of Rurik. She would never see him again!
Zora was stunned that her excitement could suddenly be dampened by regret. Furious with herself, she focused on getting out of the tunnel. Grimacing as she groped around the clammy dirt floor for the bags holding her circlet and the gold, she was glad when she found them quickly. She rose to her feet, remembering to keep her head low as she made her way down the passage.
It was strange to keep walking forward when she couldn’t see where she was headed, the tunnel eerily silent but for the sound of her breathing. Yet she could tell that she was moving in a winding direction and not a straight line, the air growing more stuffy as she moved along. Soon her neck began to ache from hunching over.
As the moments dragged on, she walked faster, one hand extended in front of her so that she wouldn’t go slamming into a wall. When was this damned tunnel going to end? She would never have guessed that it could be so long, but then again, the shaft was an escape route.
Although she hadn’t seen it for herself, she imagined a wide strip of forest had been cleared around the compound for defense. The tunnel couldn’t end out in the open, which would leave one at risk of emerging among enemies who might have encircled the fortifications, but farther away in the trees where those fleeing could exit safely and without fear of being seen.
Telling herself to take deep, slow breaths as she tramped on and the air seemed to become that much thinner, Zora willed herself not to panic. She would be there soon. She had to be there soon…
Rurik spurred on his stallion, every lunge of the powerful animal bringing him that much closer to Zora. By Thor, it had been a torment sitting through the council of war at the kreml, the gravity of events scarcely able to divert him from thoughts of his unwilling bride!
He could well imagine in what mood he would find her, no doubt inspired by his unexpected summons, and it only heightened his anticipation. His frustrating encounters with Radinka and Kerstin had finally convinced him that he could torture himself no longer. He had made his point. Zora knew her place. It was time he quenched this desire that was close to driving him mad.
“My lord, look to the north!”
Arne’s cry was almost lost to the wind, the intensity of which had been mounting since they left Novgorod, a summer storm brewing. At first Rurik thought the warrior was referring to the veined lightning crisscrossing the sky, but then he saw an ominous orange haze in the distance that made his heart seem to stop.
“By the blood of Odin, men, ride hard!” he roared, digging his heels into the stallion’s heaving sides. He had seen such a glow rising above towns and cities during many a battle and it meant only one thing: fire.
As they approached the compound, the gates yawning open, Rurik could hear the crackling of flames and the resounding crash of timber collapsing. Yet nothing could have prepared him for the sight of an entire row of longhouses ablaze, sparks exploding heavenward as another roof caved in with a mighty roar.
Rurik reined in his horse and was on his feet running toward the worst of the fire before the rest of his men had dismounted. The heat, fanned by the gusting wind, was so intense that he could feel it like a hot blast upon his face twenty yards away. Immediately he took charge, directing his warriors’ effort to the assembly hall and commanding that they douse the three-story wall that was closest to the fire.
“What happened?” he demanded of Leif, whose soot-darkened face was streaked with sweat as he came running over to Rurik.
“The first longhouse went up a short time ago, we think from a hearth fire,” the warrior shouted above the din. “The wind has done the rest.”
Scanning the overcast night sky, Rurik could smell rain through the smoke that was burning his throat, but he couldn’t tell if it would come fast enough to save the hall. Right next door was his longhouse, which would have to be doused with water as well.
“Has anyone been hurt?”
“No, my lord, in that the gods have been merciful. Yet I’ve news that will not please you.”
Rurik’s gut instincts spoke to him before Leif could say another word. “My wife?”
“Aye, my lord. She is missing. Her slave Nellwyn found her bedchamber empty when she went to tell her of the fire.”
“Damn!”
“Thirty men are searching for her, including her guards—”
“Double it! There will be men enough to battle the blaze.” As Rurik glanced over his shoulder to the gates that were still wide open, Leif seemed to read his mind.
“There’s no chance she could have escaped that way, my lord. The guards have been watching for her.”
Then she had to be hiding somewhere inside the compound, Rurik thought as his warrior left him to rejoin those fighting the flames. Surely Zora couldn’t have found one of the secret exits…though she had been taking enough walks of late to make him wonder. She was so keen-witted…
“My lord!” came a shout, one of the men whom he had assigned to guard Zora running up to him.
“You found her?”
“Not yet, but we did come upon this hanging from the door to one of the storehouses…the one with the tunnel.” The warrior held out a jagged strip of gray linen. “It was caught upon a nail. We checked the trapdoor inside but it doesn’t appear to have been disturbed. The bolts were drawn and the rushes upon the floor looked untouched, yet…” The man shrugged, falling silent as Rurik studied the torn fragment.
“It could belong to anyone,” he said almost to himself. “A tunic, a mantle…of whoever was there last.” He brought the linen closer to inspect it further. “This tells me noth—”
Rurik stopped, suddenly catching the unmistakable citrusy fragrance of bergamot and cedar emanating from the cloth. He knew only one woman who wore such a perfume. Semirah. And there would have been no reason for her to be in that storehouse unless…
“Take another man with you and find Semirah, then bring her to me,” ordered Rurik, clenching the linen in his fist. “Go!”
As the warrior hastened away, Rurik focused his attention upon the fire, anything to temper the rage that was building inside him. A few drops of rain hit his face, a clap of thunder booming overhead. He looked up to the sky as the low-hanging clouds seemed to open and a steady downpour began in earnest.
Shouts of thanks erupted as with one resounding voice. Rurik knew that the hall and his longhouse were saved. But what of Zora, by God? Was she still in the compound or somewhere in the surrounding forest? The vast tracts of woodland were dangerous at best to even those who knew the terrain, but to a young woman raised in a palace with no knowledge of the wild and its creatures?
Seized by impatience, Rurik could not wait for his warriors to bring Semirah to him. As the rain became a deluge, soon soaking him to the skin, he strode past blackened, smoldering ruins in the direction of his concubine’s longhouse only to spy her resisting the men he had sent to fetch her. Yet when Semirah saw him approaching, she stopped her struggles and drew herself up, her gaze unwavering and her chin held high despite the rain lashing at her face.
“This was found at a storehouse known by only a few to have a tunnel.” Rurik thrust the telltale fragment of linen toward her. “It belongs to you, woman, and my wife is missing! What say you? Did you have a hand in her escape?”
She shook her head. “I know nothing of your precious wife.”
Hearing the bitterness in Semirah’s voice, Rurik said simply, “You lie.”
“And you are a fool to choose that blue-eyed, sallow-faced cow over Semirah!”
Rurik had never thought to strike a woman but at that moment he came very close. Yet his fury was restrained by pity, for he knew that it was his own disinterest that had provoked the woman. He knew,
too, that he would have to pass judgment upon her for her treachery, but for now that would have to wait. He didn’t want to think what he might do to her if anything happened to Zora.
“The fire, Semirah. Was that a diversion for your actions?” he demanded.
Her resentful glare was answer enough.
“Escort this woman back to her dwelling and guard her well,” he ordered. “Don’t let her out of your sight.”
“Aye, my lord.”
Rurik barely heard the reply, for he was already racing back to his steed. Roaring out names of men to join him, warriors who knew the surrounding forest well, he had mounted by the time they had assembled around him.
“My wife has fled the compound through the tunnel. We will ride to where it ends and, if need be, branch out. She can’t have gone far.”
Wheeling his stallion around in a spray of mud, Rurik didn’t wait for them to mount their horses. They knew the way. His only thought was to find Zora, before something else did.
Chapter 18
Zora gasped as her outstretched palm hit a planked wall, and laughing with nervous relief, she fumbled along the low ceiling for a latch. It took some doing but she finally found it and with all her strength she pushed up. The trapdoor was heavier than she had imagined, but refreshed by the rain pelting her face and a stiff breeze whistling into the tunnel, she was able to shove it backward.
“Hello?”
No greeting came. And there was no horse or guide in sight, at least not from what she could tell standing in the tunnel. Thinking that the man must be waiting for her farther back in the trees, she tossed out her bags and then hoisted herself up.
“Is anyone there?” The steady plunk of rain hitting the earth and branches creaking in the strong wind was her only answer.
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