Page 145 of Moon Craving
When they returned to the keep, he led her directly to the great hall. She was
surprised to find a handful of his elite warriors seated at one of the banquet tables. The
evening meal was still a couple of hours off and the warriors did not usually come inside to
congregate this early in the day. But Niall, Barr, Earc, Fionn and Airril were all there, along
with Osgard's glowering presence.
Una served water and mead to the seated warriors before scurrying from the hall
with a single, baffled, backward glance at Abigail.
Guaire was there as well, standing on the other side of the room from the warriors,
though he looked as puzzled by the presence of the other men as Abigail.
Talorc stopped in the middle of the hall with her. "Turn your back to the soldiers,"
he instructed.
"What? Why?" She worriedly bit at her bottom lip. Turning her back on others was
a recipe for disaster in Abigail's silent world.
Anger simmered in his blue gaze. "Just do it."
She did not understand his request and liked it even less, but she did not think now
was the time to argue.
Hoping against hope that he would not speak while her back was to him, she
turned. Talorc moved so that he had a view of both her face and the soldiers behind her.
Because of his position away from the other soldiers, Guaire was the only other person
whose face she coud see.
With a sick feeling, she suddenly began to realize what might be happening. Her
stomach lurched while her hands grew clammy and her head buzzed with dizzy terror.
She could not force herself to ask again what was happening because she feared she
already knew.
She was being tested, and if what she suspected was true, the covering she had
worked so hard to hide her secret behind was being ripped away with ruthless efficiency.
She could pretend to "hear" whatever Talorc had instructed his men to do behind her. She
could keep lying through her actions, if not her words, but there was no strength left in her
for the subterfuge.
And it probably wouldn't work anyway.
