Page 63 of The Herald's Heart
CHAPTER TWELVE
“So open the door and get us out of here.” Why did he delay?
“It seems to be stuck.” He leaned his shoulder against the oaken planks and shoved. Nothing.
“Talon?”
He backed up a few steps and threw himself at the door with all the force he could muster. The impact jarred him from head to toe; the door rattled but did not budge.
“Your carpenter did too good a job.” She didn’t want to be afraid. This had to be a mistake.
“Nay. The door is barred.”
“How? I saw you lift the bar and put it aside myself.”
“Bars don’t just replace themselves. Someone must have put it back.”
“Who would do that?”
“The guard perhaps.”
Larkin knew better. “Didn’t you tell Cleve we’d be down here?”
“Aye, but he may not have given the information to the men before one of them passed this way.”
Twice someone had tried to kill her. Would Talon now drown because of her? Larkin shivered. “What do we do?”
He took her in his arms, offering her his comfort and body heat. She saw him glance at the water line. “We cannot stay here. The chance that someone will come this way before we drown is too small.”
She set her jaw, put fear aside, and put all the confidence she could muster into the look she gave him. “Then we’ll have to swim the cove. There is a narrow path that climbs the cliff on the other side.”
“Can you swim?” he asked.
“Aye, my ... my father taught me. He considered it essential that we know how to survive in the water. The villagers, even the fishermen, thought him mad.”
Talon nodded. “Then we’d best hurry. Even now we may not be able to walk out of here.”
She nodded; the water had already risen to their shins.
He removed his sword and wedged it into a long shallow niche just below the tideline.
She hoped he would be alive to return for it. Then she linked her hand with his and started toward the seaward opening.
By the time they emerged, she had shed her dress and was floating. The torch had long since gone out. Talon dropped it from his hand, then removed his boots, shirt, and braes. She took his hand once more and let the pull of the ebb carry them from the cave.
In a rush, they were in the cove with the seafloor far beneath their feet. His hand tightened on hers. Waves crashed over their heads, and eddies swirled them around, pulling them out to sea.
Larkin floated between him and the shore. She scooped at the water with one hand and saw him do the same. But the sea tugged him ever farther away, and Larkin lost what little headway she had made. If they were to make the shore, they must each swim alone. She did not want to release him and would not, even though she knew it would be their best chance to survive. She turned to speak to Talon just as a swell lifted them up and forced their hands apart. No. She could not lose him now.
Panicked, she turned in the water just in time to see him sink beneath an oncoming wave. What was wrong with him? Why wasn’t he stroking toward the beach? With both hands free, he should be making better progress. The wave crested and carried her landward, but she battled back to the place where she’d lost Talon.
She fought to keep her head above water, searching for some sign of him. She could feel her arms beginning to tire, but she refused to give up. Moments passed; suddenly she saw him shoot up above the waves and sink just as rapidly. Somehow he’d traveled parallel to the shore and was now on her side of the cove, but far from the small shingle of land. Instead, he was dangerously close to where a clutch of huge boulders loomed above the waves. She started toward him. Water obscured her vision. She neared the rocks and felt the strong undercurrents pull at her. She was cold to the bone, weary with the struggle, and near mindless with fear for Talon.
He’d been out of sight for much too long. If he didn’t surface soon, she’d have to presume he drowned. The thought squeezed her heart painfully, and the struggle against the waves became too great. She made a half-hearted effort to head for the beach. The current pushed her closer to the rocks. The sea swirled her around and around. A wave swelled, shoving her straight at a boulder.
Pain slammed through her as she hit the stone with her shoulder and hip. She clawed at the rock face but found no purchase. Her body slipped downward, then jerked to a stop. A hand had reached out from the sky and wrapped around her wrist. She threw her other arm up and clasped the steel-hard arm that held her. She lifted her face and saw Talon peering at her from over the edge of the stone. His mouth moved, but she could hear nothing above the crash of waves.
Slowly he pulled her upward. She did her best to help, bracing her feet against the slick wall of rock to take some of her weight off of his arm. Waves knocked her feet from their tenuous placement and swung her body away from Talon. Water alternately sucked her down or slapped her into the rocks. She felt her hold on him slipping. Please, God, let me live.
