Read Online Moonlight by Ann Hunter - Free Book Online

The commander of the opposing army seemed to play with his soldiers like a boy with tin men, moving them in predictable formations. His attacks were paltry. The one thing he had managed to hold was his campground. Ciatlllait felt that he had become more of a nuisance than a source of entertainment. With Sylas’s help, she could pick off the last of the boy’s men and send him packing. Causing them to suffer, however, continued to be amusing. She liked seeing them scurry like rats in the dungeon, picking in desperation at whatever food they could find. Holding them to their camp made Ciatlllait’s subjects feel safe. It was exactly what she wanted. Let them think they were safe. When the spell finished Aodhagáin off at last, Sylas would become king, and a new race would emerge on the Summer Isle.
    She would need to solidify her position as queen, however. No one would follow her after Aodhagáin died, lest she give him an heir. They would cry out for Aowyn as their queen. She, the rightful heritor of the throne. Ciatlllait seethed. Sylas had said he would take care of the whelp. While it pleased Ciatlllait that Aowyn could no longer speak out against her, the girl still accused with her eyes. Bewitcher!
    This would not do. So many nights she had sat beside the princess, scheming. She had to be careful. People were watching. If anyone else saw in Aowyn what Ciatlllait saw, it would be the end of the usurper queen. Aowyn persisted as a thorn pricking at Ciatlllait’s ambition. She must be rid of the girl. Turning to her runes and bones and demons in the shadows, Ciatlllait asked, “How?”
    ***
    Xander wandered the woods. He had told his men he would return with food, but it was no secret what he really pursued. Those who stayed in his ranks enjoyed hearing the young man’s tale of the girl in the moonlight. They thought little of it, but it kept their hearts light despite the losses they had suffered. Signs of spring began to crop up. The snow became patchy. Ice in the streams and rivers receded. Smaller creatures grew bold, coming into their camps at night seeking food after months of hibernation. The worst of the winter had hit hard and fast. The Summer Isle never tarried gray and cold for long.
    Xander’s breath billowed on the air like great heads of cotton. The air smelled sweet with a distinct snap to it. It worked its way down Xander’s throat and stung his lungs. He welcomed it, however. It reminded him that he was alive and lucky to be so. The trees splintered the view of the moon in such a way that the glowing orb resembled pillars of light rather than a singular chattel of the heavens. Twigs snapped beneath his tattered boots. The cold enveloped his bare arms. He sniffed back the fluid sneaking from his nose. He stalked toward the moonlight, always towards the moonlight. He felt drawn to it as though the girl might be attached to it somehow. A strange fog loomed ahead. He set his jaw, determined to find his way through. He always got turned around at this point, but he had a good feeling about tonight. He had been leaving notches in the trees all the nights before. A few trees were unmarked. The girl in the moonlight had to be this way. He kept his hand on the trunk of the unmarked tree, making his way slowly to the next and the one after that. The fog grew thicker, determined to squelch him out. Xander sojourned. One foot in front of the other. Tonight he would find her and prove it had not been a dream. Droplets of water hung on to his tanned arms. He paused for a moment and listened. Water washed against banks ahead. He reached for the next tree but came up short and stumbled into a bush. The ground sloped steeply onto the shore of the misty pond.
    Xander crouched in the cover of the bush which was strangely green for this time of year. The grass grew tall around him as though the pond suspended itself in summer, but the water glazed over with ice. It shined as precious crystals in the moon.
    Xander leaned