Her sword quite forgotten, she spluttered fearfully, "You would not dare! I-"
"Enough! Go, before I put my words into action!" He moved towards her, sending her scurrying for the stair.
Humiliated, furious with herself, she turned at the last moment to fling a few last words at him. "I will follow you! I will! I will hold you to account . . ." to her own mortification, she burst into tears and fled.
Amrhost went back to leaning on the battlement, and to staring at the ocean. But his thoughts strayed, and he glanced often at the stairs down which Julina had gone.
The next dawn arrived too soon for Rhia. It was so dark and damp outside that she had to fight the urge to hibernate herself in order to crawl out of bed. Julina made a poor companion this morning. The elf girl was not her usual self, and seemed self-involved and withdrawn. Rhia wished her friend's mood would brighten, if only because it would help her face the day and the weather.
Breakfast was over and they were on their way all too soon. It seemed the sky was lightening somewhat, but as they departed across the lowered drawbridge and began making their way down the narrow stone road to the sea, the sky became very dark once more. When they were halfway down, Rhia gasped as a blinding flash of lightning turned the scene into an unreal, preternatural nightmare. Even as the thunder rolled off the cliff faces in deafening, cannonading peals, a cuttingly