Oriana rested her hand lightly upon his thigh. “In addition to being cowardly, poison is a woman’s weapon.”
Egan turned the idea in his mind. “Are you accusing Ula? While my father never admitted it, I always believed he was still in love with my mother; but Ula was so attentive, I never doubted her love for him.”
“Yet if you’re right, someone wanted him dead,” Oriana mused thoughtfully. “While we were traveling, you described your father’s expertise in settling disputes. Isn’t that usually the Druid’s realm?”
“Aye, they serve as judges and settle most arguments elsewhere, but my father had a passion for justice and truth, and most came to him with their complaints rather than consult Garrick. Garrick led all the festivals though, and conducted the sacrifices with such lavish ceremonies that it never occurred to me he might be bored.”
“Not bored, jealous,” Oriana corrected. “And jealousy can be a terrible flaw.”
The possibility of truth in Oriana’s words sickened him. “I told you Garrick and Ula might be lovers. Perhaps he was also jealous of my father’s hold on the woman he loved. With my father dead, he might have thought he would then be the ultimate judge among the Dál Cais, and he would have Ula as well.”
Oriana had to rub her arms to shake off a chill. “The man has always frightened me, but I think he’d be wary of you. How could he have trusted your fate to Kieran?”
Egan could barely contain a derisive snort. “When I need help to take more than a few steps, I’d say Kieran h
as justified his faith thus far.”
Oriana needed a long moment to reflect before deciding it was time to reveal her suspicions about Adelaine. “I climbed the stairs to the battlements not to admire the view, but to see where your mother fell to her death. You’ve been on the wall walk; how do you imagine that she could have tripped and fallen through a crenellation when they are so high?”
The hideous sight of his mother’s lifeless body flashed in Egan’s mind, and he quickly shook it off. As a child, he had shut away the tragic circumstance of her death and not examined it since. Now he realized his error.
“She’d not have leapt to her death,” he swore. “She loved my father and me too dearly.”
Oriana laced her fingers in his. “I’ve not spoken of her to spare you pain, but her spirit lingers here with an anguishing sorrow. Could someone have murdered your mother to provide an opening for your father to take a second wife? Then could your father have been murdered to make way for that woman’s son to rule?”
Egan stared at his bride as he considered the years such a fiendish plot would have required. “The Dál Cais have suffered through all manner of treachery, but if Ula’s clan wanted Kieran named king, why was I allowed to live? I’ve traveled alone for years, and I’ve not been set upon by assassins.
“That I’m alive makes it doubtful that Ula’s clan produced anything approaching the evil you imagine. Quite frankly, the whole lot lack sufficient imagination.”
“At this point, we ought not to underestimate anyone,” Oriana stressed. “Madi is related to Ula, isn’t she?”
“Aye, they’re cousins.”
Egan apparently did not think it a significant link, but Oriana did. “Madi’s father is Garrick’s brother, is he not?”
“Aye, Skell resembles him closely, but Garrick arrived here with Ula, not before.” Tired of contemplating murder, Egan pulled her down beside him. “It’s being here in this dank fortress that’s depressed you. In a few days, I’ll be able to take you out to the forest, where the sunlight will brighten your mood.”
Oriana cuddled against him as though she agreed, but until she had seen him fly and land his wing safely, nothing would bring her good cheer.
Chapter Eighteen
Egan took Oriana’s hand in a tender clasp and laid it on his left side. “Your touch eases the pain. Is it an effort for you?”
Oriana’s insides had been twisted in knots since Kieran had cut Egan, and she could not believe her touch could be more than sweetly soothing. “No, but when I’ve caused you this agony, I wish I did possess a gift for healing.”
“I believe you do, and you’re not to blame that I’m in need of it. I’ve never treated Kieran as a brother. You wisely warned me of the danger of creating enemies in my own home, but it was too late. I’ve caused my own misery, and I’ll get myself out.”
“You have to!” Oriana exclaimed.
“Hush,” Egan scolded softly. “I feel better just being with you.”
His compliment pleased her, but even if he had not mentioned her pitiful lack of success at telling fortunes of late, she knew her earlier confession had to have disappointed him.
“You’re not angry that my Stones of Tomorrow aren’t enchanted?” she asked.
“Nay, and at least one of them is,” he murmured.
“Your amethyst?”