At last, as Warren was busy talking to Lyons at the gate, Ulfeus came.
Ulfeus was a heavyset man with jowls and fair hair. His eyelashes were long and faint. He breathed hard when he walked.
“I’ve come to offer King Ythr’s hand in marriage to the Lady Egrayne, on his behalf,” he wheezed. His breath was stale.
“This way,” Eldred said shortly, leading Ulfeus inside. Warren tried to follow but Lyons laid a hand on his head.
“Need two people at the gate at all times,” he said. “I’d stay put, if I were you. I have a feeling there’s going to be a scene, in there.”
Warren waited for what felt like half a year, but was only half an hour. Ulfeus emerged with Egrayne in tow. She stood white-faced but erect.
“I will only accept a visit from the fiend if there is an escort present at all times. And he is not to intimidate me,” she said sternly.
Ulfeus nodded. “Message memorised. Now on its way.” So saying, he shuffled to his horse, swung into the saddle after a few tries, and galloped down the hillside.
“There is something I should tell you,” Warren said.
Guilt, fear and wrath churned deep inside his gut as he spoke. By contrast, Lady Egrayne appeared serene. By now, her pregnant belly had begun to show, a tell-tale curve that had gotten several of the staff gossiping in the kitchens and caused quite a few of the guards’ eyebrows to go up. Knowing what he knew, Warren could not stand and do nothing while the woman who was his Gran married the entity who tricked her.
Nightwalks 