There was no other way to exit from the cave but to retrace their steps.
Fred caught up
with Astra, and man, woman and dog continued up the tunnel in silence.
Astra had
much to ponder. She was of course relieved and grateful to have been
rescued, but she
could not avoid a spark of annoyance at the thought of being beholden to a
man. Thinking
about the inadequacies of men, not
for the first time she wondered what she had been thinking of when she had
allowed
herself to become betrothed to Sir John. Being a wife was not a fitting
status for a warrior
princess, especially when her intended had not even been of royal blood.
Could he
have had her under some enchantment? If he had, she had broken out of it
soon enough. That had led
to his curse on her, of course. It didn't really bother her that much.
There was no embarrassment
at being seen naked by another woman, and who cared what men thought? Only
when it was cold, as it was now in these caverns, was it a nuisance.
Thinking of the cold reminded her of the words of the song that apparently only she had been able to hear. Winter kills? Was that a threat to make it colder yet? Did John have the power to do that from a distance, or was he down here in the caverns, one place where she had thought she would be free of him. Did the fact that she had heard the song, when Fred apparently could not, denote that she was now under some further spell?
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6/1/1999 11:49:56 AM
Extending Enabled
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