With A Key
an excerpt

“Are you completely daft?” Brynna felt that if she’d had anything in her hands at that time, or even nearby enough to grab, she’d have thrown it at him. Instead, she had to be satisfied with working the fingers of her right hand into Bledig’s thick fur; her left she opened and closed repeatedly into a fist. “You’re not to come up here! If I’d not been out to stop him, he would have killed you!”

The man winced, bringing up a hand to brush aside the strands of long black hair that had come loose in the scuffle and fallen across his face. He dropped his gaze like a sheepish little boy ashamed at his mother’s anger. “I thought…”

“What?” Brynna’s voice was lower now, her anger fading after that small explosion of words.

The man shrugged, and looked up at her from where he sat on the ground. His eyes were an amazingly vibrant shade of green, clearly visible even in the pale light of the half-hidden moon. He offered an apologetic smile, though its effects were quite blunted by the look of panic he hadn’t quite shaken. “I was just trying to return the things to the kitchen.”

“You couldn’t wait till morning?” Brynna clutched the fingers of her right hand together, holding tightly to the wavy grey strands of Bledig’s fur that were caught between them. Now that the fear and anger were draining away from her, it was sinking in that she was talking to him. A Traveler. Amazing, when she’d never even seen one, to her knowledge, until earlier this same night. His voice was rather unremarkable; a light tenor, not much different from Calam’s to be quite honest. His words did have a slight accent to them, true; a kind of lilt that was unfamiliar, but not nearly so exotic and foreign as she’d been expecting a Traveler to sound. “Besides, laborers aren’t allowed near the house without an escort.”

Now he looked a bit embarrassed. “I didn’t think I should bother them right now. I know it’s late, but…I thought I’d be all right.” He paused, though Brynna felt he still meant to say more. She saw him place a hand on the ground to steady himself, then stand. He seemed even taller than she’d imagined from seeing him sitting at the table. Not the tallest man she’d even seen, to be perfectly honest, but all the men Brynna had ever known that were as tall or taller than him had had girth to match their height; at the very least, they had a solid stockiness to their frame that made them seem both more and less their size. His height, combined with his build--delicate and willowy, almost aristocratic in its grace--only intensified the aura his aura of not belonging. If she hadn’t been sure he was a Traveler before, she was positive now.