Page 80 of A Thieving Curse

As they emerged out of the forest and approached the village, curiosity provided a welcome distraction. Raelyn wasn’t sure what she’d expected the village to look like, but the group of buildings in a dell wasn’t it. Weather-worn shacks of rough planks with no windows were scattered with no apparent plan to the dirt roads twisting between them. Animals were penned in yards next to orderly little gardens. The shops were even smaller than the homes, and some houses seemed to double as shops. The suntanned people wore clothing of coarse wool and linen. Villagers greeted the others and cast Raelyn curious looks.

Lucas grabbed her hand. “I’ll show you around while they visit the tanner’s. It stinks, so you probably don’t want to go there.”

In typical Lucas fashion, he babbled without stopping, telling her who lived where and what they did, and which shops were which. They rounded a corner, skirting around a muddy pen holding a large pig, and he stopped suddenly. His cheeks went pink. She followed his gaze to a girl of about fourteen or fifteen, sitting at a spinning wheel in front of one of the shacks across a wide thoroughfare. She sang softly under her breath, so quietly Raelyn couldn’t hear the lyrics. Her brown hair fell in a braid down her back. She had rosy, round cheeks. Her fingers moved nimbly as she spun a basket full of wool into yarn.

Raelyn smiled and pulled her hand out of Lucas’s to push him forward. “Go on,” she prodded. “Introduce yourself.”

He nodded slowly, then harder. “All right.” Lucas walked toward the girl, muttering under his breath, “Hi, my name is Lucas, what’s your name?”

Raelyn smothered an amused snort. To give him some privacy, she turned and continued the opposite direction, wandering through the chaotic layout of the little village. Soon the scent of fresh-baked bread caught her attention, even though she didn’t have anything with which to buy food.

Her nose led her to a tidy little shack with a hanging sign carved with a loaf of bread. A few people stood in front, clustered together. A woman with her chestnut-colored hair pulled back in a bun, a man with a ruddy complexion, and a dust-covered man sporting a bushy, dirty beard. Raelyn started to pass by, but the woman’s agitated tone made her slow.

“It’s just a rumor, surely.” The woman kept clenching and releasing the apron over her rough red dress.

The bearded man leaned back against the building. “I passed near the palace on my way. It’s all true, I swear.”

The palace?Raelyn stepped closer to the group, a terrible feeling in her gut. “Pardon me, but what’s true?”

Their attention snapped to her. The ruddy man frowned. “Who are you?”

“I’m Jasper’s niece,” she said. “What’s happening at the palace?”

The traveler rubbed his beard. “The Eynlaean princess who was supposed to marry His Highness Prince Tristan is dead, or so the Eynlaeans claim.” Raelyn’s stomach dropped. “His Excellency the king isn’t sure if he believes them, but either way, he’s demanding an Eynlaean bride for his son. And there're only rumors as to why, but the more troubling news is that King Henry imprisoned the Eynlaean prince.”

Raelyn covered her mouth with both hands and bit down hard on her tongue to keep from crying out.

“The Eynlaean king is furious, but King Henry says he’ll release the prince once he gets a wife for his son. The Eynlaeans are supposedly bringing their king’s niece for Crown Prince Tristan now.”

Elena?Raelyn could scarcely breathe. Elena was shy, barely sixteen, and had the world’s biggest crush on Baron Mithson’s youngest son, a fact about which she had sworn Raelyn to secrecy. She would be heartbroken.

The traveler scratched his beard. “But rumor is she’s a young thing, and Prince Tristan might not accept her. If there’s no marriage, people are talking about war.”

“War?” Raelyn choked out. Her hands felt like she had touched ice. “Are you sure?”

The woman continued to twist her apron as sweat beaded on her forehead, even though the day was cool. “I have family near the pass and the river in the lowlands. In the last conflict the lowlands were stripped and burned, nothing left but dirt. They’ll lose everything if there’s a war.”

“There’ll be no trading, too.” The bearded man’s mouth pinched downward. “I’ll be ruined. Us common folk always suffer the most when the royals get war into their heads.”

The ruddy man put his arm around the woman. “Surely the prince will accept this girl. They can’t want war.”

The traveler shrugged. “Some whisper they do. There’s talk the Eynlaean prince will be executed if the marriage fails.”

“What?” Raelyn gasped as the air was sucked from her lungs. The villagers gave her concerned looks as her mind spun. “Excuse me, I…”

She fled before they saw her tears.Gareth.Gareth was a prisoner. He could be executed. She sobbed as she skirted children playing in the path. Gareth could die. A war would follow. Because she had stayed. And sweet, gentle Elena…

Her vision blurred, and she tripped over the rutted path, stumbling into a man. The stranger caught her arms.

“Whoa, steady there, miss. Are you all—”

Raelyn pulled away from him and ran on, her shoulders heaving. As she reached the edge of the village, her legs gave out. She fell to the ground and cried. Gareth hadn’t done anything wrong. Neither had her parents. And that woman’s family who lived by the pass—they certainly had done nothing wrong.

And Elena was being dragged away from her family and the boy she loved to marry the son of a cold-blooded murderer. Because Raelyn was hiding in the mountains, falling in love with a cursed man. She sobbed harder.I have to go.She didn’t want to leave Lucas and Meredith and Peter and Jasper and Alex. Oh, Alex.I’m falling for Alex.And I can’t stay.

Someone touched her back and knelt next to her. “Raelyn?” Meredith. “What’s wrong? What happened? Are you hurt?”

Raelyn shook her head and tried to answer but couldn’t form the words.

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