Page 48 of The Longing

“What is the Yeavering like?” I close the book with a thump, hoping Meg can feel it somehow. After all, she thought it was amusing to give Fenrother a book on mating whichonly he can read.

I guess she thought I like surprises, and frankly, I’ve had enough to last me a lifetime in the last week. I’d curse her, but I’m in the Yeavering, a place filled with magic and a place I know nothing about. It would probably turn out to be real and come back to bite me.

The only creature in the Yeavering who is biting me is going to be Fenrother.

“Like?” he queries.

“Yeah, I didn’t see much of it when you brought me here. All I can see from the battlements is heather. What’s the rest of the Yeavering like? Are there more people like Meg?”

“More witches? Yes,” Fenrother says. “There are Faerie, but they keep to their hills. The Yeavering is filled with magic and life.”

“So, you go…out?”

“I hunt,” he says, examining his claws. “I do not mix.”

“But Meg knew you.”

“She…knows all,” he says, teeth gritted. “I could not keep her out if I wanted to.”

“Do you have magic?” I ask.

“Some.” He shrugs. “I need little.”

“Because you’re the Lambton Wyrm?”

Fenrother nods.

“I don’t have any.”

“I know. But you have me.”

“I’d like to see the Yeavering, or at least other parts of it, if I’m to live here.”

I expect Fenrother to growl, or snarl, or say something like I belong to him and I don’t get to leave these walls.

“I said when you arrived, you are not a prisoner. But you cannot go into the Yeavering alone,” he says, and it’s all I can do to swallow my shock at his words. “I will take you, if you wish.”

“You’ll go out there and meet…others?” I’m beginning to wonder if leaving the castle is such a good idea.

“For you, I’d leave the hunt. I have enough game stored so the Duegar will be happy for a while,” Fenrother says, staring into the fire.

I can’t help thinking there’s something else, something he’s not telling me, but the prospect of leaving these four, admittedly thick, walls and exploring a brand new world are too much.

I didn’t get to travel beyond the veil. My aunt would never let me go anywhere, and as she controlled the purse strings, striking out on my own would have been nigh on impossible.

But here, in the Yeavering, I have a personal guide who can fly. Fenrother can show me everything. I can experienceeverything.

“When can we go?”

FENROTHER

Idislike leaving my ancestral lands. As a wyrmlet, I was at risk from all others within the Yeavering looking for a snack. As I grew, as I took more game, they forced me back here, insisting I stay within my bounds.

Until the Faerie queen came calling and tempted me with notions of glory.

Yet there was only death. And Wyrms know all about that already.

The queen may believe she is driving my desire to take Alice as my mate, but she is wrong. It is not something I can stop, regardless of the true cost, to me, to my Alice, and to any wyrmlet she births.

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