Page 24 of Ashes of Betrayal

It would be best to be discreet this morning.

As usual, a busy produce market was in full swing in the wide dirt space within. Not wasting time, Cailean wove through the press—mostly local women bundled up in cloaks with wicker shopping baskets looped over their arms—to the pie seller he’d spoken to a couple of days earlier.

“Back again.” The man flashed him a gap-toothed smile. “My pies are that good, eh?”

“Aye,” Cailean replied, digging into his coin purse and handing over two copper pennies. “Two more.” He wasn’t hungry this morning, although he’d need food for his journey.

“I have another question about the fighting band that stopped here the other day,” Cailean said as the pie vendor wrapped his purchases up in a square of oiled cloth.

The man glanced up. “I told you I didn’t go to any of the fights.”

“Aye, but did you hear where they went after Rothie?”

The man’s brow furrowed. “No.” He glanced then at where a plump woman standing before a stack of cages filled with live fowl was watching his customer intently. “Do you know, Ina?”

She nodded eagerly, smoothing her frizzy hair as Cailean focused on her. “I heard they were going to Morae.” Ina paused then. “Apparently, there was a poor turn out here … so they were hoping for a warmer welcome from the crannog dwellers.”

“Piss-poor entertainment, if you ask me,” the pie vendor said with a snort. “Watching idiots hack at each other.”

“Aye,” Cailean replied. He couldn’t agree more. He favored Ina with a half-smile in thanks, anticipation coiling under his ribs. Morae was just over a couple of days’ journey from here. He’d catch up with Eilig sooner than he thought.

Reckoning was so close now, that he could almost taste it.

“A woman was here the other day … asking after you,” Ina said then, continuing to primp her hair.

Cailean stiffened.Bree. “How do you know it was me she wanted?” he replied gruffly.

Ina grinned. “There aren’t many men matching your description, handsome.” She winked at him. “Friend of yours, is she?”

“No,” he snapped. With that, Cailean turned on his heel and stalked away.

I’m coming for you, Eilig.

Sheets of icy rain swept over Cailean as he rode away from Rothie, taking the highway northwest toward Morae. The vicious Gales of Complaint barreled in from the northeast, bringing with them a chill that cut straight to the marrow. Feannag bowed his head, and even Skaal flattened her ears back and tucked her tail between her legs.

But the foul weather couldn’t douse the hunger for vengeance that smoldered like a lump of peat in Cailean’s belly. It was a fever in his veins now, like earth magic, pushing him on.

The highway between Rothie and Morae was rutted and muddy, yet well-traveled. They passed merchants traveling to the coast and farmers with wagons piled high with neeps to sell at Rothie’s bustling market. And every traveler he saw stared at Cailean as if a wulver had just appeared on horseback. Unfortunately, the tattoos that crept up his neck and the fae hound that padded at his side made it impossible for him to blend in with his surroundings.

As he traveled, he cast the odd glance over his shoulder.

He’d expected Bree to tail him, yet there was no sign of her.

Even so, when he finally made camp at the day’s end, in the driving wind and rain, Cailean readied himself for his wife’s reappearance.

Surely, she was too pig-headed to stay away?

He’d stopped under the sheltering boughs of an old, twisted pine, where he tied his stallion up. There was no grass in this spot for Feannag to graze upon. Instead, he fitted his horse with a nosebag of oats before settling onto the damp, pine-needle-strewn ground, and leaning his back against the trunk. Meanwhile, icy rain slid down his face and the wind bit at any exposed skin.

The Mother’s tits, he was tired of sleeping outdoors in all weathers. What he’d give right now to crawl into a soft pile of furs. But his coin purse was getting alarmingly light these days,and traveling with a fae hound made finding accommodation difficult.

Skaal slipped away—off to hunt—while Cailean unwrapped one of the pies he’d bought that morning.

He hadn’t eaten all day, and his belly was now hollow and rumbling.

However, after a few bites, his appetite deserted him. Rewrapping the remains of his supper, he cast a sharp look into the gloaming.

Where is she?

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