Page 71 of Blood of Wolves

His lips quirked, a humorless half-smile that said he understood. Then he slipped an arm around her waist and led her up to his post at the parapet. “They’re making camp,” he said, pointing with his free hand toward the line of torches moving up the road – and the ever-growing cluster of them off to the side of it, in the middle of a field. The moon was up, turning the snow silver, and she could see the distant, indistinct dark shapes of people and equipment; one large blob resolved itself into a massive, circular tent.

Tessa glanced toward the towers on the outer wall, and the ballista mounted there. The catapults sat ready, crouched like sleeping predators, in the bailey. “Can you attack them? Now, while they’re making camp?”

“They’re out of range,” Bjorn chimed in, startling her. The guard to her left stepped back to give the captain room, and he joined them, gaze narrow and harsh as he scanned the plains before them. “They’ll piece together their siege engines now, in the dark, and the fighting will start at dawn.”

Tessa couldn’t suppress a shudder. Rune’s arm tightened around her.

Bjorn turned to regard them. Torchlight carved his face in dramatic relief, so that, fur ruff of his cloak around his ears, he looked like the bear he was named for. “The two of you should go inside. Get some sleep. Get out of the cold for a while.”

“I can’t,” Rune protested. “I need to–”

Bjorn spoke over him. “You need to be fresh in the morning, when it begins. You’ll do no one any good if you faint standing up.”

Rune’s hand flexed against her hip. She heard his harsh, frustrated exhale, but he said, “Fine. Wake me if anything–”

“I will. Go.”

“What about you, Bjorn? Will you sleep?” Tessa asked.

“Don’t worry about me, lass.” He turned away, his profile unforgiving, edged with firelight. “It won’t be my first time keeping a long night watch.”

Rune snorted. “You’re stronger than me, I suppose,” he said, half-mocking, half-hurt.

“No,” Bjorn said. “Only less valuable.”

Tessa was shocked by the words, and could only assume Rune was, too, by his quiet gasp, and the way his arm slipped further around her, hand pressed flat to her stomach.

“Bjorn–”

“Go, your grace.” A tone that brooked no arguments. “Morning will be here soon enough.”

They walked back to the royal apartments together, even though the spiral staircase down from the roof was too narrow. They went slowly, knocking together at the elbows and hips the whole way.

Tessa’s heart pounded, harder and less regular the farther they went. Though it was a relief to be out of the cold wind, and there was immeasurable comfort in the heat and size of Rune beside her, the words of the farmer’s daughter came back to her now.

Kill the boys and rape the girls.

There were no guards stationed outside the doors of the royal apartments tonight – every man available was on the walls, manning scorpions, keeping watch at the postern gates – and Tessa was glad there were no witnesses when her breath caught, and she clutched tight to Rune’s arm.

He noticed right away, turning to her with one hand on the door latch. The cressets on the wall revealed the shadow of his furrowed brow. “Tessa, what is it? Are you ill?”

She shook her head, and waved him on.

He let them into the common room, and she was only dimly aware of him closing the door behind them. She knitted her fingers together and squeezed until it hurt – though the pain was dull, the tidal wave rushing in her ears drowning out everything but panic. Sheer, animal panic.

Kill the boys and rape the girls.

“Tessa.” She jerked when a cold hand touched her face – but it was only Rune, tipping her head back, studying her with increasing worry. “What’s the matter?”

A laugh that was half a sob cracked in her throat; it sounded as hysterical as it felt. “What’s wrong?”

He frowned. “All right. That was a stupid question.”

Her chest was so tight she could hardly breathe. Fear had her by the throat, and it wasn’t possible to contain the words that spilled frantically out of her. “They’re going to rape us, aren’t they?”

His eyes widened.

“If – if they breach the walls. If they take the palace. They’ll k-kill all the men and then rape the women. And–”

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