Page 72 of Bought to Break
Viktor did as he was ordered and stepped back. ‘What’s wrong with her?’
The crone took off the ragged cloak she wore and hung it on a peg. Under it was a serviceable woollen dress and, surprisingly, the face of a middle-aged woman with mousy brown and slightly greying hair. She waved Viktor away. ‘What are her symptoms?’
They all looked at each other.
‘Well,’ Sorin said finally, ‘she’s tired. Drained. She can’t walk. She can hardly keep her eyes open for more than a few moments.’
The woman peered down at her. ‘Do you feel any pain?’
Lana shook her head feebly as the blanket Viktor had brought her in was drawn away.
The woman proceeded to poke and prod for a few minutes before addressing the Brothers once more, though she didn’t spare them a look. ‘You bound her to you with blood magick,’ she stated.
‘A Brother’s initiation ritual,’ Sorin clarified, staring at the wise woman icily.
She muttered something they couldn’t hear before she cleared her throat and spoke clearly as she continued her examination. ‘So she is tied to all three of you and you to her.’ She shook her head slightly and didn’t bother to lower her voice. ‘Fools.’
‘We are Dark Brothers, woman! You will speak to us with respect,’ came Kane’s answering snarl.
The woman gave the men a quick, lopsided grin, clearly unimpressed. ‘Do not play me false. Perhaps you were part of the Dark Army yesterday, but you’re as much Brothers today as I am the old hag who met you at the door.’
‘How do you know we–’
She waved a hand. ‘Do not insult my talents in my own home. You’ve quit the Army, you’re looking for revenge, blah blah blah. What I cannot fathom, however,’ she finally looked up from Lana, staring all three of them down suspiciously, ‘is why the fuck three Dark Brothers would bind themselves to a witch.’
‘We didn’t know.’
The woman cast her eyes broadly over Lana. ‘To me, she veritably shines, dull though she is,’ she muttered to herself.
‘Dull?’ Lana croaked.
‘You’re dying, girl.’ She put her hand to Lana’s brow.
‘Dying?’
The woman sighed.
‘Anyone suspected of conjuring is usually killed these days in the north. Did you know that? It’s getting that way in the south too. They say that witches are descended from the gods, yet they are marked for death. Odd, no? Find any priest of the Mount and they’ll talk your ear off about it. There are entire tomes written about them and their connection to the God Realm in the Great Library in the capital.’
‘So we’ve heard,’ came Kane’s sardonic voice, which Lana was beginning to realise was what he sounded like when he was upset. ‘What of it?’
‘It’s not true. Once, witches were part of the Dark Army. Long, long ago when it still existed for good. They kept the Brothers true and, when the Army cast off its mantle of protection to become mercenaries for coin, they killed their witches. Only a few escaped the massacres.’
‘Yes, but what does that have to do with what has caused this?’ Sorin asked. ‘She was fine until recently.’ He looked disturbed. ‘Was it the blood magick?’
The woman gave him a level stare. ‘I doubt it,’ she conceded. ‘She likely passed near to a breaching portal. The protective wards are failing so, if she had latent Dark Realm blood, as some do, it may have been awakened. Such things are happening with more frequency if the rumours are anything to go by.’
The men nodded and Lana frowned, resolving to ask about these wards later.
‘She wasn’t born this way. Her mortal body cannot contain the power it holds. She will worsen until she can no longer draw breath,’ the woman continued. ‘I can see it trickling out of her like a thousand invisible cracks.’ Her fingers moved as if feeling something in the air that they couldn’t see.
‘What can we do?’
‘Nothing. What’s done is done.’
‘No!’
Sorin stepped forward and took Lana’s hand. ‘There must be something.’
