Page 128 of Tears of the Wolf
“We created a distraction and there were a few losses with that, but the alderman was alive.”
Relief flooded Brynn’s chest along with dread. Who had been hurt? Kalen? Gaitha and Edric? The people in the village? Hróarr and Vana? Brynn might not like Hróarr, but he was important to Cenric.
Selene scowled. “You slept with him last night, didn’t you?”
Brynn’s first impulse was to look away, but she forced herself to hold her mother’s stare.
“How many times did I tell you not to be sentimental about sex?” Selene demanded. “Nothing good comes of it.”
Sex with Cenric was different. It had been true intimacy, with vulnerability and trust in both directions. Paega had touched her like it was a wretched chore, Cenric touched her like it was an honor, an indulgence of the most decadent kind.
Whatever it had been, Brynn wanted more of it. She hadn’t guarded her heart because she felt her heart was safe with him. Maybe it wasn’t. Maybe even if she escaped and found her way back to him, he would break it.
But she had gotten just a taste of what a life with him could be like and she wanted it. Wanted it desperately enough to risk, to dare. To hope.
The horses trundled to a stop. Esa whimpered at Brynn’s side as Selene stood.
“The road is too narrow for the wagon ahead.” Selene jerked her chin at Brynn. “Stand, girl.”
Brynn watched her mother, not moving.
Selene grabbed Esa’s hair, and the girl cried out in the sorceress’ grasp. “Will you cooperate?”
Brynn pressed her tongue against the top of her mouth, her mind racing for a way to save Esa. “You leave her behind when we board the ship. Unharmed.”
Selene rolled her eyes. “You want me to abandon your ward away from civilization?”
“Esa’s a clever girl.” Brynn kept looking at her mother. “She’ll be fine.”
Silent tears fell down Esa’s face, but she remained silent—steady.
“Fine.” Selene rolled her eyes. “You come with us, and we will leave her behind on land.”
It wasn’t much, but it was something. If Brynn didn’t have to worry about her ward, she would be free to resist. Her mother would have nothing to hold over her anymore.
Brynn rolled onto her side, awkward with her hands lashed behind her back. She crawled and flopped her way to the end of the wagon.
Neirin grabbed her arm as she reached the edge. “Sorry,” he muttered, pulling her after him.
Brynn studied her mother’s hound. He was a sorcerer, the son of a sorceress who had served Selene for years. At one point, he was supposed to serve Aelfwynn when he came of age, but she had been dead before then.
Neirin took her on foot into the trees, another of her mother’s guards grabbing Brynn’s other arm.
Brynn kept pulling atka,drawing it into herself and letting it gust out of her. The collar kept soaking it up, gluttonous and insatiable.
She feared wearing herself out by the time she was able to get free. What if she managed to break the collar but was too tired to use magic by that time?
Selene led the way, still holding Esa by the hair. Guards flocked around them, Tessaine and Anselma close at their heels.
They left the horses behind with a few of the servants. Those would probably travel the slow route down south, planning to meet Selene in Glasney, or perhaps Orland.
Brynn felt sick at the thought of Orland and Torswald, its alderman. The alderman her mother wanted her to marry aftershe had a daughter by Paega. She wouldn’t do it. She would die first.
They marched through the forest, weaving between trees, over fallen logs. Selene’s skirts caught on sharp twigs, and she cursed, yanking them free.
The forest was alive with a haze ofkato Brynn’s senses. Life glowed all around her. It rushed in to meet her as easily as it ever had, but she still couldn’t force spells to form.
Selene and the twins had to be able to sense her gathering massive amounts of power. But they were either confident in the collar’s ability to hold her back or good at disguising their concern.
