Page 14 of Alliance Bride
“I will miss you so much, but I will write to you. I hope you will do the same.”
Edward’s arms squeezed around her. “Of course.”
She did not want to relinquish her hold, but after a long moment, she loosened her arms and they parted. Actually saying goodbye was too hard, so she turned to Galen. It had been easy to stay strong with Edward. Instinct. Something she had always done. But with Galen, it was the opposite. He was the one who stood strong. So, when she met his solemn gaze again, her resolve faltered.
She’d never hugged him before. It wouldn’t have been seemly back in Kenwich for the princess to hug a guard, but here she cast propriety aside. In one step, she put her arms around him, resting her face against the cold chain mail cowl that hung around his neck. Chain links jingled as he placed his own mail-encased arms around her.
“Thank you,” were the only words she managed. She gritted her teeth, but despite her fierce struggle to fight them, a couple of tears dribbled down her cheeks as the pain overwhelmed her. She clung to his armored jerkin while it passed through her in a breath-snatching wave before forcing herself to let go.
Galen gripped her arms before releasing her and met her eyes. “Remember what I told you.”
She nodded, though they both knew she couldn’t accept his offer. Not if she wanted peace for her people. Swiping at her cheeks, she took a shaky step back and looked between him and Edward. They were the only family she had. Just the two of them—her protector and her brother. This may be the last time she ever saw them, and for one suffocating, heart-thrashing moment, her entire being screamed for her to run. To beg her brother to annul the marriage, to seek Galen’s steadfast protection, and to go back home to Kenwich. It ripped like claws through herchest, seeking release, but she choked it down. In front of her was her family. Behind her were strangers. Strangers she must leave with if she were to save Essix.
Tears blurred her vision as she forced herself to turn away from her family. Only a couple of paces behind her, she found Aevar waiting with Hiroc. She blinked him into focus and found understanding on his face. He knew the pain she suffered for this alliance, and in that she found some comfort. She stepped toward him, and he kept Hiroc steady and even held her stirrup for her as she mounted. She straightened her skirt and cloak and took up the reins, catching his eye once more before he turned to his own horse, a tall pale gray.
Without a word, Jarl Runar urged his horse toward the river, the men falling in behind him. Clutching the reins, Eadlyn cast one last look at Edward and Galen, committing them to memory. In a final acceptance of her fate, she touched her heels to Hiroc’s sides and rode forward, into the unknown, with Aevar at her side.
Chapter Six
Tinyicepelletspatteredagainst Eadlyn’s cloak, creating a shushing sound that muffled even the persistent thump of hooves. It lulled her into a strange, uneasy numbness. Nightfall must be close.
They’d crossed the river hours ago, swallowed since by a dense gray forest. Last year’s leaves carpeted the ground, damp and silent underfoot. Patches of snow clung in shaded heaps. Eadlyn had never seen a forest without leaves before. She’d hardly seen any forest at all, only the scraggly trees near Kenwich, which passed more for oversized bushes than woodland. Here, sharp, skeletal branches reached skyward like clawed fingers.
She shivered, tugging her cloak tighter. The cold here hit differently. It seeped through the layers of her clothing and into her bones. What she wouldn’t give to be back at the palace, curled up by the hearth. She exhaled, her breath rising in a white plume, and another tremor ran through her.
Eadlyn startled when Aevar’s voice shattered the hush, commanding and foreign. The group halted, and Jarl Runar turned inhis saddle to look back but said nothing. From beneath her hood, she watched Aevar turn his horse around and ride farther down the line to one man leading a packhorse. Leaning over the animal, he dug through the bundle on its back and pulled out a fur pelt. He then guided his horse once more toward the front. As he approached again, he nudged the horse alongside hers, so close their legs brushed. Her breath caught as he leaned toward her and draped the thick pelt around her shoulders.
“Fur is the best way to keep warm out here.”
He had noticed she was cold. That small, unexpected kindness stirred an odd, yet grateful sensation within her, and the thick fur began working immediately. No wonder they all wore mantles like it.
“Thank you.”
He glanced down at her wool-lined boots. “Are your feet warm enough?”
“For now.” They were a little chilled but not unbearable.
“We won’t be riding much longer. We’ll need to make camp before dark.”
The group moved on in silence, but now that it had been broken, the stillness fell heavier than before. Surely Nords weren’t such silent creatures all the time. It would go against what most written accounts said of them. Not that she was inclined to believe such things now that she was among them.
With a breath for courage, she shifted in her saddle to face Aevar. She still struggled to wrap her mind around the fact that he was her husband now. “How far do we have to travel?”
“If the weather does not delay us, we will arrive the day after tomorrow.”
Two nights. Her first two nights as a married woman. A shiver traced down her spine, though not from the chill this time.She pushed the thought aside and reached for something more comfortable.
“What is it like where we’re going?”
This time, Aevar smiled faintly. “Fjellheim sits at the head of a fjord that winds west toward the sea. A river flows into it from the north and provides access to some of the other clans.”
Eadlyn tried to picture it. She was not well-traveled and had nothing to draw on, though she had read a little about the northern fjords in her hasty research. “It sounds beautiful.”
His smile grew with fondness. “It is.”
Kian, riding ahead beside the Nord with the scar near his eye, turned in his saddle and grinned back at her. “Especially later in spring when the trees turn green. It’s quite a view.”
Despite the weight pressing on her, Eadlyn smiled. However small, a spark of curiosity lit within her. All her life, she’d lived within the confines of Kenwich. Her journey to meet the Nords had been the farthest she’d ever traveled. For the first time, she realized she was eager—just a little—to see what lay ahead.
