Page 14 of Silverbow (The Godsung Saga #1)

seven

Enya

L ow murmuring voices were drifting from her father’s study when Enya crept back into the house.

They fell silent at the click of the door and the creak of floorboards under her feet.

She didn’t need to wonder at the subject of their hushed discussion.

She scowled in the dark hallway. It was her Testing, her gift they were whispering about behind the door as if she were still a child; as if she did not understand what was at stake.

Enya climbed the stairs and stomped to her room, but when she let the door close with a thud, she still stood in the hallway. On silent stockinged feet, she tiptoed back down the stairs and slipped to the study door.

“...a year before they come knocking again.” Del’s voice was close enough to the door that Enya held her breath. He seemed to be making the same argument his son had been making in the stable.

Marwar growled something, inaudible except for “demi-elves”.

“I thought we determined they were little risk,” her father answered, his tone sharp. Behind the study door, he was probably pinching his nose, or perhaps rubbing at his temples.

“Little is not none.”

There had been no further mention of the curious men who came to Ryerson House since the last time she listened at the threshold and other than fretting over what the silver haired man said about her gift, she’d hardly given them a second thought.

Surely if they meant to reveal her secret, they would have done so already.

Louissa Adler and her lot wouldn’t have gone on their way.

“As it seems inevitable, I suppose we might as well get a head start,” her father sighed resignedly.

Enya scrunched her face in the dark. Head start to do what, exactly?

“With any luck, she’ll be granted sanctuary before anyone even knows we’re gone.”

Sanctuary. Her heart stuttered. Sanctuary could only mean the Vale. And the Vale only granted sanctuary to the gifted. When the wielders came again and she was not where she was supposed to be, her family would pay the price.

“Good,” Marwar grunted.

Good? How could he possibly call that good? It would doom them all. Enya realized she was scowling into the empty hall.

“Have you considered that she may not go willingly?” Mistress Alys asked.

Enya nodded emphatically. She most certainly would not.

“She will want to take her chances with the rod.”

She would. She would hold the Testing rod once more even if it melted the flesh from her bones. She would hold it, even if it got her collared, because she could not live with the alternative.

“Are we willing to bet her life on it?” Her father asked.

The silence that stretched was deafening. Oh, light. Emotion tightened her throat, but it burned away in a flash of anger. How dare they? How dare they make my choices like I am a child?

“It’s settled then.”

“She will know what it means for the rest of us,” Griff said.

“We have always known sacrifice might be required,” Marwar growled. “You will have to make her see reason, Renley.”

“What about Liam?” Del asked.

Light, Liam. He knew she could do it, didn’t he?

A long beat of silence stretched before her father spoke again.

“If it all goes to hell, Liam is perhaps the only one that might escape the noose. If we can get him onto another roll well before anyone realizes we’ve gone, he might have a chance.”

“Do you have a place in mind?” Del asked .

“Valbelle. I’ll send a bird in the morning. Tell him Norvallen’s offered him an apprenticeship. Send him north before week’s end and he can get ahead of the Testing. We’ll wait until he’s gone so his ignorance won’t be feigned.”

“Norvallen will take him?”

“I’ll see to it.”

“Thank you, Renley.”

Her father lied to her, and now, he was lying to Liam, packing him off while he whisked her away. Rage hotter than the Testing rod built beneath her skin.

“We should leave sooner,” Marwar protested.

“We can wait a few days.” Enya couldn’t hear Marwar’s muttered objection, but her father snapped, “We’ll never keep her heading east if she thinks he’s in danger here.”

That at least was true.

“Will you buy us time? Keep the house until summer?”

There were murmured assents, including one from just behind the door.

“What do you want done with the herd?” Del asked.

The rage guttered. They were going to abandon the house. The herd. All of it, because of her. They would have to, if she sought sanctuary in the Vale, all because she had a talent with a bow. She cursed Mosphaera and Sakaala for their gift as she sagged against the wall.

“They’re yours Del. Disperse them, take the gold for you and Liam. Get yourself off this blasted continent if you can.”

No. They were dismantling her life brick by brick like it was nothing at all.

Griff murmured something inaudible through the door.

“I have gold for you,” her father said. “Enough to see you set up Durelli and then some.”

Alys sniffed disdainfully. “Enya will need your gold, son.”

“We have eno-”

“Besides, I’m not sure I fancy Durelli.”

“What’s our heading, wife?”

“The Summer Isles.”

“The Summer Isles are run by pirates.”

“It’s the only sensible place left with a queen,” she sniffed.

”A pirate queen, Alys.”

“And yet, I reckon it’s better than Pallas bloody Davolier. ”

Enya bit her lip. Another time, she might have laughed out loud at the idea that stout, proper Mistress Alys wanted to cavort with pirates.

Now, she fought to keep a tight rein on her frantic emotions.

She considered bursting in and telling them they couldn’t choose this for her, but by the quiet resolve that came from the study, it would be like trying to sway stone.

She could make her own choices, and running off to seek sanctuary while her family fled was not the choice she would make. What was the point of sanctuary if the cost was everything else?

“It’s settled then. Week’s end.”

Perhaps Liam would consider it rash, but she could see only one way to salvage this mess if they were set on packing her off. She would have to throw herself at the mercy of Pallas Davolier.