Page 57 of Silverbow (The Godsung Saga #1)

twenty-nine

E nya bloody Trakbatten was nothing if not muleheaded.

“Let me heal you,” he insisted as they readied their horses.

She looked through him like he wasn’t even there, her eyes unfocused.

He supposed that was an improvement over how she’d looked at him when he’d lost his temper.

“At least let Bade look at your shoulder. Please.”

If anyone was counting, he thought he’d said that wretched word more today than he had in two hundred and twenty-three years.

He would keep saying it if it would make things right, but he doubted it would.

Healing what he could of the wounds she’d taken from the bounty hunters was the least he could do, but she refused to let him touch her because of his blasted bargain with the witch.

Still, it seemed she recognized the arm needed tending, but she eyed the earth wielder distrustfully.

Bade looked at her with bored disinterest, as if he hadn’t just been told she was bloody royalty, and a lost heir to boot.

He certainly didn’t care if she rode all the way to Drozia with a dislocated shoulder, but Oryn did.

“Fine.”

Bade strode forward and took hold of her wrist. She hissed through her teeth as he guided her arm out to the side and over her head. “I’m going to enjoy this, Silverbow,” the blademaster mused.

“Wha-AAAAAGGGHHH!”

An audible crunch made Oryn shudder.

“Try not to fall off your horse next time.”

Enya glared daggers at his back as he mounted Cle. “I was pushed. ”

Oryn suddenly wanted to strangle someone all over again. “Now will you let me heal you?”

“All fixed.”

They all knew it to be a lie. She looked like she’d rolled through a briar patch. Colm gave her a leg up into her saddle and Oryn resorted to trying to goad her. “You aren’t too proud to accept his help. Only mine?”

Her lips pressed into a thin line. “He doesn’t have nearly as much blood on his hands.”

“How do you figure?” Colm had been at his back for every fight, every battle, and had lived over twice his lifespan.

She looked up at the sun and squinted at the rolling land. “Which way is the road?”

“The road’s not safe. That will have drawn attention,” Oryn answered. “We’ll cut across-” He let the rest of his plan go unspoken as she glanced to the sun again and turned south. “Where are you going?”

“None of your concern, Your Grace.”

Oryn bristled at the honorific he didn’t deserve and the venom that went straight to his heart. “This is her game, Enya. She’s trying to drive you to some end that serves her.” And away from me.

She halted and looked back over her shoulder, disdain plain on her face. “I think, where the witch is concerned, I won’t be taking any advice from you, Prince.”

“Enya-”

“On second thought, seeing the mess you’ve made of things, I don’t think I’ll be taking any advice at all. I can find my own way.”

Mess? What had Hylee shown her? “Where are you going?”

“That’s none of your concern!”

She was wrong on that count. What Hylee had whispered made it his concern, though now didn’t seem like the time to tell her.

He could drag her to Drozia as he’d threatened, he should definitely drag her to Drozia seeing who she really was, but enough damage had already been done.

He had done enough damage. And she had a bargain to fulfill.

“Should we vote?” Aiden asked tentatively.

“You can do what you want,” he sighed. “I’m going with her.”

“Are you out of your bloody mind?” Bade growled .

Aiden shrugged. “That was my vote anyway. Excellent company royalty. Interesting, great listeners, always reasonable, especially where queens are concerned. What’s your vote, Colm?”

Tension bracketed Colm’s mouth, but he turned Lanta to trail after her.

A voice in his head screamed they were riding the wrong way, but it was his own voice.

It was his own instincts shouting that safety lay to the east behind the wards of Tuminzar.

The gods had gone eerily silent. He’d felt nothing at all from them since she’d returned from wherever Hylee had sent her.

“A little indication of which way to go would be helpful,” Oryn muttered under his breath.

He cocked his head, listening. His gifts did not stir, an unnatural breeze did not tug at his cloak, no gods’ songs howled in his ears.

There was only that faint hum has he drew closer to her.

“What exactly is your end of the bargain?” He called.

What in the names of all five gods had Hylee shown her? She didn’t answer.

Aiden appeared at his side on his sleek gray. “I have to say Oryn, I am rather puzzled.”

Oryn scrubbed a hand down his face, waiting for what Aiden wouldn’t keep to himself.

“All that shame for bedding a Covwood witch. I was picturing something…well…monstrous.”

Bade barked a laugh. Oryn loosed a long sigh. Hylee was devastatingly beautiful, or perhaps, her dark magic was, but she was a monster and anyone who thought otherwise was a light blinded fool.

Aiden smirked. “Do you think she’d make me a bargain?”

“I wish she would,” Bade growled. “The spiders would make quick work of you, boy.”

Colm

Colm watched Enya’s every move as south led them back to abend in the Misthol Road.

She wore cold fury like armor and ignored every one of Oryn’s attempts to speak to her.

He studied him too, trying to puzzle out what it was that Hylee had whispered to him.

Or perhaps, what the witch had said had nothing at all to do with his willingness to follow the Silverbow.

He’d suspected from the first time he saw Oryn’s gifts spill out of control that she would wield power over him, but it wasn’t his place.

She drew up at the edge of the hard packed earth, scowling. “Where are we?”

“The Misthol Road,” Oryn answered.

She turned in her saddle to meet Colm’s gaze, an unspoken question in her eyes. “East will take us deeper into the Thronelands. West goes back the way we came.”

She nodded and turned east.

“We should get off the road,” Oryn hissed.

He was right, but all that answered were hoofbeats.

“Where are we going?”

When she still didn’t acknowledge him, he shot a look over his shoulder.

Colm sighed, wondering for how many miles he would play currier between the two crownless courts. Nimala save me. “If we know the heading, Enya, we can advise on the best route. Best to stay off the road after what happened in Midbury.”

She only sniffed.

“I, for one, relish the mystery,” Aiden called jovially from the rear. Oryn flashed a warning look over his shoulder the boy didn’t heed. “Should we make a little wager of it? My gold’s on Pavia. Perhaps some pyrotechnics for Peytar’s palace?”

Bade spat. “Haarstrond Keep. Davolier’s head.”

“Colm?”

Colm had been trying to piece together what Maia could have asked the Second to do, and he was afraid he’d arrived at the answer. Oryn stared at him expectantly, but he wouldn’t, couldn’t, bring himself to say it. That wasn’t his place either.

“We’re waiting.”

“Misthol,” he said dryly.

Her face must have betrayed some reaction Colm couldn’t see from where he rode, because Oryn wheeled his stallion to the side, roughly cutting her off. The mare nipped at Kiawa’s shoulder, but he ignored her as their riders glared at each other.

“Are you out of your bloody mind?” Oryn demanded. “Misthol is the most dangerous city in Elaria, especially for you. ”

Enya guided Arawelo around him. It was plain from her annoyance at the forced acknowledgement plain.

“That’s hardly a fair wager,” Aiden protested. “You have to be more specific.”

“Pallas’s spies will know the moment we set foot in the city.”

“That seems like your problem, not mine,” she huffed. At least it was a new answer.

‘None of your concern’ had been her refrain since setting back out.

She’d undoubtedly adopted it from Oryn and Colm was glad to be riding behind so neither of them could see the grin he was trying to suppress.

Noble or common, he’d never met a woman so thoroughly unimpressed with Elred’s son.

He’d certainly never met anyone bold enough to swing a fist at a Covwood witch.

“What is it you intend, exactly?”

When she didn’t answer, Oryn turned in his saddle, fury plain on his face. Colm cleared his throat. “Might you consider sharing your intentions? So that we can be of help?”

“I don’t need your help,” she answered. “And I have no interest in sharing my intentions.”

Oryn’s lips pressed together in a thin line, his nostrils flaring.

“Why not?” Colm asked.

“Because I don’t put my trust in men who take witches to their beds.”

“Technically, it was the witch’s bed,” Aiden offered.

Colm wondered how it was he hadn’t been knocked off his horse again when Oryn spun out a ram of air that did just that.

With a whoosh of breath and heavy thud , Aiden landed in the dirt as Kez skittered to the side.

He coughed from the blow to his chest, his eyes watering.

Enya’s lip curled in disgust. She couldn’t see the wielding, but she had guessed.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll catch up!” Aiden wheezed.

Oryn’s jaw clenched and he drew a deep breath. “My bargain is regrettable, but it was a hundred years ago, Enya. I swore to take you to sanctuary and nothing Hylee showed you has changed that.”

Her head whipped to him. “Your are mad if you think that. Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Do you have any idea what Hylee did with the power you gave her?”

Colm sucked a breath through his teeth, bracing himself.

“Enya- ”

“Do you know?”

“No,” Oryn admitted.

She laughed haughtily. “And you think I am the ignorant fool.“ She turned back to the road and let them all steep in the unknown.

When Aiden eventually caught up, Colm advised, “It’s faster to cut to the southeast. The road runs to Ilargia and then winds south.”