Page 130 of To Touch A Silent Fury

The Euphons hated Thane Ivangor. They would die before they let him try to overthrow the king. Euphonos was utterly sacred to them, a quiet and holy city which allowed no cacof in at all. The thane was allowed to trade in essentials only, and at the great distaste of the tribespeople.

If they knew he had been supplied with weapons from the Triad, they would fight tooth and nail against him.

“And Gossamir?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Anyone loyal to the Euphonos King will die.”

“When?” I whispered.

“Our men are not used to fighting in the cold, so it will be soon,” Seth said. “They’ll aim to annex Euphonos within a season. I only hope Odenor surrenders quickly.”

I stared at his neutral face in utter horror. “Can you not stop it?”

He met my gaze with pain and exhaustion. “How, Tani? I dissuade, delay, advise caution. For years, I’ve made up visions of ships sinking to prevent a shipment of armour, but I cannot stall them any longer. Braxthorn is determined, and worse, impatient.”

“You should run with me.”

He smiled, then, his face as tired as ever before. “I intend to.”

I reached over the table to hold his hand. “You mean it?”

Seth gripped me back. My heart swelled as I stared at him. I wouldn’t be alone. I hadn’t realised how terrified I was to be alone. I felt his same terror coming back to me, so much uncertainty.

“I cannot be here when he launches this war,” he said. “The night we leave, I will write to King Odenor and tell him of the war coming towards him. Then we can both be hunted together.”

I released his hand, my hand drifting to the bundle at my chest as I looked back at the two women placed atop the forest. “Gossamir will never surrender.”

His voice was as somber as mine. “I know.”

Was there nothing to be done? Was there no way to stop the death wrought upon a land I had come to love, even if it did not love me back?

I thought of Yvon. Sollie. She would scream at the first beat of a drum, let alone the war that soon rode her way. Shadow. The hacked-up corpse of a once beautiful and ancient being, left in the woods. Even the Sons, that well-kept and long-protected secret.

The forest would never be the same again.

Only Braxthorn, and perhaps his sons, had the power to change it. I’d seen the look in the Wragg’s eyes when he spoke of the thane, the hunger for war. He would not be dissuaded.

But if I could influence Lang. If I could change his mind, or manipulate it.

Long had I pondered what my powers would be when they came, long had I thought about what I would do if I ever had them. The Brothers had theorised I may one day be able to change the emotions of others, to steer and guide.

If I could still marry Lang, perhaps I could stop this war.

I looked at Seth with a renewed hunger of my own. “What about levirate? Do they honour that here? In some of our villages, if a brother died, the surviving brother would marry his widow.”

“Tani,” he replied warily.

“Is it done in the Triad?” I asked. “If I killed the Wragg, and our engagement was known. Would Langnathin…?”

“I don’t know any precedent of it,” he said. “And it is far too dangerous. You would have to kill him in some way that could never be connected to you, and people are already too hungry for your downfall. If he died accidentally, you’d likely be blamed anyway. And then you won’t just be a runaway bride, you’ll be a murderer. Give them no more reason to hunt us, please.”

I sighed, my one last idea toppling.

Seth frowned, and held me in another embrace. Then he bid me stay put and left me alone with my thoughts.

I took in a ragged breath once I was alone again, and I studied the place that was once my homeland. My eyes swam with too many emotions to name.

Down in the Touchlands, a two-faced man stared out from Andiz, his first face smiling out south towards Point D’Aunder, and the other frowning up at Barrow’s Rest. In their records, Hain, the Two-Faced. Once, Hain, the Healer of the Five. If I had only readThe History, I would think him evil, too. Or her, since the text never settled on one pronoun for even one steady chapter, and that probably led to their nickname as much as their supposed treachery.