Page 39 of To Touch A Silent Fury (The Bride of Eavenfold #1)

Tani

F ood. Eat.

I sighed as I stroked his soft head and knelt down to the dirt. I pushed the leaves back and forth to find a twig before using it to prod at the debris under a rounded root. Something moved, and I grabbed it.

The wiggling grub arched back and forth between my fingers. I opened my coat sling to see the baby already waiting. I smirked as I dropped the insect into its snapping mouth. He ate it down, asking for more again.

I tutted and walked on. Later .

His tiny, probing voice, nestled in my head, was so different to the command of his mother. Once more, I thought of his mother’s words. Now that the drowsiness of exhaustion and recovery did not consume me, there was more to ponder. Thank you, twinblood.

Twinblood. The word meant nothing to me. And yet, it was similar to the words we had in the Touchlands. Konidren the Swordblood, Kalidwen the Shieldblood.

I was no twin, though. There was only me. Only ever one child.

But we called our lands the Twins, and I realised that must be it. She saw my skin and knew that Touchlands blood flowed through me. Perhaps, that was her term for us. The Twinbloods.

It was nice to be seen for the kingdom that bore me and not the touch of its moon.

Even after my mother moved us out of Andiz and into the shepherd’s hut, my own people were suspicious of me.

Like the Soundlands, we believed there was some connection between the Moontouch and Amune.

But like every land, my womanhood gave them pause, and from that pause grew superstition.

It was only a matter of time before the Brotherhood heard of me. And when they came for me, they hardly accepted me either.

It was a nasty thing to hold two identities but to have no true home.

Shadow nudged into my hand again. I stroked his head as we walked.

As soon as I’d left the stone towers behind, the wolf had fallen into step beside me.

I said nothing, but I had reached my hand out, and he nudged it.

It warmed me immeasurably to have him here.

Another set of ears, and eyes, someone else to look out for me.

I had never known a true home, but I had known love in each place. From my parents, from Seth, from Thread Ersimmon before the end, and now, from Yvon. Even in my loneliest, I had found someone to cling to.

Where I went now was a worse Fate than any I had yet known, for I would have to do it entirely alone. I would have to hide my true self deep down if I were to have any hope of tricking him .

We made slow progress. I could only walk for an hour or so before I had to sit and rest my leg, and when we were walking, I chewed pumirous root to stave off the worst of the pain.

Despite both measures, after a few hours, I was exhausted and sweating all over.

Noon was warm for once, and I’d taken my coat off hours prior, fashioning it into a sack at the front of me, with the sleeves tied behind my back.

It allowed the baby to sleep against my front and my arms to have a bit of air.

It took us nearly until the evening light to retrace our path to the clearing.

I stepped up to it cautiously, but there was little to see.

Instead of Vellintris, the space now held only a deep dirt scar and wet ash.

The Dragon Prince’s men had pulled the dead dragon away, and her path was a stain blotting out any need to navigate to the barracks.

They’d worked their way through the forest, hacking down any trees in their path and pulling her body through.

I couldn’t fathom how many men they would have needed to haul her such a distance, but such was their greed for her scales and teeth that it was worth the manpower. It could not be more than an hour away from the barracks, but I knew I was near dead on my feet.

Shadow trotted around the perimeter of the clearing, and then snorted at me, and I took that to mean it was safe enough.

I hobbled into the centre, into the hole they had dragged her out of.

I pulled the loose dirt down around me, packing it for shelter.

I kept my leg elevated and free, using my waterskin to wash it clean of any debris and pressing some of the salve I hadn’t used earlier against it.

Then I leaned back against the edge of the hole.

It was rudimentary, but it was some protection from the elements, and I didn’t have the strength in my body to make any sort of more permanent shelter .

Tomorrow, I would find Langnathin, and I would pledge my loyalty to him. The idea left a sour taste in my mouth as Shadow settled against me, providing some well-needed warmth. I fell into a poor sleep, waking often.

At dawn, my leg had stiffened, and it was even more uncomfortable. But after I had moved for a few minutes, and stretched as much as I could bear, it was clear the rest had helped. More than it should have, after only five days.

Once I’d found a few grubs for the baby and got him to quiet down, I started following the dirt scar, the corpse of my new ward’s mother. The dragon’s food wasn’t my only score on our brief walk.

Nestled in the roots of a dying pine tree, I found a cluster of closed red flowers with small jagged leaves.

They were native to this forest, and I admit, in the shivering sleepless nights in the darkest depths of Domin, I had considered their alternative.

Holding only the stems, I carefully cut several of the plants, stowing them under my shirt, tucked into the top of my trousers.

There was value in having a quick death at your hands, and carrialwort would act nearly as fast as a blade to the chest. If everything went wrong, I wouldn’t suffer for long.

Soon, the smoke of the barracks curled above the treetops. His guards would be close.

I turned to Shadow and held out my hand. “Thank you, my friend.”

He nudged into it, staring up at me with his amber gaze.

“This is where we part ways,” I said. “You cannot follow me. ”

He whimpered, and trotted a few steps ahead of me. He turned back to look, and I shook my head.

‘Stay.’ I signed the words as well as speaking them, though there was no indication he understood either language. “This is your home . This forest is where you belong.”

He bounded back up to me and licked my hand.

“ No ,” I said. “If you come in there with me, they could kill you. You need to be wild.” ‘ Free .’

He stared up at me.

I repeated the last sign. ‘Free.’

Shadow ducked his head.

I pointed towards the forest. “ Go . Go and be free .”

He made a small noise and took a few steps back, towards the trees.

“Be free, Shadow.” A cold feeling dropped over me as he sniffed up at the sky.

Then he disappeared behind a tree, and I had to crouch down to breathe. I could not cry. This was the right decision. He was a friend, but one who should be wild. A thing of nature, not a thing of carved barracks and stone.

I breathed in and out as I blinked back the tears.

Then I stood back up and moved. I cared less for my noise now, knowing I was in the land of the cacofs. Even from here, hundreds of feet away, I heard their ruckus. The edges of a shout, the tumbling of timber. Crude people, filled with sounds but saying nothing.

I shifted my hunting knife into my hand as I followed the dragon’s trail. A branch snapped beside me so carelessly I knew the man’s position like the back of my own hand.

I spun to him. Two guards waited behind a tree, no doubt ready to jump out at me. One held a bow, not yet pointed, and the other had yet to unsheathe his blade. “If you kill me, the prince will be angry. ”

Taken by surprise, they moved out from behind a shrub. The one in front with a patchy blonde beard clicked his tongue at me. “Who are you?”

I watched them intently, holding my knife out before me. “I have business with the Dragon Prince.”

“Business with the Dragon Prince,” he repeated, tonelessly. “What business would one of you have that the prince would want to hear?”

I flicked my head in the direction of their barracks up ahead. “He’ll want to hear this.”

The one behind him, shorter, with a face like a vole and hair just as slick, licked his lips. “Tell us your business, and we’ll find out, shall we?”

I raised an eyebrow. “No.”

The bearded man in front pulled his sword out, and I took two light steps back.

He smiled with surprisingly clean teeth.

“Well, I can tell you this, girl. His Highness ain’t going to come out of there for the likes of a dirty, scrawny, tree-sniffer like you.

So either you put away that blunt knife and tell me, or I assume your business is treason, and I’ll kill you right now. ”

I stared at them both. This was the riskiest part of the plan, when I had very little leverage. If his men, or Langnathin himself, decided to kill me to neutralise my threat, there was little I could do.

I would have to give something to get anything. Slowly, I tucked the knife into my trousers, holding up my coat on my front. “Fine. Tell the prince that I have the dragon he’s been looking for.”

The two men looked at each other, eyes widening. The archer turned his face back to me first, sneering. “Liar.”

I sighed. “I’m going to reach into my coat now. There is no weapon in there. ”

The bearded man shuffled forwards a step, his blade poking towards me. “Move slow.”

I nodded. I pulled out the sleeping child, lifting him so his head protruded over the top of the coat.

The man beside me stumbled back at the sight of his tiny head, and the archer gasped.

“If you kill me,” I said, “The dragon will likely die, too. I can promise you, your prince would not be happy.”

It was a bluff. I truly had no idea what would make Langnathin happy, and there was just as good a chance he would decide my dragon was better off dead than in the hands of the enemy.

Because I was his enemy. Entirely. And yet, not the enemy he expected.

The two men exchanged another look. One of them nodded, and the other sighed.