“You have to get word out. For your own sake, if not for ours. If the Marat come they’ll kill everyone of Kordholt, too.”
“You’re lying,” he told her, not looking at her. “You’re just lying. Trying to save your hide.”
“I’m not,” Isana said. “Aric, you’ve known me your whole life. When that tree fell on you that Winterfair, I helped you. I helped everyone in the Valley who needed it, and I never asked for anything in return.”
Aric added more coal to the fire.
“How can you be a part of this?” she demanded. “You aren’t stupid, Aric. How can you do this to other Alerans?”
“How can I not?” Aric said, voice cold. “This is all I have. I don’t have a happy steadholt where people take care of each other. I have this. Men who no one else would take live here. Women who no one would want to be. He’s my blood. Bittan—” He broke off and swallowed. “He was my blood, too. As stupid and mean as he could be, he was my brother.”
“I’m sorry,” Isana said, and found that she felt it. “I never wanted anyone to get hurt. I hope you know that.”
“I know,” Aric said. “You heard what happened to Heddy and you wanted what was right to happen. To keep her safe, and girls like her. Crows know they need it, with Pa around like some—” He shook his head.
Isana fell silent for a long moment, staring at the young man, an understanding dawning on her. Then she said, quietly, “It wasn’t Bittan that was with Heddy. It was you, Aric.”
He didn’t look at her. He didn’t speak.
“It was you. That’s why she was trying to draw her father back from juris macto with yours. She wasn’t raped.”
Aric rubbed at the back of his neck. “We . . . we liked each other. Got together when there was a Meet or a Fair. Her little brother found us. Too young to know what he saw. I got out before he seen who I was. But he went running to her father, and how could she tell him she’d been making time with one of Kord’s sons.” He spat the words with disgust. “She didn’t say much, I guess, and her old man made up his own mind what happened.”
“Oh, furies,” Isana said, sadly. “Aric, why didn’t you say anything?”
“Say what?” Aric said, flicking a hard glance at her. “Tell my father that I loved a girl and wanted to marry her. Bring her here?” He gestured around the smokehouse with one hand. “Or maybe I should have been all honorable and went to her father. Do you think he would have listened to me? Do you think for a second Warner wouldn’t have strangled me where I stood?”
Isana rubbed a shaking hand at her eyes. “I’m sorry. Aric, I’m sorry. We’ve all . . . known that your father was . . . that he’d gone too far. But we didn’t do anything. We didn’t know things were this bad at his steadholt.”
“Too late for all of that now.” Aric dropped the bucket and headed for the door.
“It’s not,” Isana said. “Wait. Just listen to me, Aric. Please.”
He stopped, his back still to her.
“You know him,” she said. “He’ll kill us. But if you help us get out, I’ll help you, I swear by all the furies. I’ll help you get away if you want to. I’ll help you settle things with Warner. If you do love the girl, you might be able to be with her if you do the right thing.”
“Help both of you? That woman was trying to kill you last night.” He looked back at her. “Why would you help her?”
“I wouldn’t leave any woman here, Aric,” Isana said, voice quiet, calm. “I wouldn’t leave anyone to him. Not anymore. I won’t let him keep doing this.”
“You can’t stop him.” Aric’s voice was tired. “You can’t. Not here. He’s a Citizen.”
“That’s right. And so is my brother. Bernard will call him to juris macto. And he’ll win, too. We both know that.” She stood up, facing Aric, and lifted her chin. “Break the circle. Bring me water. Help us escape.”
There was silence for a long moment.
“He’d kill me,” Aric said then, his voice numb. “He’s said so before. I believe him. Bittan was his favorite. He’d kill me, and he’d get the whole story, and he’d get Heddy, too.”
“Not if we stop him. Aric, it doesn’t have to be this way. Help me. Let me help you.”
“I can’t,” he said. He looked back at her and said, quietly, “Isana, I can’t. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for you and for that girl. But he’s my only blood. He’s a monster. But he’s all I have.” The young man turned and left, shutting the door to the smokehouse behind him. Isana heard several heavy bolts sliding shut on the outside. Thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance, a growling, sleepy leftover of the previous night’s tempest.
Inside the smokehouse, the coals popped and simmered.
Odiana breathed slowly, quietly.
Isana bowed her head, staring at the woman, at the collar about her throat. She remembered Odiana’s frantic pleas to kill her.
Isana lifted her hand to her own throat and shivered.
Then she sank back to the ground, her head bowed.
CHAPTER 29
Amara’s ankle burned and ached, and she fought to keep her labored breathing from turning into a panting gasp. Bernard, running through the ice and snow-covered trees several yards ahead of her, reached a small rise and vanished down the other side. She followed him, stumbling at the last pace, and threw herself into the ditch behind the little rise with a crunching of snow and frozen leaves.
Bernard put his hand on her back, steadying her, and lifted a hand to hold it in front of her mouth and block the wisps of vapor escaping with each exhalation. His eyes went distant, and then she felt him pull the veil over them.
Shadows shifted and changed in subtle patterns over her skin, as the trees around them sighed and rustled as though in a wind. The frozen brush did not seem to move so much as to have simply grown into a screen over them, and the sudden scent of earth and crushed plants flooded over them, veiling even that much evidence of their presence.
Only a few seconds later, they heard hoof falls in the forest behind them, and Amara moved enough to peer over the rise at the direction in which they’d come.
“Won’t they see our tracks?” she whispered in a rough gasp of breath.
Bernard shook his head, his face drawn, weary. “No,” he whispered. “Trees lost some leaves in some places. Grass stirred enough to move the snow in others. And it’s all ice, sleet. Shadows are helping hide more.”
Amara sank slowly back down behind the rise, frowning at him. “Are you all right?”
“Tired,” he said, and closed his eyes. “They’re Knights. Their furies are on unfamiliar ground, but they’re strong. Starting to have trouble misdirecting them.”
“Fidelias has pulled out all the stops if he’s started a general hunt for us. That means he’ll accelerate the plans for attack as well. How close are we to Garrison?”
“Few hundred yards to the edge of the trees,” Bernard said. “Then half a mile of open ground. Anything at this end of the Valley will be able to see us.”
“Can you earthwave us across it?”
Bernard shook his head. “Tired.”
“Can we run it?”