The baby is taken out of reach

Anyone who had seen Myrddin hurrying down the cloistered walk at that moment would have been astounded to see such nimble feet on such an old man. Certainly, he had spent the last few hours shuffling meekly along frosty forest paths, the very image of eld.

He had gone out in search of the elf Vash, and he had returned with only a canker of bitter frustration eating at his heart. He had thought he had learned patience during his long imprisonment, but now that he was free, he wanted everything at once—and Nimea first. The elf was an obnoxious obstacle, but Myrddin dared not threaten him for fear of angering the mother of his race. She was, so far as he knew, still far more powerful than he.

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Lar chooses not to see

There was no chance of this prisoner escaping, but Lar still pulled the iron gate closed behind him.

“What are you doing here, Dasi?” he growled. “I told you to get one of the girls down here.”

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Catan hears a voice

Catan and Flann were the last to arrive in the hall, but the entire household appeared to have been roused from sleep.

Maire was there in her nightgown, standing near the wall with her hands on her hips and her head high. Aengus was nearly naked, awoken for some crisis too urgent even to allow him to pull on a pair of leggings, and his young squire Domnall stood by him in a similar state of undress. Even the maids whispering in the shadowy screened passage beyond the hall were hoary ghosts in their nightgowns.

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The elf hears a cry

The elf never built a fire before he heard the clang of the bar falling into its bracket behind the great door. That sound meant that all the inhabitants of the manor on the hill were home for the night. That sound meant that his wife was safe from whatever threats could be stopped by a heavy iron bar, a great door, and a knight’s sword. He was nearby for the others.

That sound meant that no more men would be wandering past the shed where he slept, and so no one would see the smoke from his little fire. But the bar often fell very late. He was often very cold.

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Lena is free

Lena was dizzy and delirious from so many things: fatigue and loss of blood, certainly; fear and relief; a great love she had never imagined; but also a sense of freedom that had never been hers before this night. Most dizzying was the thought that she had only had to step outside on a dark night to claim it.

She had come to the woods alone: no one had granted her permission. She had borne her baby alone: no one had helped her. She and he had learned together how to nurse: no one had showed them what they must do.

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Vash asks one question

Vash had been listening for the shuffling steps of the old man, but what he heard at last was something strange.

His ears could hear a wind arising from far off, for the sound of wind traveled faster than the wind. In the winter, it would begin as a sigh in the most distant trees and rise into a moan as it approached. Then there would be all the creaking and clattering of the branches overhead, and finally the wind would touch his face and lift his hair.

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Lena walks out

Lena laid one hand on the small of her back and the other on the swell of her stomach. The pain rippled over her again like water. She had survived it so far by holding her breath as it passed, but it was lasting so long and coming so often now that she was growing light-​headed from lack of air.

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The King makes a little decree

Sigefrith threw down his quill and threw up his arms. “At last! Let’s eat! I don’t know how it is that every time I go away for three days, I come home to find six days’ worth of work awaiting me.”

“Leave two days’ work alone together and they breed,” Cenwulf chuckled.

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Alred asks a sacrifice of Flann

Flann peeked into the Duke’s study. “Your Grace wished to see me?”

“And a splendid sight it is, too!” Alred rose from his table and stood with his arms outstretched in wonder at her beauty.

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Leofric makes another promise

Leofric lit the candle, but it did not wake his wife. Nevertheless, he saw that the irrational fear that had driven him home in the middle of the night had been unfounded, as irrational fears usually were.

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