Father Aelfden brings reinforcements
“Praise God!” Father Brandt cried.
Alred twisted his head around and saw Father Aelfden standing in the doorway with the wild hair and wide eyes of Moses just come down from his mount.
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Sigefrith and Wynflaed hear a storm out of season
Wynflaed and her husband were among the few people awake in the valley at that hour on that night. Besides the two of them, there were only the ill and a few new mothers, and Wynflaed was both of those things.
However, she was not awake because of her babies. She had not had enough milk for one little baby, let alone her ravenous, rapidly-growing twins. She still nursed them, but only because she loved to. They had another nurse for their hunger, and it was one of her great sorrows to see how the babies went just as eagerly to the nurse’s breast as to their mother’s.
Egelric gives Malcolm something to think about
“Oh—” Malcolm gasped as he woke… on the couch in Egelric’s hall. “No!” he finished at the sight of Egelric’s back.
Egelric grunted. “Don’t mind me.”
Vash is left behind
Iylaine soon saw the source of the scream that had sounded near her room: one of the elf women who had tended her lay in the corridor in a puddle of her own blood, her neck sliced nearly in two.
Vash and Kiv and the other elf walked past her body without even a glance, but Iylaine was horrified. She hoped it had been the other elf that had killed her, and not her sweet, friendly cousin Kiv. But Kiv’s sword too was streaked with blood, and she had to suppose that he had killed someone, if not this woman.
Iylaine goes deeper
Iylaine was awake, but one would not have known it except by the slow movement of her thin fingers as they traced the seam of the pillow beside her. Moving her fingers took nearly all the strength she could muster. Iylaine was very ill.
She had felt tired and ill before when she had been locked up indoors to protect her from some danger or other, but it was nothing like this. That was like hunger, and this was like starvation.
August tells Egelric four things
“Sir?” Ethelwyn whispered.
Egelric choked and sat up. “Is she home?”
Lili comes closer
Lili crept into bed as gently as her enormous belly allowed. She had come up to take the afternoon nap that had become a necessity for her if she was not to fall asleep in her plate at supper later, but she had not been expecting to find Egelric in the bed. She had not even known he was home.
She froze and even held her breath as he stirred slightly, but in the end he only rolled over onto his side and continued his snoring, though softly now.
Malcolm goes down
The entrance to the cave had been cleverly crafted, but Malcolm had seen at once that it could have been formed by no ordinary forces of earth or weather. Nor had the smooth walls of the long tunnel been carved by water, but neither were there any marks of chisels or other tools. He supposed it could only have been created by elves, or by some of the faerie-folk that had inhabited these lands in ancient times, before they had been banished underground, and long before the arrival of men.
But as soon as he climbed down the ladder at the end of the tunnel, he saw that the most recent visitor to this chamber had not been long away, for there was a candle burning on a tiny shelf near the floor.
Malcolm goes up
From the height of the flat stone, Malcolm could see out over the treetops of Selwood, though the farms beyond were lost in the mist. It was a grim dawn that promised more rain, with a sky that was purple like a bruise. There was little light as yet, but Egelric had finally fallen asleep, and Malcolm thought it his one chance to come here alone.
He had told Egelric almost everything he knew. He had told Egelric that Iylaine’s ears were supernaturally sensitive and thereby reassured him that she would hear them calling from miles away. He had told him that she could make fire by merely thinking about fire, and so Egelric could be certain that she would not be cold. He had told him how all the animals of the forest loved her, and that he doubted that even a wolf or a bear would do her harm.
Brede and Eirik have good news
Sir Brede found two grim-looking men in his hall. It seemed that Iylaine had not come home. However, they were calm enough that he did not think they had found her body.
“Any news?” he asked softly.
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Chapters“Ach! Love! Women think it the solution to all of life’s problems, men think it the cause.”
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