Divinity. Mortality. War.
Silva, Queen of Wolves, Lady of the True Woods, seeks her only friend Etan, who, along with other deities of the Council of Divinity, has gone missing for reasons unknown. Her search traps her on a world where the wolves ha...
Alaev sat by the fire, wondering why he'd joined the army in the first place.
His father and mother hadn't wanted him to do so, that was for sure. Neither had his sister Brinna. They'd all begged him to stay — "You don't need to prove the family's honor, son," his father had said, as he'd packed his small rucksack of belongings.
He sighed. "Yes, I do. We lost all honor because we housed a Thaenite spy."
Brinna, pale-faced with streaks of tears, smacked him on the shoulder. "Thalaea wasn't a spy!"
Normally he would have returned his sister's smack with one of his own, but this time he didn't. Sibling rivalry no longer seemed important. Min was at war, and it was their fault.
The townspeople, of course, hadn't given them up to the Duchess. If they had then none of Alaev's family would be alive now. The Duchess was a capricious woman, and her love for her cousin had been deep. If she'd known it had been Scoas and Natai who had housed Kaz's murderer....
The townspeople hadn't given up Enendoa, either, for all that the murder had happened at her house. Heartpinners were loyal to their own. They may shun Scoas when he came to town, now, but they wouldn't give him up to Daetus' justice. He was a Heartpinner and his punishment would come from them.
They may have shunned Enendoa, too, if the woman hadn't gone missing. Shortly after Thalaea had disappeared, so had the older wise woman. Her house was still full of books, her garden still full of herbs, but her clothes were all gone, as was her rucksack, and several of her copper pans and implements. Brinna had discovered it, two weeks after Thalaea had gone missing. She'd gone to visit Enendoa, and find some solace. The cottage had been cold and empty.
Alaev felt a bit for his sister. She had been in love with the woman they'd housed for so long. Now Thalaea was missing, a murderer, and Min was at war with Thaen.
He wondered why Kaz's friends hadn't given up their family. They were the ones who had given up Thalaea, after all. He supposed Heartpin loyalty went deep, even in those men.
So Alaev joined the military when the recruitment officer came knocking. As far as he could see it was the only way their family would ever regain its old reputation, or anything close to it.
He kissed his mother and father good bye. He tried to hug his sister but she was too upset.
She looked at him with tears in her eyes. Her red hair was frizzy; she hadn't washed it in ages. They'd had trouble getting her to eat, and she was skinnier than she should have been. "Now you're going to leave me, too," she said, despair soaking her voice.
He sighed. "I'll be back."
She shook her head. "No you won't. You're going to Thaen. It's a dead land. Everything dies there." She went into her room and shut the door.
Now he was sitting here, just over the border, between the mountains and the forests, trying to get lost in the easy camaraderie with his fellow recruits, and failing miserably. Most of the lads were from Fallwoman Shire and Solai Parish, some even from far away as Caegdeer or the capitol itself. They didn't know his family's shame, and he made new friends quickly and easily. It was a small unit. They were becoming close.
But tonight...tonight something was wrong. The trees looked darker; the sounds of the forest sounded more sinister. The officers had been holed up in closed quarters all day, after two had run out to the other camps along the forest's edge. They'd returned looking anxious, frightened even, but they hadn't told the lads anything.
Something was wrong. And it sent shivers up and down Alaev's spine.
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