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 sunk 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."