my son’s future queen. She’s like no one you’ve met before.”
I hoped the Dowager Queen was correct. Because that poor girl, whoever she may be, would have to be quite special if she was to have any chance of surviving this mother and son.
CHAPTER 1
The massive head of the hammer landed hard on the ground, startling the men who had strung him up.
He could see her—barely—as he hung there. He tried to warn her. To tell her to get away. These were soldiers for hire. They had no loyalty to anyone but themselves and the one paying them.
They had stumbled upon him sleeping by this same tree and before he knew it, they’d decided they wanted his meager things and the three horses he’d been traveling with and, Oh! Wouldn’t it be fun to see him swing?
Well . . . no. No, it was not fun to swing.
Still. He didn’t want this very large woman to risk her own life to save his. Men like this were even more cruel to women than they were to lone men sleeping under trees.
She’d swung her big hammer up and over her head and, when the massive head had hit the ground, she’d stood there a moment. Chin down. Her muscles tense under her sleeveless, black leather tunic.
After that brief moment, she lifted just her gaze and growled, “Cut him loose.”
One of the soldiers laughed. “Look what we have here, lads! A big-armed slut looking for—”
That hammer was up and swinging before the soldier could finish his statement, sending him flying into another nearby tree. Bones cracked and blood shot out of the soldier’s mouth.
Swords were drawn and they surrounded her.
“Bad decision, woman,” another soldier said.
“No,” she replied. “Bad decision coming to my town and killing a boy.”
Wait one moment. He wasn’t dead yet! Of course, that was mostly because the soldiers had taken their time dragging him off the ground so that he’d die slow. They’d literally said, “Let’s watch him die slow, lads!”
One soldier swung his blade at the woman and she easily parried the move with that astoundingly large hammer before ramming the head into the man’s chest. He fell back, his chest caved in, his gasps for breath painful to hear.
He wanted to watch more, begging the gods to protect this brave but foolish woman, but his gaze began to dim. He was choking to death.
No! He wasn’t going to die. He was going to fight!
Making the decision, he worked harder to get fingers between the rope and his throat in the hope of loosening it. As he struggled, he looked out toward a nearby hill, and saw the herd of wild horses he’d spotted the night before. At the time, he’d thought the three horses he’d been tending would blend in with the herd. He’d even stripped them of their saddles and bridles and hidden them right outside the forest. But that hadn’t worked out as he’d hoped.
Now, those wild horses were charging over the hill in what seemed to be a panicked run, barreling down toward them. But as they moved over that hill, for a split second, Samuel thought he saw . . . people? Running amongst the horses? Over the horses?
Or he was becoming delusional. That was possible too.
Because he was dying. And he would die if he didn’t get the noose off.
Knowing he was running out of time, Samuel fought harder. Struggled to get the rope from around his neck.
Most of the men moved away to avoid the oncoming herd. But one attacked the woman. That’s when a gray stallion charged between them. When the stallion passed the pair, its back hooves kicked out, catching the man in the head and caving in his skull.
The woman took her chance. She pulled a blade from her belt and hit where the rope had been tied off.
Samuel slammed to the ground, choking and gasping, his fingers now able to dig under the rope; to pull it up and over his head.
A leather-gloved hand appeared in front of his watery gaze.
“Get up, lad!” the woman ordered. “Get up, get up, get up!”
Grasping her hand, Samuel let her pull him to his feet. That was when he realized the horses were running past them. But none had crashed into them. It seemed they were purposely avoiding Samuel and the woman while they trampled the other men.
The woman was looking at Samuel, her gaze on his throat, when suddenly her entire expression changed and she lifted that hammer with