A Time of Blood (Of Blood and Bone #2) - John Gwynne Page 0,36
foot in front of him. Three score White-Wings, all polished leather and bright steel. Colossal trees reared high on either side of the narrow road, branches looping and latticing above them. He twisted in his saddle and looked back over his shoulder, saw another two score of the black-and-silver clothed warriors marching behind. Shadows flitted across him, shapes skimming along the road they were following and, looking up, he saw Ben-Elim circling high above, yet still beneath the canopy of Forn’s great trees.
He drew in a long, slow breath, mastering the emotions that were roiling within him: anger and fear, confusion and revulsion, as well as the fatigue and sense of sorrow that he’d noticed settled over him after a battle, the knowledge that lives had been snuffed out, men and women that he had talked with, eaten with—suddenly gone. It left a hollow place within him. And of course, there was Kol and the Ben-Elim.
They say we are pardoned, welcomed back into the arms of the Faithful, but I feel more like a prisoner being marched to my execution. And no one asked me if I wanted to be welcomed back.
He had sat outside the woodsman’s hut when Riv had been hauled inside, as stunned as the rest of them by Aphra’s revelation.
Riv is Kol’s daughter.
Obviously, he had known that one of the Ben-Elim was her father, but Kol! He did not know how he felt about that.
Bleda and the others had laid down their weapons. Bleda had no heart to fight on with Riv a prisoner, fearing what Kol might do to her, and he knew that continuing to fight was futile—they were too outnumbered—so he’d chosen to save the lives of his surviving bondsmen. Only three of his ten guards still lived, and Old Ellac, who seemed immortal. The dead had been buried beneath cairns back at the woodsman’s hut, alongside over a dozen Ben-Elim and White-Wings.
Vald and Jost rode with Bleda, Ellac and his three men, which surprised Bleda a little. He’d thought they would be back marching with the White-Wings, especially as it was Aphra’s hundred, the very unit that Vald and Jost had trained with all of their lives. To see them riding alongside his men was another reminder that so much had changed, that life was abruptly, unalterably, different, and he was clearly not the only one to feel that way.
Jost had a wide bandage wrapped around his head, dried blood crusting on it. He was swaying a little in his saddle, and not just because he was a poor rider; he was still concussed from the blow to his head, a clump from the butt-end of a Ben-Elim’s spear that had bled for half a day.
When Bleda had seen Kol stride into the woodsman’s hut he had thought the end must be close, his hand finding the secret dagger hidden in his boot, though he hadn’t really known what he was going to do with it.
Save Riv, kill Kol, maybe. Or at least try. Or kill myself, rather than let Kol have the pleasure.
I am surprised that any of us are still alive.
It had been a long time later that Kol had emerged, and Bleda had been stunned to see Riv walking out into the glade with him. Riv had stood with her head down while Kol had made a speech about the time for bloodletting and vengeance being over, and as the new Lord Protector he wanted to build a new world of peace and harmony. He would start that right now, by forgiving and absolving Riv and her companions of any wrongdoing.
Bleda had almost fallen over with shock.
While Kol spoke, Bleda had looked only at Riv, tried to catch her eye. He saw that she had a wound on her shoulder, freshly stitched, and that she was clenching her right hand into a fist, blood welling from between her fingers, dripping on the ground.
When did that happen?
Only once had Riv looked at him, when Kol had been speaking of forgiveness and moving on together, and she had nodded at him, as if agreeing with Kol’s words. And urging him to agree, also.
What happened in that hut? How can she be going along with this? She was going to Drassil to kill Kol, and now she is making peace with him. Is it part of some plan, or is it because Kol is her father? Has that changed how she feels about him? He slew Dalmae, is a murderer.