A Time of Blood (Of Blood and Bone #2) - John Gwynne Page 0,9

sister, respected her as the pinnacle of what she dreamed of becoming: a warrior, a leader, wise, respected and loved by all within her command.

Aphra, my sister, where are you now? Did you fight Kol? Are you languishing in a dungeon, or is your head on a spike? Do you need me?

A glance over her shoulder as she swept into her descent showed Bleda and the others riding close behind her.

Riv landed in a swirl of fallen leaves and forest litter, stood there in silence as the leaves settled about her.

A timber cabin sat there, half-wrapped in ivy, and about her were scores of small, stone-built cairns, the burial ground of her kin, of the countless half-breeds born during the last hundred years to Kol and the other Ben-Elim loyal to him. A terrible secret silenced by death.

Silenced by murder.

And that is what should have happened to me. My mam must have kept my birth hidden, somehow, or I would have been executed and buried alongside these little ones.

When Riv had first seen the child-sized cairns she had thought the deaths had happened naturally, during birth. Fia had told her differently: that the Ben-Elim insisted on their offspring being left to die, their dirty little secrets hidden beneath cairns of stones.

The injustice of it set red spots of rage dancing before her eyes. With a deep breath, she mastered it, mostly.

Fia strode out onto the wooden porch and raised a hand in greeting. She was tall and fair-haired, and also a White-Wing, weapon-wise and as tough as they came, second in command to Aphra, Riv’s sister. She held a baby close to her chest, a boy, and he was the reason that Fia was here, why she had left the White-Wings and was hiding out here in the wild snarl of Forn Forest.

Because that baby in her arms is a half-breed, just like me, and Fia has chosen life for him, not death and a cold stone grave.

Riv looked around her, taking in the cabin and moss-covered graves.

How many have come here on Kol’s orders, to kill the seed he or his comrades have sown in so many bellies? Fia was just one more in a long list. Her baby is supposed to be in a hole in the ground by now.

Riv smiled at Fia, proud of her courage and strength to defy the Ben-Elim. That was no small task for a White-Wing of Drassil. The Ben-Elim were considered all-wise and powerful, treated almost like gods, respected and adored. Not so long ago the thought of defying them would have felt inconceivable to Riv, a terrible crime.

I don’t feel like that anymore.

The thud of hooves as Bleda and the others cantered into the glade.

“It’s time to talk,” Riv said to Fia as the dozen riders dismounted.

“We cannot stay here forever,” Ellac said.

Riv, Bleda, Fia, Jost, Vald and Ellac were sitting upon logs in a loose circle between the cabin and the cairns. Bleda’s Sirak guards were either tending to the horses or lurking in the shadows, ever vigilant.

“We are safe here,” Fia said.

“How can you be sure?” Ellac asked. “If you are here, then surely the Ben-Elim must know of it.”

“I have told you before,” Fia said impatiently. “The Ben-Elim do not know of this place. They are too high and mighty to wish to know the details of what happens here, or even where here is. They only tell us to leave Drassil before any sign of our babies show, and to return when…” She glanced at the small graves.

“So how did you know to come here, then?” Ellac said.

“It is a secret amongst us White-Wings. The ones who…”

“Consort with Ben-Elim,” Ellac finished for her.

That is why Aphra told Bleda to bring me here, Riv thought. A secret place, known only to her and a handful of others.

But what if Aphra is being put to the question… tortured?

“Aye,” Fia nodded curtly.

“Huh,” Ellac grunted. “Even so, we cannot stay here forever.” His eyes fixed on Riv.

“I know,” Riv muttered.

“Away from here history is being made; the world is changing.”

For the worst, I don’t doubt.

“I said I would make things right,” Riv said, and she meant it, her words rising on a swell of anger.

“But what does that even mean?” Jost asked. “What is right?”

“And once you’ve figured that out, how do we do it?” Vald put in.

Those are the questions I’ve been asking myself, a thousand times a day.

“It seems to me that you should be thinking more on how