Gram jammed her heel into the floor, near where her bedroll used to lay. Knocking three times, she hummed. Then, crouched down and dug out a lanky handle. Yanked with a grunt to reveal a square hidden hole in the floor. Dipping her hands into it, she lifted up a brigandine set. A shining silver ax with lifeknots curling on the flat end. A shield with...
"Is that our family sigil?" I hadn't even known we had one.
Gram nodded. "A Clow Drakeling." She said, pointing to the proud creature prowling across the face of the round shield. "We were once more than we are, Kitten." And her eyes glistened as the past fluttered through them. The gold-gilded past.
A past that I will never know.
Gram outfitted me. Called Eva and Maddy in, who both began to pull and tug at my hair. Braiding it back into the style Hagen had been wearing before her bitter end. The brigandine fit nicely, hugging every curve and crevice like it was specifically tailored for me. A wide cloth band around the waist sealed it, decorating it with scarlet and a single gold drakeling.
The shield came next, light on my back. And finally, the ax. Gram held onto it, let herself be reflected in its silver image. She murmured something I couldn't catch, nor understand. But I didn't let the fact pass that the words were guttural. Like razors to my ears.
She passed me the ax. Maddy secured it to my belt. "Go and live." Gram commanded, turning me around, pushing me forward.
Maddy touched my shoulder. Eva brushed my forearm. Both girls lips quivered.
This time, I couldn't lie to them. I wasn't sure if I'd be back.
Lingering on the threshold hold, looking out at Montbereau as I'll always remember it—thatched roofs covered in snow, spindly smoke stacks, mud, and snow mixing. Always mixing.
I told her. Point blank, "This was my mother's."
"Correct." She didn't hesitate. "And although she made you promise never to join the Guard, to follow Horace's footsteps and become a shieldmaiden; she is proud of you. Very, very proud." She took a step forward, "And also, very, very angry."
"Thank you." I said, sighing, "For telling me the truth, Gram."
"I am sorry I held it back for so long."
Elisedd met my gaze. His entourage looked out at the village. Scanning for threats, most like. Silhouettes plowed toward the town center in the distance. The Guards that raided Grams.
"Will they remember?"
Elisedd looked to the woman, who shook her head.
"Let's go, then. See the jarl." This is it. This is finally it.
I'll prove I am not a coward. I'll avenge every one of their deaths.
I will kill her. I will kill her for what she's taken from Montbereau.
And perhaps, maybe.
I will die.
But I will die proud. With my family taken care of and Montbereau on my side.
VOUS LISEZ
Winterskin (Book One of Wrath & Winter)
خيال (فانتازيا)Promise the dead but protect the living. Until a promise to the dead forbids her from doing so. Katell Maeva has spent her entire life as a woodcutter. In the summer months she chops wood and in the winter she knocks out wolves. But when food become...
