Blood to Bind: Tales of Darkwood Book 5 by Stacey Upton Bracey

Author:Stacey Upton Bracey [Upton Bracey, Stacey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: EWP Publications
Published: 2022-12-11T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Every joint ached. Rue had tried to convince the soldiers who’d caught her that she could walk beside them, but they wouldn’t be budged from their orders. The cramped iron cage they’d put her in allowed no room to stretch her legs properly, no matter what angle she tried. She felt every jolt of the road, too. The paltry layer of straw on the floor of the cart was fouled with all manner of excrement from past prisoners and mud from the road. And she was cold, with nothing but her cloak and a worn, coarse blanket to pull around her against the press of winter.

The only good thing about it was that no one else shared the space with her. They’d emerged from the heart of the Darkwood in the afternoon of her second day with them. After seeing nothing but trees, it was good to see the sky again, even if there was no blue, only dark grey clouds that promised to drop more snow. The road stretched in a straight line ahead.

At one point they passed a circle of rowan trees, their leaves fallen, but still pretty with their smooth, silvery bark and bright red clusters of berries. In the middle of the circle was a burnt wagon. The sight of it saddened Rue. She knew this was how the Travellers honored their dead, burning their wagon with the body and their possessions inside. It made her think of her friend Rose, who was also a Traveller. She wondered where she was, if she and her young son still kept company with her brothers. Since it was well into winter, they must have passed far to the south by now. The Travellers followed the sun and perhaps were wise to do so.

The mule hauled the cart on, past the circle of rowan trees and the weak sun fell further to the west before them. Soon it was casting long shadows behind them. Her eyes half-closed, Rue watched their shadows bounce along the uneven dirt road, the two men, the mule pulling the cart, and her own lumpy mass. Her shadow looked like some caged animal from a menagerie rather than a woman.

The oncoming darkness turned the air bitterly cold as the wind picked up, and she wondered if the soldiers were going to stop. Surely the mule needed a rest. She saw a tumble-down little cottage on her left, its door hanging off of its hinges, then another. They were in what had been a village. More abandoned homes came into view, along with one or two that had light in the windows and curls of smoke coming from their chimneys. Rue hoped the villagers weren’t the type who enjoyed throwing clods of dirt and filth at prisoners.

The cart slowed and stopped at a slightly larger home. It had a sign hanging in front of it that optimistically declared it was an inn. The cart tilted forward suddenly as the mule was led out of his traces, and she slid to land awkwardly in the back corner of her cage.

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