Defy (The Blades of Acktar Book 3) by Mingerink Tricia

Author:Mingerink, Tricia [Mingerink, Tricia]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Sword & Cross Publishing
Published: 2016-05-31T04:00:00+00:00

30

Leith was leaving. Again. As she’d known he would. Brandi watched as he swung a saddle onto Big Brown and tightened its girth. The horse thrust his ears back in an ornery expression.

All around them, the hideout bustled with activity. Resistance soldiers trained with a new fire in their eyes, and Aindre the blacksmith had been busily honing weapons and fixing armor when Brandi had passed his cabin earlier that morning. The women in the camp smoked meat and cooked biscuits that traveled well.

Last she’d heard, the army planned to leave tomorrow, the earliest that all the men could be assembled and the last preparations made. It’d also give Leith and Shad enough time to scout Respen’s army around Walden. While Leith continued on to Nalgar Castle, Shad would meet the Resistance army and help tweak their plans to take Walden.

Hefting the saddlebags she’d filled with food, she carried them to Leith. “You’re really leaving?”

She sounded like such a child. She was fourteen after all. If she was a boy, she’d be old enough to join the army.

Leith knelt, his face twisting as if she’d stabbed him. His voice pitched low as he gripped her shoulders. “I don’t want to leave you behind, but I have to help Renna. She needs me more than you do right now.”

She nodded, biting her lip to hold in the scurrying feeling in her stomach. It didn’t work. She’d heard rumors around camp about what Leith was planning. He’d never let her come along to help. “You’ll keep her safe, won’t you?”

“I’ll do my best.”

He’d be hard pressed to keep that promise. Leith wasn’t invincible. He’d do his best, but his best might not be good enough. Both he and Renna might die.

She’d just have to figure out how to do something on her own to stop that from happening.

He patted her shoulder. “Take care of Blizzard for me, won’t you?”

“I will.” Brandi blinked. He was leaving Blizzard behind. He didn’t think he’d come back. A tear trickled down one of her cheeks. She couldn’t lose both Leith and Renna.

Leith swiped her tear away with his thumb, his finger warm on her cold cheek. “We’ll be all right. We’re in God’s hands.”

Uncle Abel had said that exact same thing, right before he and Aunt Mara left, only to be executed a month later. What good did being in God’s hands really do? She should believe it did some good, but it didn’t seem like it right now.

“I just…” Another tear dribbled down her cheek. Why was she breaking down now? She didn’t want to cry. Not at all. But her tears weren’t listening to her. “I don’t understand why everything’s so hard.”

Leith bowed his head. When he looked up at her, his mouth had an odd tilt to it, smiling and yet not. “You remember those Daniel stories you told me all those months ago?”

Blinking, she nodded and scrubbed at her tears. Maybe she could get rid of the evidence before anyone else noticed. “Of course I remember.

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