Thalgor's Witch by Holland Nancy

Author:Holland, Nancy [Holland, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Romance, Fiction
ISBN: 9781948342179
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Published: 2018-02-21T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

When Erwyn fought her way back into this world, half against her will, Thalgor’s rich baritone mixed with Felyn’s piping laughter somewhere nearby.

The weight of her grief was still so great she could scarcely stay conscious long enough to drink the broth Thalgor brought her when he saw she was awake. Then she slept.

“Enough.” Her mother’s face hovered over her in a dream. Tears of unbearable longing flowed down Erwyn’s face.

“Enough,” the vision said again, as her mother had long ago when Erwyn had grieved too long after her so-beloved father had first been captured. “Leave it go. Live, child! It is all we have, this life.”

“No!” Erwyn struggled awake.

She looked up at cloth and thought for a moment she was in Thalgor’s tent. That the whole ordeal had been only a dreadful nightmare.

Then she heard raindrops and felt a cold breeze. Thalgor had built a lean-to to protect her from the icy rain.

It was full night. Felyn slept curled up beside her for warmth, but Thalgor sat by the fire and stared into the flames.

A strange sweetness filled her. She wanted this life. This man. Grief and pain remained, but she no longer wished to die.

Carefully she sat up. Her head remained clear. She licked cracked lips.

“Thalgor,” she whispered.

He looked over from where he sat and said softly, “So you’ve decided to live.”

She shrugged. “I’m hungry.”

“Too wet to cook or hunt. Of course you are hungry now,” he grumbled, but she saw the relief in his eyes.

He rummaged about in one of the baskets and handed her a piece of bread. She ate it eagerly, then drank the rainwater he caught for her in a cup.

“Thank you for staying here to care for us.”

It was his turn to shrug. “What was I supposed to do?”

“Go back to your camp and send Tya?”

“And have Rygar at my throat because I deprive him of her company? No, thank you.”

“Send him as well.”

“And have Tya’s father at my throat? Think, woman!”

She laughed, a strange, rusty sound.

“How is Felyn?”

He came and sat beside her, but didn’t touch her.

“Thoroughly tired of this place. As am I.”

“No harm from…from the renegade?”

Erwyn shuddered at the memory of what the man did. And what she had almost done.

“A nightmare. She hasn’t said much, but that is how the child is.”

Yet Erwyn had heard the child laugh with him.

“Why are you here?” she asked.

“I told you, the Witch King sent me after you.”

“I meant, why are you still here?”

“I told you that, too.”

“You told me some story. I want the real answer.”

He shifted so their legs touched. She did not move away.

“A man thinks many things when he isn’t sure he will arrive in time to save his woman’s life. Isn’t even sure she wants it to be saved.”

“Am I your woman still?” she asked, almost against her will.

“Would I care so for a stranger?”

A tiny crack broke through the pain and grief that was still frozen around her heart like ice on late-ripening fruit.

“Tya said Dara visited you.

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