The Winter Road by Adrian Selby

Author:Adrian Selby
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2018-11-12T16:00:00+00:00

My ears rang. I became aware of sucking breath through my mouth, something like a heavy serrated stone sitting squarely in my face, behind my nose and eyes. I thought one of them gone, I couldn’t move it, couldn’t blink, my hands feel cold. They’re behind me, a sharp pain in my wrists, so I’m tied. I can’t feel my feet, but my legs are together, tied as well. I am being moved. The rattling of a wagon, my head bounces against it. I can’t tense, can’t bring my knees up to try and bring myself upright. Something smells, no tastes wrong, raw meat or blood, it’s close, must be if I can taste it. My eye is shut, muffled and constricted by the blood of a bruise. I open my other eye and it’s full of tears. I stretch the eyelids and try to clear them of their water. Before me, twitching with the rolling wheels over the rough trail, is a head. Though most of his face has been cut away, I see it’s Thad. The hair, matted with blood, is unmistakably his, his hairline, creeping back either side of his forehead. I gasp, try to cough and spasm with my body’s rejection of anything so violent as movement.

For all that I couldn’t speak or cry properly, I said his name over and over, whined helplessly, kept looking at him.

A voice. Khiese, from behind me, speaking softly, as though of pleasantries.

“He gave us many good recipes, even without his lips. I kept his head because I thought you’d like to say goodbye before I let our dogs have it. Sleep now, Teyr, you’ll see your family soon. You’ll see as well that I keep my word. It’s all I’m doing, Teyr: keeping my word.”

I could barely move, a roiling wave of hate and despair, a desire to offer my life for theirs, before a cloth was put over my face, the greasy musty tang of hemlock filling my throat.

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