Torrent by Lisa T. Bergren

Author:Lisa T. Bergren [Bergren, Lisa T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Teen fiction, young adult, Italy, medieval, knight, contemporary, romance, love, time travel
Publisher: David C Cook
Published: 2011-08-31T23:00:00+00:00

We camped that night along the edges of the huge, sprawling Lago di Bracciano, perilously close to Rome. Captain Ruisi offered me the opportunity to bathe, promising me protection and privacy. But yeah, I wasn’t feeling super trusting, so I did my best to wash my face and arms, conscious that I was dripping dirty water down the front of my Roman toga bridal gown. Not that I cared. But the boys in town were going to find it ridiculously amusing if I didn’t cut loose before I got there. The guys here with me already thought it highly entertaining.

They glanced at me and laughed, some spitting out their pent-up guffaws behind their hands and others not bothering to hide their amusement at all. I approached them as regally as I could, well aware that my hair was coming down around my shoulders and that I had spots of dirt all over me. It was all I could do not to dive into the lake, frigid cold as it was. Every bit of dirt chafed at me, making me itch. I didn’t need my enemies’ laughter to tell me I looked like a train wreck.

When I returned from the water’s edge, I saw that they’d finally taken Father Tomas down from his horse. “Is he—?” I began, terrified that I was too late.

“Nay,” Captain Ruisi said. “But not long for this world.”

“Please,” I asked yet again. “May I…?”

He studied me a moment and then waved me on, as if whether or not this man lived was the last thing he cared about. As if the battle was over and his death would put a firm stamp of victory on it.

I hurried over to the priest, so terribly still, alone. The others kept far away, as if death might be catching. “Father Tomas,” I whispered, shaking him a little by the shoulder.

There was no answer. How much blood had he lost through the day? In the late afternoon he’d grown too weak to even hold on, so knights had strapped him to his steed. The light of the bonfire nearby lit up half his face, leaving the other half in utter darkness. Listening to his breathing, I knew that was where he was—hovering between light and dark, life and death.

But he was breathing. Alive.

“I need a knife,” I said. I lifted my head and looked to Captain Ruisi, conscious that one by one, the men looked to him too, all thinking, There’s No Way….

He returned my stubborn gaze.

“Water. Bandages. And another blade, set in the center of that fire,” I added.

A tiny smirk lifted the edges of his thin lips. “You think you can save him?”

“I can try.”

He stared back at me for a breath, then two, before he nodded once, lifted his hand and flicked two fingers, setting several men into motion.

One of the hulking knights came over to me, paused a moment, and then handed me my own dagger from his belt. He stood there, at the ready, watching me as I bent, cut away the shoulder of the priest’s robe—as well as the shaft of the arrow.

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