Avelynn by Marissa Campbell

Author:Marissa Campbell
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466868892
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

FOURTEEN

It was two days before the full moon in July. I sent a message to Ealhswith. I would not be coming to visit. After countless sleepless nights, churning over everything Muirgen had said, I had decided to leave England. I filled my purse with coins, hoping Alrik would give me passage. I didn’t know where he was headed next, but for the right price he might be willing to take me across to the continent. I didn’t expect him to want me still, not after I told him the truth of my betrothal. Like my father, Alrik struck me as a man of honor. I was promised to someone else and had willingly broken that pledge. Worse, I had lied to him, at least through omission. In his place, I wouldn’t want me, either.

I didn’t want to think about my father or Edward. I didn’t want to think about whether Edward would come home. It made me sick to think about deserting everyone, but once my father returned, Wedmore would carry on without me. Everyone was replaceable.

I shoved some clothes into two large satchels and upended the contents of my locked chest, sorting through my most precious possessions. I left much of the jewelry, packing only a few pieces, more in case I needed their weight in gold than their ornamentation, and carefully hid my pouch of divining bones inside the sleeve of one of my kirtles. I stared at the packets of herbs Muirgen had given me and then locked them back inside the crate. I had no need of them now. I scrawled a hasty note to Bertram, entrusting the estate to his capable hands until my father’s return, and headed to the stables.

Macha, the Goddess of Dawn, spread her golden cloak across the sky. I had wanted to leave before first light, but I stalled, taking my time brushing and stroking Marma. “I’ll miss you, girl.” I laid my forehead against her neck. Her velvety nose nudged my arm, and I hugged her fiercely. I was being selfish, and I knew it, but I couldn’t risk marrying Demas. I had seen the monster lurking behind those hazel eyes. The shadow of suffering and pain Muirgen had seen hovering around him was real. I understood that now. The vision I’d had on Avalon—the raven and the boar, the promise of death and bloodshed in my future—would come to pass if I stayed. It was never about Alrik, or war. The message was far more personal. The Goddess had sent her sacred messenger, the raven, to warn me. A caution I would finally take seriously. Demas was the beast, and he had the ability to gore me through. I didn’t plan to stay long enough to give him the chance.

Unwilling to risk leaving Marma to find her way back home, and knowing I couldn’t expect Alrik to give both me and my horse passage, I saddled a sprightly bay mare instead and headed to the coast. The morning had

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