The Ember Blade by Chris Wooding

Author:Chris Wooding [Wooding, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2018-06-19T16:00:00+00:00

52

The morning was chill and damp, and the wind carried the threat of winter. Keel stood at the crest of a gentle rise, with the wide water of the Cut at his back and bracken rustling all around him. At the end of the trail was a small cottage of stone and thatch with a thriving vegetable patch to one side. Smoke unwound slowly from the chimney.

He’d been standing there for some time now, watching the cottage. Caught between the desire to run to the door, and the desire to turn around and leave unobserved. A tight band squeezed his chest and he felt lightheaded with nerves born of equal parts excitement and dread.

What are you afraid of? It’s your family!

But he was afraid. Afraid that things had changed. Afraid of the reckoning he faced each time he returned. Afraid this cottage would become his hutch.

He took a bag of coins from his pouch, weighed it in his hand. Krodan money from the Salt Fork coffers. It was more than he usually came back with, but it never felt adequate. Half of what he took had been spent on the way. Money always had a way of slipping through his fingers. Perhaps he just didn’t care about it enough. It was deeds, not coin, that brought him to life.

But his tales of adventure would get no welcome here. It was coin that counted, and in that he was always destined to disappoint her.

‘Keel, you’re a fool!’ he said aloud, to shame himself into action. ‘All this way, and you think of turning back? Stop wasting time out here, when your wife waits inside!’

Heartened, he replaced the bag of coins and set off down the trail, putting a swing in his stride. Yes, they’d fight. Didn’t they always? But there’d be love, too, as there always was. And how he’d missed her eyes, her smile, the soft, warm touch of her body. Roamer though he was, he’d lain with no other since they were married, and his step quickened at the thought of what the night might bring.

He thought of Tad, too. Strange, quiet Tad, distant and beautiful, the fey changeling they’d brought into the world together. He didn’t smile often, but when he did it was like the sun breaking over the sea. Keel ached to see that smile again. His son was a puzzle he’d never solve, but those occasional moments of connection, those small victories when his face cleared and there was laughter in his eyes, made all the struggle worthwhile.

Joy welled up within him and his doubts dissolved as he reached the door and threw it open. ‘Wife! To me!’ he roared. ‘I’m back!’

Two startled faces turned towards him. Their owners were halfway through a breakfast of fish broth and bread, sitting at a small table that stood against the wall of the stone-floored kitchen. One was Mariella, fairer to his eyes in real life than in his most rose-tinted memories. The other was his brother Fluke.

‘What’s this?’ he said, his face falling a little.

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