Venom (Isles of Storm and Sorrow) by Hogan Bex

Author:Hogan, Bex
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: amazon

The hut is small, the fire that blazes warming every nook and cranny. Olwyn guides me to sit beside it, ignoring her sister’s protests, and then covers me in blankets.

‘Olwyn, stop this madness,’ Rayvn says, her spear still firmly in her hand. ‘What are you thinking?’

Olwyn ignores her sister. ‘Are you hungry?’ she says to me. ‘Some warm soup perhaps?’

I nod as best I can, the heat from the fire causing a burning pain in my limbs as it defrosts them. Still, it’s not quite as fierce as the stare Rayvn fixes on me, her gaze never lifting.

As Olwyn sets a pot over the flames, a small figure appears from a back room, a young girl with features finer than a bird’s, who couldn’t be past her twelfth year. Her face is the image of her older sisters’, but more delicate and while their hair is blacker than jetstone, hers is bright white, just like the horse who led me here.

‘Olwyn?’ She’s clearly nervous of my presence.

Olwyn springs to her feet and walks over to the girl. ‘Pip, everything’s fine, go back to sleep.’

‘No.’ Rayvn glares at Olwyn. ‘It’s not fine. You’ve brought a stranger into our home. You’ve put us all in danger.’

Pip’s eyes widen with fear, but Olwyn just sighs. ‘Calm yourself,’ she says. The words are gently spoken but with enough authority to quieten Rayvn. ‘Pip, why don’t you come and meet our guest?’

And with her arms protectively wrapped round her little sister Olwyn brings Pip nearer me.

‘Pipit, this is Marianne. Rayvn found her on the boundary, looking for one of our mares.’ Now Olwyn looks at me, but it isn’t suspicion in her eyes, more curiosity. ‘Is that right?’

Again a nod is all my frozen body can muster, though I desperately want to ask her who she is how she has the same birthmark as me, and what that could possibly mean.

‘Would you fetch our guest some soup, while I speak with Rayvn?’ Olwyn asks Pip, who nods while the older sisters huddle in a corner and argue in loud but indecipherable whispers.

Pip nervously passes me a mug and I’m about to take it when I pause. I have no idea who these women are and have lowered my guard too far already. The last residents I met on this island wanted to drug and kill me. Who’s to say these sisters won’t do the same?

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ Rayvn says, striding over when she sees my hesitation. ‘If we wanted to kill you, we’d stick you with a spear.’ And she grabs the mug from Pip, taking a large mouthful of the soup to prove it’s safe to eat. ‘If you don’t like our hospitality, you can always leave,’ she says, and holds the soup out like a challenge. I rise to it, and the liquid slips like fire down my throat.

‘Thank you,’ I say after another few mouthfuls, the hearty broth reviving me from the inside out. ‘And don’t worry, I’m not here to hurt your horses.

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