Reign of Shadows - Deborah Chester [45]
What did it mean?
What did Lea’s unusual gifts mean?
Beva had more than the usual talent for healing. What talents had his bride possessed? What had the two of them created in their children?
Or was it all a growing madness in Beva’s mind? Were his own talents and beliefs driving him too far? People thought him so wise and good. Why couldn’t he show that wisdom and goodness to his own son? Why did he have to be so harsh and unyielding? What did he want?
Something Caelan could not give.
Safe in his room, Caelan slammed the door and slid down it to the floor.
There, in the quiet shadows, he sobbed.
Chapter Nine
THE NEXT DAY brought Caelan’s chance for escape.
Strangers came to the hold, more Neika tribesmen to fetch the two who were already there. Clad in furs, their long blond hair braided at the temples, ice frozen in their thick mustaches, they carried axes in their belts and freedom in their eyes. The Neika entered warily, forever uneasy within the confines of hold walls. They stood knotted together in the courtyard, fingering their axe heads and mumbling beneath their mustaches until their comrades emerged from the infirmary—one rushing out in greeting, the other limping with a broad grin.
There was much shouting and back-slapping Squalling in a large ring in the courtyard, they began to talk formally, using ritualized sign language to supplement it.
Everyone in the hold except Beva and Gunder found an excuse to venture by and stare at the newcomers.
The Neika spent winter months following the nordeer that migrated across the glacier. They also cut wood and sold it to craftsmen in the lower towns. Sometimes, in lean years when the nordeer were scarce, the Neika cut peat and brought it to holds in exchange for food. In the summer they cut ice, packed it in meadow grass, and brought it down through the Cascades to the towns on large skids drawn by tame nordeer.
Brawny and tall, the tribesmen looked fierce. In reality, however, most were shy. They rarely fought among them selves and were aggressive only in protecting their herds and families.
These men had been to E’raumhold while waiting for their brother’s leg to mend. Now they were hack, having successfully sold their bundles of beaver pelts and nordeer hides. And they had an order for stripped logs for the building of a new barn at E’raumhold. Red-cheeked with prosperity, they talked rapid-fire, hands flying with gestures as quick as their words.
When Anya came forth with a tray of apple cakes, they accepted with hesitant pleasure.
Caelan approached them cautiously and took the piece of cake Anya handed to him.
“Have you heard about any raids?” he asked them.
The oldest man of the group glanced up. “Naw,” he said gruffly. “We been to and fro along the river all this moon. No raiders. None since E’ferhold was burned out.”
Caelan and Anya exchanged a glance. The housekeeper looked relieved. Smiling, she gathered her empty tray and headed back into the house.
“No sightings of Thyzarenes anywhere?” Caelan persisted. “I guess that means the army is gone?”
“Um,” the Neika said around a mouthful of cake. “Talk in E’raumhold full of it. Bad, they say. Bad to let army plunder loyal provinces. Will be more war if army does not go.”
Caelan’s ears perked up. Trying not to act too interested, he said, “So the army is still in Trau?”
“Um. Talk be of it. Army camped near Ornselag. Waiting for transport ships. Too many fighters for waiting. Much trouble.”
The Neika exchanged solemn glances, grumbling beneath their mustaches.
“We stay far from towns. No trouble for Neika. Talk say, raiders eager to go. When thaw comes, they take the fire-breathers home for breeding. Have a big festival after thaw. Got to divide spoils. Got to let fire-breathers breed and the raider folk breed too.”
He glanced around, his eyes as untamed as the woods beyond the hold, and brushed cake crumbs from his mustache.
Beva came out, slender and tall, his white healer robes immaculate, his gray eyes cool.
The tribesmen rose to their