Thirty-one – 05

They’d lit torches and stuck them into the snow. Lanterns hung from poles strapped into lance-cups, swaying in the breeze and with the nervous and agitated shifting of horses. Men and women in cloaks capes stood near, some still astride their mounts, others standing in the snow with my husband and friends. Thom and the others had brought out some bottles of alcohol, whiskey and bourbon and god knows what else gleaming amber in the flickering light. They were sharing it around with the riders who’d dismounted with at least one bottle making the rounds among the men and women still on horseback.

It was a tall man in a black cloak who saw Leinth and I first, his eyes growing wide. “Mon Dieu!” he sputtered, passing a bottle of bourbon into the chest of one of his companions. “The Warrior Queen and belle déesse de mon general!”

Beside me, Leinth sucked in a slow, deep breath. “They can see her soul, Marin,” she whispered. “They see the Silver General, Mistress of the Imbolg. They see her alive in you. She’s near the surface.”

“I know,” I muttered, stomach twisting uncomfortably. It seemed that was one past life that bled into my present one more often than any of us would have thought or believed. Maybe it wasn’t so bad.

Then again, maybe it is.

My fingers tightened around Leinth’s hand and she took another deep breath.

Thom saw us half a second later.

“Mar, I didn’t think you were up. Leinth, I thought you were watching the gate.”

“Your wife decided it would be best to join you out here.” She glanced toward the man who’d seen us. “What did you say before?”

“About you?” His accent was French, timeworn but still recognizable. “You are our general’s lady, the Huntmaster’s goddess.”

She looked at me for a moment before her eyes hardened and her gaze darted toward Thordin. “Where is he?” she snapped.

“Leinth, I—”

“Shut up unless you’re going to tell me the truth,” she snarled, shaking free of my hand and rounding on Sif and J.T. “Which way?”

Sif wordlessly pointed toward the ravine and that was all it took. Leinth took off in that direction at a dead run.

I looked at my husband and said, “Something tells me you have a lot of explaining to do.”

At least he had the grace to look guilty about it.

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