Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

A fortnight later, we were near the midwinter thaw. Fenling and I curled up in her room, next to the fireplace. Bran had been busy, working with Borea's witches. I wasn't sure what they were doing, but we were all ready to jump when given the word. Meanwhile, we worked with the hunters, bringing back game to help pay for our keep, and took on jobs in the castle when the weather was bad. Fenling and I were mending clothes, tankards of spiced apple cider at hand.

"Do you think Karehl will accept the challenge?" I asked. I didn't know much of the plan, but I knew that it involved challenging the prince to a duel or something like that.

"I don't know, but I imagine with that he has to accept Bran's challenge. He can't show cowardice or the people will call for him to step down. He's trying to grab as much power as he can, but if he's seen as a coward, the people won't put their trust in him and he'll always feel like he has a target on him. Once he gets here, it's up to us." She paused, giving me a long look. "What's wrong? You look perturbed."

"I'm not sure how to phrase this, but…are we setting a trap? Will Bran assassinate him when he gets here? I'm not at all sure what this ‘challenge' entails, but regardless of what he's done, outright murder…" If we challenged him and he accepted, killing him outright when he showed up felt wrong to me. He was a stupid, dangerous man, but I wasn't brought up the way Bran and Fenling had been.

"He's murdered too many innocents over the years. But to ease your mind, no—that's not what the challenge is for. It's an actual tradition among our people that's seldom invoked, but it has a long history. Do you know what will happen when he arrives?"

I shook my head. "No."

"Bran sent a challenge to Karehl. It's called a blood hunt. The winner lives and takes the crown. Only blood relatives in line for the throne can put forth this challenge and they have to have been born within four places from the throne. Also, there can't be anyone between them and the crown. I, for example, can't challenge Karehl, because Bran stands between us."

"So, we aren't going to lie in wait and assassinate him?" The thought that Bran would offer a fair fight settled with me better, although the thought that he might not come out victorious made me uneasy. Assassination would guarantee that he wouldn't be hurt, but it oddly made me feel better to know that he wasn't stooping to a level that Karehl would embrace.

"No, but blood hunts can be bloody. It's fair, but more lives are on the line."

"Is it one-on-one? Arena style?"

Fenling shook her head. "No, it's five-on-five. Bran and four of his best against Karehl with four of his best. It can last from less than a day to a week or more. I'll stand with Bran, and Quen and San. We need a good bowman, though." She hesitated, then said, "We won't ask you to risk your life, but you're the best archer among the Lorani."

I hesitated. "What's involved in a blood hunt? Do you think I'd really be an asset?"

She sighed. "Yes, you would. A blood hunt…a space is selected and secured. We enter at different areas and we'll be hunting each other. Borea's people are setting it up now. The hunt ends when Bran or Karehl is dead—then everyone sets down their weapons and it's over."

I thought about it. I belonged to the Lorani, now, and my allegiance was with Bran and my new family. "I'm in," I said. "If you need me, I volunteer." And with that, I returned to my stitching, focusing on the needlework to take my mind off what we were facing.

Three days later, we gathered in a meeting room. Borea sat at the head of the table, her head witch Karina at her side, and one of her advisors at her left. We gathered around the large oval slab of marble, waiting for her permission to sit. All of the Lorani—all seventeen that had escaped with Bran and Fenling—were with us.

Borea looked around, then motioned for us to sit.

I accepted a mug of tea from one of the servants. Fenling, who sat next to me, held out a pastry and I took it, the smell of cinnamon making me salivate.

As the meeting started, Borea cleared her throat. "We've made progress. Karina has information for you. I advise you to listen well." She motioned to Karina. "Please, if you will, the floor is yours."

Karina, a tall woman with pale golden hair that flowed down to her knees, stood. Her skin was milk white, and her eyes, the frostiest blue I had ever seen. She looked like an incarnation of winter, and her energy carried that same cool demeanor.

"Thank you for coming," she said, looking around the room. "As you know, Queen Borea instructed me to enchant a section of the forest for your blood hunt. I will do so, and when it's ready, nothing will interrupt until you're done."

"Do we know if my brother is coming?" Bran asked.

Karina turned to him. "I sent my messengers through the lands, southward to the castle. My messengers reached Eleago and delivered Bran's challenge to the throne. Prince Karehl responded. He'll be here within a fortnight. The forest will be ready. You have until then to prepare."

"How will we know when he gets here?" I asked.

"Once he passes the Eiralpine Line, I will know," Karina said. "When he passes through Fenkar's Horns, I'll know. I will track him until he arrives at the city borders."

Bran leaned forward, looking at me. "Fenling and I will also know. There's a bond within Pack and blood-family. We'll sense his presence when he draws close."

I worried my lip. I'd known about the Pack-connection a little, but not how deep it ran.

"When he reaches the city, we will welcome him in," Borea said. "You'll be kept apart until the hunt begins. While I hope you win, Bran, I won't interfere to change the odds. This is not my fight—we don't have an official alliance, and Karehl resists the offer to form a connection. So we'll give you the venue and make certain the fight is fair, and then we step back and it's all left in the hands of the gods."

"So, he's on the way?" Bran asked.

"Yes. He rides this way even now. If he brings more men than the four he chooses for the hunt companions, the others will be secured so they don't interfere. As will the rest of your entourage." Borea leaned back in her chair, staring at Bran with an impassive look. Although she seemed determined to maintain a neutral position, I trusted her.

Bran hesitated, then said, "Queen Borea, I thank you. It will be a fair fight. I don't want to win any other way. Either he will die, or I will."

I shivered as a goose walked over my grave. "Bran…"

He seemed to understand what I was thinking.

"I can't just assassinate him," Bran said, looking at me. "Even though my brother would willingly stab me in the back, I cannot. And that's why I must win. Eleago and our people need me." Bran locked my gaze. The look in his eyes told me everything—he was an honorable man, and he wouldn't stoop to his brother's level.

"So, he's accepted the challenge?" Fenling asked.

"Yes," Borea said. "He's accepted. Until you enter the forest, he'll be forced to stick to the rules. Once the challenge begins, there's nothing I can do to prevent either side from deceit, but when both sides go in, you'll be searched and anything forbidden will be taken away. It will be as fair of a venue as I can offer."

"Then all that's left to do is to wait…and practice," Bran said. "Do you mind if we make use of your training stations in the guardhouse?"

Borea nodded. "You're welcome to use whatever you need. And Bran, my hope is that you come out victorious. I cannot strike an alliance with your brother, but I can—and will—enter into an alliance with you. If you lose, I'll insist on a proper ceremony to honor you, and I'll take care of your companions. And your brother and his men will be sent packing, ordered never to return."

After the meeting, Fenling, Bran, and I took a walk outside. A light flutter of snow fell, and I glanced into the silvery sky, letting the flakes fall on my face. The realization that, in little more than a fortnight's time, we all might be dead sobered me.

"What's Karina going to do to the forest?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. I know that she's connected to the soil and ground and trees, and she can talk to the earth spirits. She can even calm a rock elemental. She'll also use that magic to make sure the winter thaw holds until Karehl makes it through the pass." Bran took my hand. "Fenling said you've volunteered to be one of my five."

"I'm part of the Lorani now. I'm your betrothed. I will ride at your side, regardless of the danger. As Fenling said, I'm the best bowman you've got." I turned to him. "We live together, or we die together. And I'll be damned if we die."

Bran pulled me in for a kiss. "I knew that we were meant to be together." He held me for a long time as distant thunder rumbled. The storm was on the horizon.

The next few weeks we trained, and trained hard. Every day, we put in hours of practice, with sword and dagger, with bow and hand-to-hand combat. I tried to remember that I had killed a man, one who had been out to hurt me, and that if I did it once, I could do it again when I most needed to.

On the last day before Karehl was due, Bran, Fenling, and I were heading back to our rooms from a training session. Fenling draped her arm around my shoulders.

"Are you nervous? I can feel Karehl nearing the city. The challenge starts the day after."

"I'm nervous, I admit it," I said. "My life the past months has been so different from my life back in Renmark. I feel shellshocked. I wasn't unused to danger—to be a hunter means to put your life in jeopardy every time you go out. Elk can trample you, a bear can come out of nowhere to wipe out your existence. Wolves—not shifters, but wolves—might be hiding behind the trees, watching." I gazed into her eyes. "I think you're asking if I'm afraid of dying. That will always be a ‘yes' but…it's part of the cycle, and I've done nothing to regret when it's my time." I paused, then said, "I know it sounds odd, given you've grown up trained to fight, but what about you?"

Fenling thought for a moment. "My fear isn't for my own life, though I'm always nervous before a mission. My fear is for Eleago. My fear is that Karehl will find some way to cheat, that he'll kill Bran, and doom Eleago."

"We'll make it through this," Bran said. "Karehl's impulsive. He won't be thinking straight."

"I know his ego is his biggest downfall, but don't forget, Karehl intends on forcing everyone under his rule into slavery. Look what he's done to the Council," Fenling said.

"Council? What council?" I asked

Fenling shrugged. "Eleago…the People of the Wolves, have a council of elder advisors. Even the King was subject to their decree, and if they decide that the king's abusing his power, they can censure or depose him."

"And what did Karehl do to the Council?"

Bran gave me a somber look. "He's dissolved them. It hasn't gotten out yet, but the jailor sent word to me that Karehl threatened every member of the council with expulsion from Eleago if they didn't step down. They refused and they've been cast into the wilds."

I frowned. "At least they're free."

"No, it doesn't work like that," Fenling said. "When you're expelled from the Pack, you're sent into the Bramble Fel Forest without any supplies, without any horse, without weapons. Even for a wolf shifter, that's often a death sentence. The elders on the Council are past their prime, physically, so they'll be lucky to live, given it's winter."

"Can they go to another village?"

"If they're lucky enough to make it, but they may not find sanctuary, even then. If the villages answer to Eleago, they won't be allowed to shelter the Council members. If they answer to another leader, then it depends on who's running the Pack in question." Bran sighed. "Either way, since Karehl's dissolved the Council, he answers to no one." A grim look passed over his face. "I tried to order Fenling to set this one out. If I'm defeated, she can challenge him after I'm dead."

"Don't be an idiot," Fenling said. "You need the best of the best with you. You know you stand a better chance if I have your back."

"Well then," Bran said, "I'm lucky to have the best crew I could hope for. I just hope that my brother isn't as fortunate."