I smile down at her. “That must be nice.”
I’ve traveled across all the land of Ruskhazar, seen so many people that their faces have begun to blur, witnessed so many sights that it all becomes the same. Once I would have scoffed at the narrow view of an individual who has never left their small town, but now I just feel weary. I can never have the experience she described. That sort of familiarity sounds appealing after so many years spent on the road, hopping from one inn to the next and never knowing where I’ll lay my head for the night.
I’ve spent so long away from home that it doesn’t feel like mine anymore.
Sometimes, I feel like a leaf blowing in the wind. I haven’t the control of where I’ll end up, all I know is that I don’t belong with the oak I fell from.
“And you feel safe in Sunder Hollow?” I ask as I move us in a circle.
She rolls her eyes, waving away my words. “Oh, it’s just superstition that makes people think that old graveyard istrouble. No necromancers come here, not with Brom the Bones as our leader, he carries his ancestor’s legacy.”
“You speak of Brom with great admiration.”
“I’ve heard mighty awful things said about Lower Elves, how they see themselves better than the rest of us, but the Bones has never put on airs he didn’t deserve. And while he is aloof sure, I’ve never gotten the impression that he believed himself better than us. Indeed, the girls here, myself included, were all so disappointed he decided to marry that merchant’s daughter from out of town instead of one of us. That disappointment didn’t last long though because then you arrived.” The woman leans forward, resting her head against my chest. I quickly turn her in a spin to move her away.
I glance over in the direction of Brom, but he is no longer watching me, seemingly appeased now that I’m dancing with someone other than his fiancée. Natasya, however, is staring at me with such intensity that it feels as though she is trying to bore her gaze into me.
“So, you don’t approve of his fiancée?” I ask as I bring the woman back around.
She presses her lips together, clearly not relishing my asking about Natasya. “I’m sure she’s a nice enough girl. Heard her father is filthy rich too, a powerful landowner as well as a merchant, but she could have had her pick of any man in Ruskhazar. Why would she come here for Brom? I think she is title hunting. It’s the one thing her father dearest couldn’t provide her with.”
I feel my eyebrows raise. There would be many lords in Reglagrad willing to throw their titles her way just to get a smile from a girl as pretty as that. I should know, before I became a ghost hunter, I would have been the first in that line.
Natasya is beautiful and young lords lack ambition and the purpose I found in my service to the goddess Neltruna. Shecould have had her pick, easily. Especially if she is as rich as this woman claims, many of the older nobility are not as wealthy as they would like, especially with the businessmen with the newer money that keep popping up.
She didn’t need to come all the way out to Sunder Hollow if all she wanted was a title.
No, this woman is right to ask it… why Brom?
Chapter Eight
Natasya
Despite its exciting start, the rest of the evening is quite dull. Brom, in his jealousy won’t let me leave his side, so I have to stand here and listen to him discuss how pumpkin and corn harvest is going and arranging trade avenues with the farmers who grow crops for him.
All the while, I am forced to watch the women of Sunder Hollow fawn over Evengi like they are a murder of crows and he’s a shiny new trinket they all want to claim for their own.
I narrow my eyes as one of the women, a pretty golden-haired lass who once told me that she and Brom were the closest of friends even though he has never mentioned her, caresses Evengi’s arm.
“How in Skyhold has he managed to charm all of Sunder Hollow?” Brom asks, and I startle realizing that he has ended his conversation and has now followed my gaze. “He isn’t even that handsome, and I certainly have yet to hear him say a single intelligent thing.”
I reach out, patting his arm. “No one is saying that he should take your place as the lord of this village.”
He harrumphs. Brom has many qualities, but modesty isn’t one of them. He would never be able to share his position as the greatest and best and most admired of Sunder Hollow.
He steps forward, resting his foot on a bale of hay. “Gather close, my good people. I have a ghost story to tell,” Brom says, commanding the people of Sunder Hollow just as I’ve seen him do on many occasions. They all seem to hang off his words.
I take this as an opportunity to finally break away from his side. I move through the crowd that gathers around Brom ready to hear the tale. I sidle up next to Evengi, bumping the pretty little golden-haired girl with my hip. “You simply must hear Brom spin a tale, he has such a way about it.”
Evengi glances at me raising his eyebrow. “Oh, really?”
“Yes, even though most stories he tells are already folk tales that everyone here knows, he tells it in such a way that it makes it seem almost new.”
“That’s quite a talent,” Evengi says. “It’s a pity that being a bard doesn’t pay as well as being a lord. Your fiancé may have missed his calling.”
I titter a small laugh as the golden-haired girl throws me a dark look, and Brom begins his story.
“As we all know, many years ago there was a battle. The battle was waged in Sunder Hollow, but it was for the future of all Ruskhazar.”
