She blinked her owlish eyes and shook her head, the blue feather-like hair at her neck puffing up. “I could not find him.”
Bezaliel heaved out a sigh. “Who did you tell?”
“My lady’s sister.” She turned to Tessa.
“Murgha?” Tessa asked excitedly. “How is she?”
Hallizel hopped up the blanket to perch on Saralyn’s middle, making a happy purring sound. “Yes, my lady,” she told Tessa. “Your sister is very well. So pretty and kind. She fed me and gave me a soft pillowy bed to sleep in before I left.”
Bezaliel growled, annoyed. “Hallizel.Why did you not tell the prince or his second as I’d asked?”
“Because Murgha said she did not think they would return anytime soon. That is what she said,” Hallizel trilled, then turned her attention to Saralyn who was no longer nursing, but sleeping soundly. “The prince and his priests are hunting the grimlocks.”
“Not very well,” Leifkyn snorted. “If they were, they’d be right here in Wyken Woods where we killed them all.”
“Perhaps,” Redvyr added soberly, “we did not kill them all. There could be more than one horde. There could be far more.”
Silence fell within the tent, the fire crackling. After a while, our thoughts buzzing but no one saying a word, Redvyr took my hand and pulled me to stand with him.
“There is nothing more to be done now. We have burned the carcasses in the woods. Shearah wants to try and save the old tree by giving it special nutrients to counteract the black magick spell that left a hole in its trunk. Dayn, you will lead a party with her tomorrow so that she may try.”
Leifkyn grinned and nudged him with his elbow. Dayn shoved him back and scowled.
“Other than that, we will keep watch at the border of the camp that leads to Wyken Woods. Be vigilant inallpatrols.” He looked at Bezaliel. “See that the guards understand that the danger may not be gone.”
“Of course, my lord.” Bezaliel stood as did the others, following us to leave.
I shared a smile with Tessa. “Goodnight.”
“Come and visit tomorrow,” she told me.
“I will,” I promised.
Tessa hadn’t wanted to leave the tent, keeping Saralyn in her arms except to allow Bezaliel to hold her. She’d been relieving herself in a chamber pot in the tent, terrified that if she left even for an instant, her precious babe would be snatched from her arms.
Tessa was the clan healer, but Lorelyn and Shearah had stepped in and taken over. But Tessa’s injury wasn’t a wound to be cured with a salve or a suture. It would take time, compassion and love to heal this heart-wound.
As we stepped out, I walked toward the open area beyond their tent which was close to mine and Redvyr’s on the southern edge of the camp. The others waved and ventured off in different directions.
I faced the setting sun and the hills beyond Ghasta Vale. The fading light cast a pink and golden blanket over the snow and rolling landscape in the distance. Redvyr stepped up behind me and wrapped both arms across my upper chest, pulling me against him.
“What troubles you?”
I clasped his thick wrists, wanting to hold onto him. Needing to feel his hold on me, his strength at my back. There was something terrible going on in the world, an intangible menace that was growing and spreading. My heart felt bruised and hollow from what we’d seen. What we’d survived. And it wasn’t over.
“Tessa,” was all I answered, watching the fading light paint the far-off hills, wishing the winter was over so that we could return to Vanglosa.
“Give her time,” he murmured, squeezing me close.
“How long before your men return from the Bolgar clan?”
He had sent Haslek with two others to the Bolgar clan’s winter encampment to warn them of the grimlocks. Though wed hoped we had encountered and killed the only horde, Selestos had escaped. And there was no guarantee that there weren’t more of these golems roaming the wilds of Northgall.
Redvyr had instructed the clan leader of Bolgar, which was no longer his grandfather who had died a few summers earlier, to send word to the next clan. The new leader was a younger beast fae named Behrvyne. Redvyr had told me that there was a chain of communication between the clans in times of crisis. The other clans would be informed quickly to be on guard for the grimlocks.
“I’d say tomorrow or the next day.”
“Will we break camp sooner and return home?”
