“She is weak from slaughtering eight men to save me at Rowton.”
“Eight and she falters? Glidda’s granddaughter had taken that many before reaching her menarche.”
“She burned down a wall.”
A snort. “And now she can barely walk. She’d diecrossing the threshold to bring a child into this world.”
“You are not being fair. You know they are raised differently.”
“You know this!” she bared her teeth. “And now you want an outsider you barely know to bear you daughters and sons? You want children with some wispy stranger who can’t even speak your people’s tongue?”
“Father learned.”
“That is not the same and you know it. The mother tongue matters.”
“I could teach them.”
“You would not have to teach them if you didn’t bring something with no strength into our midst!”
“She has strength.” His voice was raw. “Rowena is a wielder of power.”
Murmurs rippled outwards, pieces that I could and could not understand.“Wielder—" “The fae lines—" “The cursed bloods…”
Drazha’s eyes went flat, angry. “So she's ensorcelled you.”
“You raised me. You know me. I have not been ensorcelled.”
“Why would they give up their sorceress, if not to send danger into our midst?”
“They didn't know. Her powers awakened on the journey.”
“And you believe this.”
“Yes. I do.”
“You areblinded.” She spat it.
Khal’s grip tightened on my wrist. “She saved my life two times. She killed her kind to preserve my life.”
“Did she also preserve herself? Did she use this trust she bought with tricks to be led back to our home?”
“She nearly died.”
“But she lives.”
“Yes,” he said. “Mywifelives.”
“Yourwife.” Her lip curled. She took a step back, toward those warriors, toward the band that looked at us with disappointment and hate. “By what authority?”
And now there was a growl in Khal's voice. “I married her.”
“Where? By what rite?”
His teeth ground together. “In her father's house, at Belnor.”
Her eyes were so cold. “You are not married.”
He stepped forward, and a tall orc put a warning hand on his shoulder. “Mother,” he ground out. “You know this is wrong. Youknowwhy I used their rite, so they could not deal treacherously with our people?—"
