“
So, what is it, woman?” She raised one delicate eyebrow and he felt as if she’d dug down into his very soul.
“I have word of Annwyl of the Dark Plains.”
Brastias stood quickly, grasping the woman by the arms; she stood almost as tall as he. “Tell me, witch. Where is she?”
She stared at him. “Remove your hands, or I’ll make sure you don’t have any.” Brastias took a deep breath and released her. “She is safe and alive. But she is healing. She won’t be back for another fortnight.”
Brastias heaved a sigh of overwhelming relief as he sat heavily in his chair. “Thank the gods. I thought we’d lost her.”
“You almost had. But the girl must have the gods smiling down on her.”
“Can I see her?”
The woman watched him carefully. “No. But I will get any messages you may have to her.”
“Give me a few moments, I need to write something.” He grabbed quill and paper and wrote Annwyl a brief-but-to-the-point letter. He folded it, affixed his seal, and handed it to the witch. “Give her this and my love.”
“You are her man then?” she asked cautiously.
Brastias laughed. He did like his head securely attached to his shoulders. Becoming Annwyl’s man risked that.
“Annwyl has no man because there is no man worthy of her. That includes me. So she has become the sister I lost many years ago in Lorcan’s dungeons.”
The woman nodded and walked back to the entrance of Brastias’s tent. She stopped before leaving. “She asks,” the witch spoke softly without turning around, “that you not lose hope.”
“As long as she lives, we won’t.”
Then she was gone. Brastias closed his eyes in relief. Annwyl wasn’t dead. His hope returned.
”
”
G.A. Aiken (Dragon Actually (Dragon Kin, #1))