Page 113 of A Scar in the Bone
I opened my mouth and tried to form words … to speak the name.
I wasn’t sure if any sound emerged from my lips, but it vibrated through me just the same as I slid into darkness.
Stig.
32
TAMSYN
ICAME TO MYSELF SLOWLY, SWIMMING TO THE SURFACE OFawareness, through water that felt thick, viscous as the vapor enveloping the Crags. Except no—I was not in water. Nor did I feel the hug of mist on my skin now. Not here. Whereverherewas.
I lifted a leaden hand to my head as if the dull throb there could be assessed, could be felt and measured. I was in no state, however, to assess anything, and I supposed that was its own assessment.
I was in a bad,badway.
Voices bounced around me, and I tried to pick them out, pluck each word for its own meaning and then line them up together, like beads on a string, into something that made sense.
“She’s coming to,” someone cried.
“Gor, I thought she would be dead from a blow like that.” There were several mutters in response to this. Accord, it sounded like, disapproval even—though the words were not quite distinguishable in my condition.
The world shifted and rearranged around me, jarring and uncomfortable. Something dug into my stomach. I didn’t know what, but it was enough to alert me that I was belly down … and upside down, the blood rushing to my head. I felt sick and pressed my hand to my lips, stif ling the urge to retch. I opened my eyes to a hazy world of snow and … horses. Soldiers on horses.
Me … on a horse. But not sitting upright. I was draped across the beast like a sack of potatoes.
Then suddenly I was not.
I was grabbed by the hair and flung roughly from the horse’s back to land hard on the ground. The air escaped me in a groaned whoosh. I blinked. Looked up at the crowd of faces staring down at me. My gaze zeroed in on the one.
Stig.
I had not dreamed it possible. It had not been some apparition or cruel trick of my mind. He was here. Again. How could I be so cursed? I knew I should be afraid, given the last time I saw him. He broke my body with unimaginable pain—and the way he looked at me with such hostility right now warned me that he was still bent on destroying me.
I inhaled a careful breath and managed to push up onto my elbows, rubbing the back of my head where he had pulled my hair so viciously. “Stig, how nice to see you again.”
“On that point I agree.” His nostrils flared. “You escaped me before, but it won’t be happening again. Alise is not here to save you.”
“How is my sister?” I asked, angling for time, anything to stall him from hurting me as I knew he could. And it wasn’t an empty question. I did want to know about Alise. The last time I had seen her she had been decidedly unwell.
“She is not your sister,” he snapped.
I shrugged as I got to my feet. “You know we were raised as sisters. It’s not so easy for me to shut off emotions and forget about old bonds.” I narrowed my gaze at him. “Unlike you, I am loyal.”
“You know nothing of loyalty, dragon bitch.”
With another shrug, I asked, “What are you doing out here?”
He smiled then, thin and cruel, the line slashing through his neat beard. “Why, looking for you, of course. Did not expect it to be so easy, though. We’ve scoured the Crags countless times. Never expected you to fall into our laps like this. After your last capture, I assumed you’d go to ground. Did you enjoy your whipping so very much? Care for a repeat?”
Some of my bravado slipped at the memory of the piske tearing into me.
“Yes, where have you been?” another soldier demanded. Havard, an officer I recognized from the City and one of Stig’s closest friends. He shook his head as though truly marveling at my sudden appearance.
“With my husband,” I said. “Where else?”
Stig paled around the edges of his beard. “Dryhten?”
I nodded. “And I believe he wants a word with you. He’s not too pleased about your actions.”
