One of Harik’s thugs slowed his horse and stood high in his stirrups, squinting into the distance. “Someone’s coming,” he said. They all stopped, and we turned to watch the rider racing across the barren ground, leaving a long trail of dust behind him. I shook my head, confused. I knew who it was. What was he doing?
The brute sat back in his saddle. “Only one of the Fergus clan.”
Harik slid from his saddle and pulled me down with him, announcing we would make a short stop while we waited for Fergus’s messenger. He shoved a skin of water toward me, but I refused it. “You will drink sooner or later. And thank me for it.”
“I will never thank you for anything.”
His brows pulled down sharply as if his patience was spent, his chest puffing up, and I thought he might strike me, but then he paused, studying me, and something else passed through his eyes. He blinked and looked away. I wondered if he had seen my mother when he looked at me. Ama said I looked just like her except for my hair.
The wild thud of hooves descended on us, and Jafir pulled back, bringing his horse to a quick stop. He slid from his saddle but avoided my gaze, looking only at Harik. He wasted no time letting him know the purpose of his visit. “I’ve come to trade. I have a bag of grain for her.”
Harik stared at him, then finally laughed, realizing Jafir was serious. “A single bag of grain? For her? She’s far more valuable than that.”
Jafir’s eyes turned molten. “It is all I have. You will take it.”
There was a drawn moment of held breath and then low snickers from Harik’s men. Their hands went to the swords, eager to draw them from their scabbards. I stared at Jafir, his feet planted as if nothing could move him. All he carried at his side was a dagger. Had he gone mad?
I would cut out my own heart before I would let any harm come to you.
“Do you hear yourself, boy?” Harik asked. “Are you still drunk from last night?”
“I am not drunk. I am waiting.”
“And if I don’t make the trade, then what?”
Jafir’s hand went to the dagger at his side, resting but threatening. “You are a man of reason. And you know value. You know what is best. You will take the grain.”
Harik rubbed his chin as if amused by Jafir’s audacity, and his other hand curled around the hilt of his sheathed sword. I inhaled, choking back a moan. Harik’s gaze shot to me. I couldn’t breathe. He studied me, his expression impossible to read, and then he finally grunted, shaking his head. “So that’s how it is.”
He looked back at Jafir, deep lines furrowing across his brow in a scowl. “You are a fool, boy. I am getting the better deal. She is trouble, this one. Have it your way! Take her!” He shoved me toward Jafir, and I stumbled, almost falling at his feet. I got my footing and looked back at Harik uncertainly, wondering if it was a trick.
His eyes lingered on me, and then he abruptly turned to Lasky and yelled, “Take the grain from his horse, and let’s go!”
I watched them ride off, galloping toward the bridge.
“Get on my horse, Morrighan,” Jafir ordered from behind me. “We don’t have a lot of time.”
I whirled, staring at him, his eyes still full of fire. Fury reignited in me, and my hand flew toward his face. His hand shot up, catching my wrist in midair. Both of our arms strained against each other, our gazes locked, and then he pulled me to him, his arms holding me tight, my shoulders shaking, his chest wet with my tears.
“I had no choice, Morrighan,” he whispered. “I had to ride with them. Steffan told them about you. I tried to send them off course, but they caught the scent of the roasting boar.”
He stiffened and pushed me away. His shoulders pulled back. He looked different
to me. Distant. Older. There were lines at his eyes that hadn’t been there yesterday. “I’ll take you back to your camp now.”
“So you’re not buying me with my own sack of grain?”
His nostrils flared. “You’ll never have to see me after today. I knew you’d be happy to hear that. I’m leaving with my clan. They still need me.”
I stared at him, a new ache worming through me. My mouth opened, but no words would form. “You’re leaving,” I finally repeated.
“This can’t be all there is,” he said. “It is no way to live. There has to be a better place than this. Somewhere. A place where the children in my clan can have a different life than the one I’ve had.” His jaw clenched, and he added with a harder edge, “A place where someone can fall in love with whoever they want and not be shamed by it.”
He grabbed his horse’s lead and motioned for me to get up.
All I wanted was to get back to the tribe, but I hesitated, feeling a strange nudge, his last words settling in some forgotten hollow. Somewhere. He motioned again, impatient, and I slid my foot into the stirrup. He got up behind me, reaching around to hold the reins as he had so many times, but now his arms felt rigid against my skin, as if he was trying to keep from touching me. We rode in awkward silence. I thought about the grain he had traded me for. My grain. Not his. I had a right to be angry. I owed him nothing.
But he hadn’t betrayed me.