Soulvine 03 A Bright and Terrible Sword by Anna Kendall Page B

horses had been labouring all day as they climbed uphill and now they stood, panting and covered with foam, as men rubbed them down and watered them. Leafy trees had given way almost entirely to tall pines and then to more scrubby ones, and I knew we were nearing the end of the Unclaimed Lands and the beginning of Soulvine Moor.
    Straik and his men, including Leo, were in a jubilant mood. They built cooking fires. They bathed naked in a frigid mountain stream, shouting and laughing, men who acted as if victory were close at hand. In contrast, Charlotte and I barely spoke nor moved, avoiding each other’s eyes. Charlotte sat by the fire with her head down and her hands clasped tightly together. She seemed frozen with fear.
    Not so Rawnie. She concentrated on Leo, watching him so intently that my gaze, too, was drawn to him, and I saw things I had not noticed before. His swagger and self-importance I had set down to an actor’s confidence, but now I saw that some of the other men – not all, but some – deferred to him as well. They listened as he talked and laughed. The talk was light: of women, of inns in The Queendom, of ale and wine. But Leo was listened to, and when he interruptedanother’s speech, the other man instantly fell quiet.
    I remembered what Leo had said to Straik: ‘ I would be in command here but for your– ’ Your what?
    Straik said, ‘Leo, give us a song.’
    ‘Perhaps later.’
    ‘Now,’ Straik said, and it was an unmistakable order.
    The two men locked gazes, and it was Leo who looked away first. Sulkily, all laughter gone, he unwrapped his instrument. His head bent over it as he sang, so that I could not see his face.
    Although you to the hills do flee,
    My love you can’t escape.
    Your heart, my sweet, belongs to me
    Though you may change its shape.
    Never, never will I cease
    To follow where you go,
    And ever, ever will I be
    The hound upon your doe.
    Do what you will and what you can,
    Employ the arts you know—
    Ever, ever will I be
    The hound upon your doe.
    His voice was as clear and strong as when he’d sung the song to me, and the words as chilling. But when Leo raised his head, it was not me he stared at but Straik, and the look was a challenge.
    Straik laughed. ‘A pleasant enough tune. If we fail in this war, you can always earn your living singing for pennies in alehouses.’
    Leo flushed. ‘I’m no alehouse singer. I was an actor.’
    ‘Oh, I’m sure you were very fine,’ Straik said jeeringly.‘For now, you’d best escort Mistress Rawnie to the woods again. She is squirming.’
    Anger blazed in Leo’s eyes. One of the older men frowned, clearly uneasy with Straik’s bullying, although he said nothing. I had the sense that the Brotherhood had a rigid order of succession of leadership but that not everyone was happy about it. Could I somehow use that to my advantage? I did not see how.
    Rawnie looked uncharacteristically frightened, although only for a moment. She had indeed been squirming in her place around the fire, but not for the reason Straik suggested. Rawnie had been trying to get something out of the pack on the ground beside her, or possibly put something back in, without being noticed. Now all eyes turned to her.
    Charlotte put out her hand, as if to give her daughter a gentle shove, and let it fall atop whatever the thing was. ‘Go with Leo, dearest. You will be more comfortable.’
    They left, Leo flushed with anger, Rawnie unembarrassed but looking thoughtful. No one watched Charlotte, except me. A pink twitching tail suddenly poked from between her fingers. I glimpsed the mouse as she swept it back into Rawnie’s pack and drew the drawstring tight.
    Charlotte had seen my gaze. She sat cross-legged on the ground, and now she bent her head forward as if to tighten the laces on her boot. With her face thus hidden she said so softly that Kelif could not hear, ‘Don’t tell. Her pet of two months now. The only way I can compel her obedience.’
    So that