The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett

Tibbet’s Brook will fade away just like a hundred other villages! We can’t let that happen!”
    Arlen, seeing his normally placid father seething, wisely said nothing.
    An hour later, Silvy started screaming. They turned to find her trying to stand up right there in the cart, clutching at her chest, her breath coming in loud, horrid gasps. Arlen leapt into the back of the cart, and she gripped him with surprisingly strong hands, coughing thick phlegm onto his shirt. Her bulging, bloodshot eyes stared wildly into his, but there was no recognition in them. Arlen screamed as she thrashed about, holding her as steadily as he could.
    Jeph stopped the cart and together they forced her to lie back down. She thrashed about, screaming in hoarse gasps. And then, like Cholie, she gave a final wrack, and lay still.
    Jeph looked at his wife, and then threw his head back and screamed. Arlen nearly bit through his lip trying to hold back his tears, but in the end he failed. They wept together over the woman.
    When their sobs eased, Arlen looked around, his eyes lifeless. He tried to focus, but the world seemed blurry, as if it wasn’t real.
    “What do we do now?” he asked finally.
    “We turn around,” his father said, and the words cut Arlen like a knife. “We take her home and burn her. We try to go on. There’s still the farm and the animals to care for, and even with Renna and Norine to help us, there’s going to be some hard times ahead.”
    “Renna?” Arlen asked incredulously. “We’re still taking her with us? Even now?”
    “Life goes on, Arlen,” his father said. “You’re almost a man, and a man needs a wife.”
    “Did you arrange one for both of us?” Arlen blurted.
    “What?” Jeph asked.
    “I heard you and Ilain last night!” Arlen screamed. “You’ve got another wife all ready! What do you care about Mam? You’ve already got someone else to take care of your thingie! At least, until she gets killed too, because you’re too scared to help her!”
    Arlen’s father hit him; a hard slap across the face that cracked the morning air. His anger faded instantly, and he reached out to his son. “Arlen, I’m sorry …!” he choked, but the boy pulled away and jumped off the cart.
    “Arlen!” Jeph cried, but the boy ignored him, running as hard as he could for the woods off to the side of the road.

CHAPTER 3
A NIGHT ALONE
319 AR

    ARLEN RAN THROUGH THE WOODS as fast as he could, making sharp, sudden turns, picking his direction at random. He wanted to be sure his father couldn’t track him, but as Jeph’s calls faded, he realized his father wasn’t following at all.
    Why should he bother? he thought. He knows I have to come back before nightfall. Where else could I go?
    Anywhere . The answer came unbidden, but he knew in his heart that it was true.
    He couldn’t go back to the farm and pretend everything was all right. He couldn’t watch Ilain claim his mother’s bed. Even pretty Renna, who kissed so softly, would only be a reminder of what he had lost, and why.
    But where could he go? His father was right about one thing. He couldn’t run forever. He would have to find succor before dark, or the coming night would be his last.
    Going back to Tibbet’s Brook was not an option. Whoever he sought succor from would drag him home by the ear the next day, and he’d be switched for the stunt with nothing to show.
    Sunny Pasture, then. Unless Hog was paying them to carry something, almost no one from Tibbet’s Brook ever went there, unless they were Messengers.
    Coline had said Ragen was heading to Sunny Pasture before returning to the Free Cities. Arlen liked Ragen, the only elder he’d ever met who didn’t talk down to him. The Messenger and Keerin were a day and more ahead of him, and mounted, but if he hurried, perhaps he could catch them in time and beg passage to the Free Cities.
    He still had Coline’s map, strung around his neck. It showedthe road to Sunny Pasture, and the farms along