by Kyra Halland
For the Wildings
Daughter of the Wildings Book 6
by Kyra Halland
Copyright 2016 Kyra Halland
All Rights Reserved
Smashwords Edition
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Silas and Lainie recover from their ordeal in Granadaia, while knowing that an evil is at work that threatens the freedom of the Wildings and that this peaceful interval is no more than a brief illusion. Then the unthinkable happens, the battle begins, and Lainie, the daughter of the Wildings, and Silas, the man she has claimed for herself and for the land, have to draw on all their power and strength - and on the life of the land itself - to protect their beloved Wildings and the people who make it their home.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
Preview of Heir of Tanaris
More by Kyra Halland
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Chapter 1
BENTWOOD GULCH HADN’T changed much since last winter. Compared to the great city of Sandostra, it wasn’t much, a handful of dirt streets lined with plain buildings of wood and brick. But to Lainie, after the last few months, it looked like the most beautiful place in the world. She spotted the office of Miss Tennir, the lady lawyer, right up the street where she remembered it. They were almost there, she told herself. Just a little further, and then, with the blessing of the Provider and the kindness of Brin Coltor – if there was any kindness to be had there – they could rest.
Ever since leaving the Gap, she had somehow kept on pushing forward step by step, moment by moment, long past the end of her endurance, and Silas was in even worse shape. Their food supplies had run low and they had been on starvation rations for days now. And even though the weather in the lowlands wasn’t quite cold enough yet for snow, it was still chilly and rainy enough to make their miserable circumstances even more miserable. The horses were also badly in need of rest and care.
But there hadn’t been any choice but to keep moving. With a bounty of twelve hundred gildings – or maybe even more by now – on Silas’s head, and gods only knew how much on Lainie’s, every mage hunter in the Wildings was almost certainly on the lookout for them. And Lainie had no reason to believe that most Plains felt any friendlier towards wizards than they ever had. With their names widely known after the drive and her and Silas unable to defend themselves, she hadn’t dared spend the night or buy provisions in any of the towns they had passed by, or even sleep more than a few hours at a time.
Along the way, she had buried Silas’s Hidden Council message box. Though she couldn’t ask him what to do about it, she was sure he would want to be rid of the reminder of the sickening betrayal of the group that had once shared his ideals. And though, as far as she knew, the location of that message box couldn’t be traced, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Now, at the end of the long trail, the prospect of throwing herself on the mercy of Mr. Coltor made Lainie’s stomach clench with nerves and her mouth grow dry. The richest man in the Wildings, stern and arrogant, with a hard temper, he wasn’t the kind of man who it was easy to ask a favor of. But cold, hungry, exhausted, and drained as she was, with Silas’s mind shattered and him getting sicker and weaker all the time, in danger from mage hunters on the one hand and wizard-hating Plain folk on the other, Lainie didn’t know where else to turn. If Mr. Coltor really thought as highly of her and Silas as his foreman Nikalsdon had said, then maybe, just maybe, she could hope that he would be willing to help them out.
Lainie tied the horses to a hitching post outside Miss Tennir’s office, then took Silas by the hand to lead him inside. His pain-hunched shuffle hadn’t gotten any better; if anything, it was worse. On their run from Sandostra, she hadn’t had the time or the strength to inspect the damage to his mind, body, and power and try to figure out what to do about it. All she knew was that he had been shot at least four times by the hunters who had captured him, the wounds had likely never been treated properly, he’d been beaten by Elspetya Lorentius’s Hidden Council flunkies, and Madam Lorentius had as good as Stripped him, though she claimed that what she had done to his power could be reversed.
Lainie kept telling herself that if he hadn’t died from all that by now, he wasn’t going to. But more and more, she was having trouble making herself believe it.
Inside the building, she knocked on the door of Miss Tennir’s office. The lady lawyer opened it immediately; she must have seen them out her window. “Mr. and Mrs. Vendine!” she exclaimed as she let them in. “What brings you here?” She looked from Lainie to Silas, then back to Lainie. “You appear to be in need of help.”
Miss Tennir was both the most beautiful and the most educated lady Lainie had ever met, but she was also kind and sensible, and Lainie felt much more at ease approaching her first than going directly to Mr. Coltor. “Silas is hurt, ma’am, and he’s awful sick, and we need a place to lay low while he gets better. I was wondering if Mr. Coltor has a place where we could stay for a bit.”
Silas had hunched up his shoulders, closing in on himself, and was rocking slightly back and forth and making a little keening noise in his throat, the way he did when he was trying to cope with something unfamiliar. Miss Tennir glanced at him again, concern filling her pretty face. “Of course. Brin’s out at the ranch today, but I’m sure he’d be glad to put you up for as long as necessary.”
Tears of relief stung Lainie’s eyes. The single-minded desperation that had given her the strength to keep going gave way, and so did her legs, nearly. She leaned against the desk for support. “Thank you, ma’am. I’m sorry to be any trouble.”
“It’s no trouble at all. I’m not sure if Brin is at the house or out on the range, but if he isn’t home, you can speak to the housekeeper, Mrs. Murrison. Even better, I’ll write a note for you to give her.”
The lady lawyer sat down at her big desk and took out a piece of paper and a pen. A broad gold band set with three sparkly white stones that could only be diamonds shone on her wedding finger. “You’re married now, ma’am?” Lainie asked.
Miss Tennir smiled at the ring, extending her hand to admire it better. “Yes, we’re married. Not long after you concluded your business with Brin, he received word from Granadaia that his wife had petitioned to dissolve their marriage on the grounds of lack of financial suppor
t. I think desertion would have been better grounds, since he had notified her of his decision to remain in the Wildings permanently and she has plenty of her own money, but it seems she cared more about his money than about his companionship. We got married immediately after the petition was granted.”
Despite how sick and worn out she felt, Lainie couldn’t help but smile at the news. A year ago, she and Silas had had the unpleasant job of telling Miss Tennir that her previous fiancé, Oferdon, was actually a married mage hunter and demonsalts addict who had most likely died – had died, Lainie now knew – in the Bluecloud Mountains after trying to kill Silas. But before Oferdon, and before she became a lawyer, Miss Tennir had been Mr. Coltor’s mistress. She had tired of that life, so Mr. Coltor had sent her to study law in Granadaia. They had gone on leading their separate lives, though Miss Tennir was Mr. Coltor’s lawyer, but Lainie suspected that they had been in love with each other all along. “I’m surely glad to hear that, Miss – Mrs. Coltor.”
The lady lawyer smiled again. “Thank you.” She handed Lainie the note she had written. “Show this to Mrs. Murrison if Brin isn’t around. I’m sure you’ll be most welcome.”
“Thank you, ma’am. I’m very much obliged.” Lainie blinked back more tears. She couldn’t let herself fall apart, not yet, and not in front of Silas. He got so upset at any sign of tears from her.
“You did a great thing for Mr. Coltor by finding Shayla. And you did a great thing for me, as well. I’m glad to be able to help you in return.”
“We felt awful bad, having to tell you about Mr. Oferdon.”
A brief shadow of sadness passed over Mrs. Coltor’s face. “It did hurt, at first. But then I realized that by telling me about his true nature, you had done me a great favor. Because of that, when Brin was free to ask me to marry him, I was ready to say yes. He would have waited as long as I needed him to, of course, but I was glad not to lose any more time. Especially now, with a little one on the way; I’m not getting any younger.”
A pang struck Lainie’s heart at the reminder that she would never have her own little one. She pushed it away and made herself smile. “That’s fine news. I’m real happy for you both. And what about Shayla? Does Mr. Coltor ever get to see her?”
“Yes. In fact, the agreement with her mother is that Shayla will spend the summer in the mountains and the rest of the year with us. Aleet married a man from that clan she was with – Mikat, I believe the name is – and she was expecting a baby to be born early this past fall. From what Shayla told us when she returned to the ranch at the end of the summer, it sounded like Aleet and Mikat were too wrapped up in each other and the coming baby to have much attention to spare for her, poor child. She’s out at the ranch now; you’ll see her there.”
That was more good news. Lainie hoped some of this good fortune would spill over to her and Silas. Until she knew for sure that her grandmother and the other Hidden Council renegades had been arrested and she wouldn’t have to fight them again, and as long as the Mage Council was still after her and Silas, she couldn’t rest easy.
Lainie turned her mind away from her fears. At the moment, she had no way of finding out what was going on in Granadaia, and she had enough other things to worry about. “It’ll be nice to see her,” she said to Mrs. Coltor. “Thank you for helping us.”
She led Silas back outside to their horses. “We’re almost there, baby,” she told him. “And then we can rest, and I’ll put you to rights. You’ll be good as new, I promise.”
With a boost from Lainie and that familiar, heart-wrenching grunt of pain, he climbed back up on Abenar. Lainie steadied him in the saddle, hoping she hadn’t lied to him, making that promise, and that she could fulfill it before more trouble found them.
Chapter 2
LAINIE AND SILAS followed the road north out of town to the BC Crown Ranch. A wooden sign on a gate opening onto the property told Lainie they were in the right place. They rode up to the big white-painted, single-story ranch house, just visible from the road among a stand of pine trees. In the front yard, Brin Coltor was talking with his foreman, Mr. Nikalsdon. Lainie hung back, working up the courage to approach Mr. Coltor and waiting for a chance to speak when she wouldn’t be interrupting his discussion with his foreman.
A stable hand led three horses out of the nearby stables, and Abenar whickered nervously at the sight of the strange animals. At the sound, Mr. Coltor and Mr. Nikalsdon both turned. “Vendine!” Coltor exclaimed. He strode towards Silas and Lainie, followed by Mr. Nikalsdon. “And Mrs. Vendine! What brings you –” He stopped, looking at Silas. “What’s wrong?”
“We need a place to lay low for a while, if it’s no trouble,” Lainie said. “Silas is hurt bad, and really sick, and we’ve likely got every mage hunter in the Wildings after us.”
Mr. Coltor came over closer. Silas flinched away, sidling Abenar over towards Lainie. He started rocking back and forth again, making that scared noise down in his throat. “It’s okay, baby,” Lainie told him. How she hated for Mr. Coltor to see him like this. “Mr. Coltor’s our friend.”
“What happened to him?” Coltor asked. His eyes widened. “He hasn’t been –” He cut off his words before he could say Stripped and glanced at Nikalsdon. Lainie guessed the foreman didn’t know his boss was a mage; Coltor kept his power a closely-held secret. “Come on in the house and get settled. I owe you folks a lot, and if you need help, I’m happy to give it.”
Relief sank down on Lainie again, almost more than she could bear. At most, she had dared hope for permission to use an empty shed or spare couple of bunks in the ranch hands’ bunkhouse. Quickly, she pushed more tears from her eyes; she tried to speak, but the aching knot in her throat choked off her words. Fighting to get hold of herself, she dismounted from Mala and helped Silas down from Abenar.
Mr. Nikalsdon came over and took the horses’ reins. “It’s good to see you again, Vendine, Mrs. Vendine, even under difficult circumstances. I’ll see to your horses myself.”
“Thank you kindly,” Lainie managed to say. The poor horses had had as bad a time of it as she and Silas, and were desperately in need of rest, grooming, some good feed, and new shoes.
As Mr. Nikalsdon guided Abenar and Mala towards the stables, Mr. Coltor led Lainie and Silas into the house. Lainie looked around, impressed. The house was spacious, with several rooms and hallways opening off the front hall. The walls were covered with creamy-white plaster, and the wood trim and floors shone with a deep polish.
Mr. Coltor closed the front door, then asked in a hushed voice, “He hasn’t been Stripped, has he?”
“Something like that,” Lainie said, likewise keeping her voice down even as the words came tumbling out. “The people who did it said it can be undone. But I don’t know what they did. We’ve come all the way from Sandostra, running from mage hunters and the Mage Council, and I never had a chance to figure out what’s wrong and I don’t even know if I can fix it, and he’s been shot and I don’t think that was ever treated proper, and –” Exhaustion stole the rest of her words. “It’s a long story and I’m awful tired.”
“Let’s get him settled. You can tell me the rest later.”
Leading Silas by the hand, Lainie followed Coltor down a hallway and into a bedroom with a big bed made up with fluffy pillows and quilts. “Will this do?” Coltor asked.
At the sight of the bed, all Lainie could think of was how good it would feel to sink down into it and let her exhaustion and worry and hunger drop away into sleep. But she couldn’t yet; first, she had to see to Silas. “It’s fine,” she said. “More than fine.”
“If you need anything else, just ask.” Coltor left the room, closing the door behind him.
Lainie started undressing Silas. He watched as though buttons and buckles were something he had never seen before. He was absolutely filthy; she was going to have to bathe him, and his clothes were fit only to be burned.
When she pulled his shirt off, she stared at him, shocked. She hadn’t seen him w
ithout his shirt since she rescued him. Where once he had been lean and muscular, strong and vigorous, now he was nothing but skin and bones. He sat hunched over like an old man, shivering with the constant chill that had taken hold of him. Her heart ached at the sight. “Oh, honey,” she whispered, blinking back more tears. “What did they do to you?”
His shivering was getting worse as he stood there with no shirt on. Quickly, she pulled off his boots, undid his belt and his pants, and finished undressing him. Then she settled him in the bed and covered him up. She was probably going to have to burn the bedding as well as his clothes after he slept in it in this state. “You rest now, baby,” she told him.
There was a knock at the door. She opened it to see Mr. Coltor standing there with a warm bowl of bread and milk. “Thought Vendine looked like he could use some nourishment,” he said.
Lainie took the bowl. “You didn’t have to go to all that trouble –”
“It’s no trouble at all. You folks found my daughter and saved my herd. There’s nothing that’s too much trouble, in exchange for that.”
“I’m much obliged.” It seemed that his kindness and gratitude were as great as his temper, and at the moment Lainie wasn’t inclined to question them.
Mr. Coltor left, and Lainie sat on the bed and helped Silas eat the bread and milk. In truth, she fed him, though it made her feel better to think of it as helping him feed himself. When the bowl was empty, he closed his eyes and fell asleep almost immediately.
Now, at last, she was able to examine his bullet wounds. There was a new scar on the right side of his chest, and four more scars on the right side of his back. One of the bullets must have gone clear through; the other three bullets were probably still in him.
