Chapter 28 Brynn
Brynn
Brynn’s head smacked against the side of the wagon again. Grunting, she rolled onto her side. Her mind worked slowly, trying to remember how she had gotten here.
“Are you waking up, my dear?”
At her mother’s voice, Brynn snapped upright, her hands yanking backward.
Her hands had been tied from wrist to elbow behind her back and a metal collar locked around her neck, not unlike the thrall collars the Valdari used. Brynn reached for ka and it came to her, but no spells formed. The collar around her neck soaked up her power as soon as she wove spells.
Brynn faced her mother, nostrils flaring.
The first thing she noticed was Esa. The young girl’s tear-streaked face watched her, trembling at Selene’s feet. Her hands had been tied and a dark bruise spread over her eye and another over her jaw.
Selene had one hand on Esa’s braid, holding it like a leash.
“Esa?”
“I’m sorry, Lady Brynn,” Esa whimpered. “I’m so sorry.”
“You should be proud of your girl,” Selene sneered. “We wanted to have her draw you out and make this whole thing easier, but she refused. Even when I threatened to kill her.”
“Esa.” Brynn straightened. “It’s alright. You’re going to be alright.”
Tears tracked silently down the girl’s cheeks.
“Yes,” Selene agreed. “You are going to be perfectly alright because your guardian is going to do exactly as I say.”
Brynn inhaled and exhaled ever so slowly. “What did you do?”
“We needed a distraction. It took a bit of effort. Anselma and Tessaine had to rile them up for nearly an hour and it was a miracle no one heard, but we were able to use those cows.” Selene glared at Brynn. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone, Brynn. I hope you understand this.”
Brynn flexed her wrists behind her back, testing her bonds. She’d been tied thoroughly.
The inside of the wagon was furnished for living with silk cushions and padded seats. Her mother had it built during the war when she had been constantly on the road between encampments and forts. It was plush, comfortable, and woven entirely from black and white fabrics. Chimes made of silver hung from the ceiling, hammered in the shapes of the moon cycles. Selene was nothing if not devout.
“What about Cenric?” Brynn demanded.
“You mean your latest form of rebellion? I don’t rightly know.”
Anger bubbled up in Brynn’s chest, but she kept it under control—for now. “Did you hurt him?”
Selene shrugged.
“Answer me!” Brynn shrieked, her voice fraying. “Did you or any of your people hurt him?”
Selene rolled her eyes. “No. Though someone as impulsive and reckless as him is bound to get himself killed sooner or later.”
Brynn understood the meaning. Her mother was saying if Cenric was stupid enough to come after them, they would use deadly force to keep her.
“What if I agree to go to back to Paega?” Brynn asked. “I’ll put aside Cenric, but you have to spare him.”
Selene seemed to consider it for a moment. “If you are willing to be reasonable, I might consider it.”
Brynn’s chest writhed with fear, anger, and dread. That wasn’t good enough. “What is this?” She gestured to the collar around her neck.
“That? It’s called dark iron. Alchemists in the southern empire developed it. The intent is to store power, but it works quite well for other things, too.” Selene smiled smugly.
Brynn had never encountered anything like it before. No matter how much power she drew to herself, every time she tried to cast spells, the collar consumed it.
Brynn looked to Esa. “Do you plan to hold my ward hostage forever?”
“No.” Selene tugged on Esa’s braid enough to make the girl flinch. “Just until you have another child by Paega.”
Brynn kept her face blank to hide her disgust. “That’s quite bold of you.”
“I am your mother. You will do as I tell you.”
“You lost the right to tell me what to do the moment you killed my son.”
Selene cocked her brow. “What are you talking about?”
“The Valdari who attacked Glasney were paid. I know it was you. You wanted Paega dead, didn’t you? As soon as he gave me an heir.”
Selene scoffed. “Why would I want your son dead? His death was very inconvenient for us.”
Brynn suspected Osbeorn had been an accidental casualty, but her mother’s words stabbed all the same. “Inconvenient?” Brynn had kept a cage around her temper for longer than she could remember. She had kept her head down, had complied. She wanted to do the right thing, always the right thing. “That was my child.” Brynn’s voice dropped so low not even she recognized it. “My only child.”
Selene hesitated for just a second, then seemed to blink away whatever had made her nervous. “You can have others.”
Brynn imagined what it would feel like to have her mother’s neck under her hands.
“Your sister was a good girl.” Selene’s voice changed slightly in pitch. “She knew her duty.”
“She defied you,” Brynn spat. “So, you made sure she died.”
Trust me, child. Those had been the words Selene had spoken to Aelfwynn when Brynn’s sister had agreed to hold the river against Winfric’s thanes. In hindsight, Brynn wondered if her mother might have planned it.
Selene’s eyes flashed. “How dare you.”
“You stopped the reinforcements.”
“Your sister died because of a miscommunication among your cousin’s men. Aelgar never was a warrior.”
“My sister died because you thought I would be easier to control.” Brynn’s eyes stung with tears.
Selene exhaled a long breath. “Your sister was a strong-willed girl, but I really expected you to be beyond her influence now.”
The wagon hit a bump in the road, making all of them jostle. Low voices came from outside. Brynn could sense what she guessed to be the twins as well as Neirin and several of the other soldiers.
“Aelfwynn tried to have you removed from the Council of Mothers,” Brynn said. “She told me. She knew it was the only way to make you stop pushing for her to marry Aelgar.”
Cousin marriages were common enough. Selene had argued that an uncle and niece of the same age were not that different. Aelgar was only half-brother to their father, after all. Aelfwynn was hearing none of it.
“Be grateful you will never know what it’s like to have a child plot against you,” Selene snapped.
Brynn would have happily accepted a thousand plots from Osbeorn if it would bring him back.
“You have never had adult children, Brynn,” Selene said. “You cannot understand.”
Rage poured through Brynn’s veins. Always there was this excuse—always Selene’s reasons were incomprehensible to Brynn because of some shortcoming or lack of experience. First it was because Brynn was a child herself, then because she didn’t have one. After Osbeorn came, it was because Brynn didn’t have a daughter. Now it seemed that the boundary stones had been moved once again.
“You aren’t my mother,” Brynn spat. “You never were. Aelfwynn, she was my mother. And I hope that someday I’m half the mother my sister was.”
“You are insolent,” Selene barked, jerking back on Esa’s hair.
Esa whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut.
Brynn clenched her hands into fists. In that moment, everything that was wrong in her life could be blamed on this woman.
“You will go back to Paega and you will fulfill your duty to our people.” Selene shook her head. “Throwing your life away on some random thane? Really, Brynn?”
“He’s an alderman.”
“Bah.” Selene seemed about to spit for a moment. “An alderman who cuts his own grain and salts his own fish? It was an insult for Aelgar to arrange the match.”
It didn’t matter what Selene thought. Aelfwynn would have liked Cenric. Maybe not at first, but she would have grown fond of him. If nothing else, Aelfwynn would have accepted him when she realized he made Brynn happy.
And Cenric did make her happy. For the first time in her life, if only for a brief moment, she hadn’t been afraid. She hadn’t had the shadow of Selene’s expectations hanging over her, the threat of death, or the slow torment of Paega’s quiet condescension.
Brynn didn’t even care if it was selfish to want Cenric. She was going to get back to him if she had to fight the world to do it.
“Cenric is my husband,” she said flatly, defiantly. “I belong with him.”
“You belong where I tell you,” Selene snapped. “And if this Cenric tries to come for you, he will face consequences.”
“If you hurt him,” Brynn vowed, voice cold, “not even Eponine will be able to save you from me.”
Selene tsked at that. “Try to avoid blasphemy, child. And are you really willing to sacrifice your ward for him?”
Brynn looked at Esa, crying quietly at her mother’s knees. She was determined to get out of this and save them both, but if it came down to it? Brynn didn’t know what she would do.
“We are meeting a ship down the coast that will take us south,” Selene said. “I have the word of Olfirth to let us pass.”
“Does he know you’ve taken me captive?”
“You are not captive,” Selene argued.
“No?” Brynn cocked her head. As angry as that response made her, the deflection told her that no, Olfirth didn’t know she was being taken against her will. The old thane probably didn’t know she was here at all. “What are these ropes, then?”
Selene made a frustrated sound. “You will see reason, child.”
Brynn disliked violence. Hated it. But even she knew when the time came for it.
Selene had made herself Brynn’s enemy. There was no going back from this. As soon as Brynn got the chance, she would kill her mother.