Chapter Thirty
Emer woke with a start, her head jerking back and slamming against the tree.
Pain radiated from the point of contact, a sharp ache that wrapped her head like a wicked crown.
She didn’t know when she’d fallen asleep.
The hours since she’d been captured blurred together like a fever dream, the beginning distant and obscure and the end so far it may as well be forgotten.
Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she found her brothers once more. Ossian stared at her, a look of either fear or despair in his deep blue eyes. Osgar yet slept.
Emer had watched Ossian for what felt like hours as the sun rose, but he hadn’t looked her way before she fell asleep.
And Emer had taken the guard’s warning to heart.
She wasn’t about to start shouting and get herself killed.
She’d made more than enough bad decisions today. She had no intention of adding to them.
The day passed in agonizing slowness. Emer was used to moving the entire day, running around the hostelry from dawn till dusk to see to her guests and care for the property.
As she sat pinned to the tree, she quickly developed an ache in her left hip and lower back.
It could have been from being shoved around so much last night.
Or, it could have been from the unusually arduous hike to the encampment.
Or, it could have been from sitting all day.
Emer sighed, gently letting her head rest against the tree. She would lose her mind by the end of the day at this rate.
Ossian still stared at her, as though he didn’t believe she really sat a spear’s throw away from her after all these years. How long had he been here?
Emer offered him a small smile, wiggling her fingers at him from where her hands sat bound in her lap.
The light returned to his eyes, but he didn’t smile.
Instead, his frown deepened. Perhaps he’d hoped it wasn’t her after all.
He twisted to look over his shoulder at Osgar, whom he rammed with his shoulder.
Osgar’s eyes flew open, and Emer saw Ossian’s lips moving.
She didn’t need to guess at what he said.
Seconds later, Osgar’s disbelieving gaze fell upon her as well.
A whistle sounded from somewhere along the palisade, and several of the guards nearby moved toward the gate—away from the prisoners. Emer took advantage of their captors’ absence, not knowing how long they’d be gone.
“How long have you been here?” she called as quietly as she could.
“I don’t know.” Ossian whisper-shouted back.
The beard that now covered his face told Emer it had been weeks, maybe months.
“How did you get here?” Osgar’s voice sounded dry, hoarse.
“Have they been giving you food and water?”
“Hey!” The same guard who’d tied her to the tree last night stormed over to her. “I thought I told you no talking!”
“Leave her alone,” Ossian shouted at him. “I spoke to her. She answered.”
The guard turned toward Ossian with far too much interest. “That so?”
“It is.” Ossian spoke far louder than he should, and Emer suspected it was no accident.
Her brother was trying to draw the guard away from her.
Once again, Emer was being rescued. A chasm broke open in her chest as she watched the guard start kicking her brother. She felt hot tears on her cheeks. She watched in horror as Osgar started making a fuss, too.
When another guard came to beat Osgar, something inside Emer shattered.
She would not be the reason her brothers died. She would not be the reason anyone died. She was so sick, so tired of being rescued, of needing help.
Of being a burden.
Not this time.
This time, she screamed. A loud, ear-piercing shriek from the depths of her belly. Loud enough that it echoed through the forest around them, far past the palisade walls.
The guard was on her in moments.
But at least he was off her brother.
“I warned you,” the guard spat, drawing his dagger.
Ice cold fear gripped Emer, settling in her gut. She had nowhere to run, no way to fight him off. She was going to die here, in this miserable camp, right in front of her brothers. Distantly, she heard them both screaming at the guard.
But it was to no avail. He drew his arm back, closing the distance between them.
Blood splattered her face. Only it wasn’t hers. Emer’s eyes bugged when she spied the spear tip protruding from the guard’s chest. He collapsed limply at her feet, leaving Broccan staring down at her.
Emer thought her heart might burst from her chest. How had he possibly found her?
He knelt, quickly cutting her and Gráinne free of their bonds. “Get out of here. As far as you can, straight to the east. We’ll meet you on the path.”
Emer rose, nodding her understanding. She grabbed Gráinne’s hand and pulled her toward the gate back into the forest. Around them, alarms sounded, cries alerting the soldiers to the Fianna’s presence in their camp—to the risk of losing their collection of captives.
As they moved through the copse of trees where the prisoners were tied, Emer lost count of how many men went running toward the Fianna.
A group of nearly ten men came straight toward them from the gate. Emer’s blood rushed, her head buzzing as she yanked Gráinne to hide beside one of the roundhouses. Catching her breath, she waited until she saw the soldiers join the fray in the center of the camp.
And her stomach lurched.
The Fianna stood in a circle, Alannah right beside Conan, utterly surrounded. There had to be nearly a hundred soldiers coming at them from all sides. They’d never win. It didn’t matter if they were warriors of legend or the old gods themselves. They fought impossible odds.
And everyone she cared about was in the center of it, fighting for their lives. Her brothers were still tied to trees with the rest of the prisoners.
“Wait out there,” she ordered Gráinne, flinching as she heard the battle finally break out in earnest. The soldiers had ceased their circling, no longer toying with the Fianna but instead doing their utmost to destroy them.
The Fianna fought back. Emer’s mouth fell open as she watched the warriors skillfully defend themselves. But they had no hope of outlasting the endless waves of attackers.
And Emer might not be a warrior, but she wasn’t going to stand by helplessly and watch her family be slaughtered. Grabbing the first blade she found, Emer marched right back into the camp.