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She spun on me, practically spitting out her words. “Fadey learned of me, and I have no doubt he fueled the lust for craft to inspire the raids.”

I pinched her chin between my fingers, drawing her mouth close. House Bien fought for you to live. They wanted you to live.

“I know. And I will. For all of us. Fadey did not just seek House Bien during the raids; he wanted the Wanderer. He wanted us all. His actions killed Nivek and my family, but most of all, his greed nearly ended you.”

My fingers tangled in her hair, gripping the roots. And what do you plan to do about it, wife?

“No lines for you.” She pressed her palms to my chest. “I want to know everything. I want to learn what Nivek needs us to find. I want to discover whatever power the Wanderer left behind. Then, I want to bathe in Fadey’s blood.”

I grinned against her lips. This is not the time nor place to seduce me.

Her laugh was a sound I would die to protect. Cheeks still wet with tears, she kissed me sweetly. “Come on then, Ashwood. We have fate to face.”

—

Gammal, Keela, and a line of Unfettered watchmen led us through the main roads of the township.

Unlike coastal villages in the Stìgandr realms, the Unfettered Folk depended on routes of trade to distant townships I did not know, or to the passes to our kingdoms.

Homes were made from stone foundations, wooden walls, and thatched rooftops. With the chill, some longhouses had young ones in the windows along with an ewe or a goat kept out of the damp air.

Scents of smoke and spiced lamb tangled with savory herbs and sweat in the main market. Small shacks bustled with folk dressed in furs and thick wool coats and skirts. Unfettered traded silver and jade rings, fishbone hooks, blossoms, speckled eggs that were larger than those I’d seen back home, and colorful threads, wool, and linens.

“You do not trade by sea?” Thane asked the old seer, unable to muffle his curiosity.

“Sea trade is done,” said Gammal. With a crooked finger she pointed to distant roads. “The Long Sea curls around the eastern edges of our lands.”

Gammal shuddered.

Thane chuckled. “Does that trouble you?”

“Do you know much of the lands beyond your three kingdoms, Prince?”

Thane flushed. “The longer I have been on this strange journey, the more I am horrified to admit I know very little of what lies here beyond the ledges.”

“Well, there are troubles here the same as there are troubles where you are from.”

“I thought Unfettered lived as they wished. There is no king or queen.”

Gammal hummed. “I assure you, the lust for power lives everywhere.”

Like the prince, I did not know a great deal of how the distant Unfettered territories worked, but if different clans were scattered across the whole of the territories, no doubt there were those who’d seek power much like Damir and Fadey.

“But back to your question,” Gammal said, her voice lighter than before. “There is trade by sea, but the hub is quite a distance, so the journey is only made twice a season. There are many villages along the Elfr River for trade.” She opened her hand to the glisten of the river beyond the gates. “That is where our commerce is strongest.”

The township was larger than it seemed. Roads webbed to distant gates. Homes were all sizes, but larger farms and longhouses seemed to take up the far edge. Gammal led us near one of the estates with several pens for creatures, stables, and a few workers tilling the soil.

A man—by the rich shade of blue on his coat and the silver on his fingers, I took him for the owner—shouted at a woman who clutched a lanky boy against her body. The boy’s limbs were long and awkward, trapped in the seasons before his body determined he could look more like a man. He could not have been older than fourteen, but he was nearly half a head taller than the woman.

The way she shielded him, I suspected her to be his mother.

No doubt the sod who berated her was his father.

One glance and I hated the man.

Strange. I’d witnessed enough shouting and disrespect from pompous men not to be drawn to a halt so viscerally.

But I placed one hand on the post of the fence and simply…watched.