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2024-10-29 19:42:56A root tripped her up, and Matilda immediately placed a supporting hand under her elbow. Grateful for the help, Andrea looked up and saw Mathin coming toward her, concern on his face.
She stumbled in her haste to avoid him. “No.”
Confused, he stopped. “I just want to help.”
“No! I’m fine. I don’t need help.” Before he could stop her, she stumbled to the wagon and clambered up the ladder.
Concerned, Mathin tried to follow.
Matilda grabbed his arm. “Don’t. You’ll just make it worse. Gi
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Scent of Danger 58
“Your father’s brothers and your cousins have argued for some time over who should succeed you should you die without issue.” Tomlin looked at Andrea as he picked and raised his brows.“Not yet.” Mathin said quietly. He wouldn’t have Andrea pressured into an attempt to conceive.A grunt expressed Tomlin’s thoughts on that. “Pity. One of your more hotheaded cousins has stepped forward to assume the roll. Although no one’s officially endorsed his claim, none have refuted it. He’s made much noise about assuming your duties in your absence. We expect him to make a show here before the storms hit.”“Do you?” Mathin asked, v
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Puzzled, she halted and looked him. “I’ve got to get something to clean this up.”He slowly shook his head. “I don’t think you grasp the scope of your new duties. You’ve got far too much to do to finish by yourself, and Mathin never meant for you to be down on your knees scrubbing. We’ll go to the village, hire girls with mops, buy supplies and return here so you can take a tour and see what else needs to be done.”Since he seemed to know more of what was expected than she did, Andrea followed him into the village, doing most of the talking at his insistence. Soon she had four girls and a strapping young man marching off to the castle to battle the chaos under Matilda’s supervision.
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By the time she sat down to a simple dinner of stew and flatbread with Matilda and Raziel, she was almost too tired to eat. Matilda wasn’t much better. They’d put in a hard day cleaning up the worst of the citadel, making it livable if not cozy. New bedding covered the two mattresses they’d been able to scrounge up, with more promised for delivery over the next several days. Jell candles lit the table, since the lighting system still wasn’t repaired. Even the table was only a makeshift affair, nothing more than a couple of wide planks propped on boxes. More crates served as seats.Mathin still hadn’t come home.It wasn’t very good, but Andrea finished her stew anyway, too hungry to worry about it. With luck, she could find someone wi
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An unholy racket woke them in the morning.“I said get out!”Mathin leapt out of bed and grabbed his sword. He opened the door just in time to see Raziel thrust outside the door of the room directly opposite. Buck naked, he held his clothes in his arms, his muscular backside to Mathin as he argued with Matilda.“I was only there to sleep, woman,” he groused irritably, tossing back his mussed hair. “Had I wanted anything else you’d have known it.”Matilda, red hair equally disheveled, but attired in a flowered nightgown, stood in the doorway and glared at him. “Decent men don
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“Perhaps.” Raziel stabbed at his meat. “The scouts are in place. You would know within the hour if he stepped foot on your land.”“What of your lands?” Mathin raised a brow and rested his forearms on the table. “You show great concern for my situation, and I thank you, but your estate is nearly as extensive as mine.”“I’ve sent men to look it over.” Raziel’s face shuttered. “My overseer is more capable than Tomlin ever thought to be. All remains under control.”Mathin shrugged. “It’s your choice.” His careless tone didn’t match his expression.
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Mathin had felt the eyes on them for a good hour by the time he stopped that night. All but unconscious, Andrea lolled in his arms as he dismounted and gently lifted her down. Careful not to jar her, he lay her down on a tarp he’d tossed down on a patch of high ground and covered her with a blanket. “It’s going to be all right,” he whispered, and kissed her. He stroked her cheek and stood up.Looking up in the trees, he called out, “All right, come out. Don’t you know better than to stalk a Haunt upwind?”Feminine laughter echoed through the swamps. A line was cast down from the heights and moments later a woman slid down. Hands on hips, the tall blond surveyed him with a crooked grin. “Mathin. Finally found yourself a wo
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Leo shook her head. “A season? Longer? Who can say? I’m not a medic, but I’ll wager the baby will strain her system and the symbiont.”“Can she get a new one?” At Leo’s look of horror, he demanded, “What?”“You can’t just switch symbionts like you’d change your pants! It would be murder.”“Andrea would die?”“I don’t know, but the symbiont would for sure. Their systems are far too integrated now. Just give it time. It will regenerate.”Mathin
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“Another hour. Why?” Leo looked at her in the rearview mirror.“It’s so desolate. How do you make a living here?”Leo laughed. “We eat what doesn’t eat us.” At Andrea’s wary silence, she added, “We farm and hunt the swamp. We mine the minerals here. Many of our technologies are deliberately kept low-tech and sustainable, however. We use wood, natural fiber, stone, metal and leather instead of synthetics or chemicals, and we still make our soaps with fat and lye. Many of our lights and heat sources are oil or wood.”Fat and lye? Wood stove cooking? Andrea was dismayed. Even the Haunt had something like electricity. “Tell me y
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Scent of Danger 81
“Wonder what that was all about,” Mathin muttered at her side.“I don’t know, but I’m beginning to feel like the unappreciated fairy godmother,” Andrea complained.His grin sent firecrackers popping clear to her toes. Mathin took her glass and set it down. One quick tug pulled her into his arms, slightly bent at the perfect angle for a kiss. “I think I can do something to change that.”A superb dancer, Mathin twirled her around the dance floor, his grace as beguiling as his dark good looks. The man danced like he made love, and every burning look was enough to set her blood aflame. Schemes and plans for others were lost in the dreamy whirl of pleas
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The next morning, well before the party was to begin, Leo presented Mathin and Andrea with a copy of her notes and sketches. “A gift,” she said simply.Mathin was more excited than Andrea would have dreamed possible. “Do you know how much I’ve wanted something like this?” he demanded of Leo, his eyes glued to the pages. “It’s almost impossible to get any information on the Beasts in the Dark Lands.”Leo and Andrea exchanged pleased looks.“Wait a minute.” His brows furrowed as he stared at the page. “I’ve seen this picture somewhere else, only…”
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“At least there’s that.” More silence. “I never did thank you for all you’ve done for me and my wife.”“It was nothing.”“It was something,” Mathin returned forcefully. “And I won’t forget it. If there is anything, at any time, that I can do for you, you have only to name it.”Scy searched his face. “Be careful what you offer, brother.” He smiled a little. “I might accept.”“Do that.” Mathin left, satisfied that Scy would turn his words over.
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Mathin stilled. Taking her hand, he placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles. “He stayed home with his wife, my love.” His tone became sorrowful. “They lost the baby.”The color drained from her face. Her eyes welled. “No,” she whispered, and slumped to the bed. Jasmine had been so happy!He didn’t try to make it better with platitudes, just held her. “I know.” He rubbed his face against her hair. “I know.”She grieved, but even as she cried for her friend’s loss, in her heart Andrea had to wonder. Had the baby been lost because of some unavoidable defect, caused by the mixing of such alien blood? Might the child have been born
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“Can you help her?” Andrea tried to control her shivering. Scy kept one eye on the swordsmen while his symbiont worked on Leo’s head. Still unconscious, she didn’t move.“I’m trying.” He handed a gun to her. “Fire if you get a clean shot. If anything happens to Mathin, you won’t have time for more than one. Got it?”“I...yes.” Determined to control the contractions that squeezed her lower belly, she tried to keep her eyes on the fighters. It wasn’t easy. Not only were they moving in a virtual blur, but the cramps distracted her. They didn’t feel like the false contractions that had squeezed her whole stomach as the pregnancy advanced. No, these were lower, more intense. They felt like t
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Shivering as much from the spookiness of that as from the damp chill, Andrea glanced toward the dim light coming in from the single exit. A brackish puddle had collected in the sunken depression under the stone tiles, and it reflected a bit of the light and the occasional shifting shadow of a guard. Odd how she’d never felt so wary of her Haunt, but then they’d gone out of their way to put her at ease. There was nothing remotely friendly about these dark warriors.Every now and then Leo would stand up to stretch, but her chains didn’t allow her to lift her arms past her hips. The bolts in the floor were very solid; she’d tugged on the chains enough that she’d bled, trying to loosen them.“I’m sorry.”
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The cycle eased out of the gate, gathering speed as it headed up the road through the village. Naked fields flashed by as the woods edged closer.“Hang on!” the Ronin tossed over his shoulder, and suddenly they were flying.Eyes narrowed against the wind and flying insects, Mathin felt the rope bite into his wrists where he’d looped it. He held on as best he could with the toes of his boots against the edge of the platform as the cycle began a series of fast maneuvers around the trees that blurred past. The slight lip on the edges wouldn’t prevent him from flying off on one of the turns if he weren’t careful.As if to prove his point, the platform took a sharp dip,
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“I wasn’t going to ask her any,” Leo protested. “Scy…” When he continued to ignore her, she placed her body right in front of him. “This is very important to me.”A light like golden foxfire hazed his blue eyes. His body began to tremble. “Don’t,” his voice was hoarse and he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes from Leo’s mouth. “Don’t get so close to me, woman, unless you want to get close to me.” His nostrils flared as her eyes widened. “I’ve long run out of herbs, and you’re provoking far more than my temper.” He brushed past her.“I’m not afraid of you!” she yelled at his back.
Scent of Danger 73
Mathin read his wife’s latest letter, and then sat in silence before the fire in the banquet hall.This might be difficult.He took a long drink of his wine, smiling without humor. His wife had a gift for understatement.Thought you needed to know…Had he? Had he really? He crumpled the edge of the letter in his fist and then tossed it aside. For most of his life, he hadn’t known about these strangers spawned of his father’s madness. No doubt they were content to keep it that way as well. What did his wife think, that the three of them could take up friendly relations as easily a
