Bonemender's Oath by Holly Bennett Read Free Book Online

glance. “When you first left Verdeau. He helped me get through that awful goodbye,” she explained. She hesitated, then added softly, “I felt I was about to break into pieces.”
    Féolan’s finger traced the line of her cheekbone and grazed her lip. “The hardest thing I ever did was to leave you that day. But see, you already have the skills you need. You just need to direct them differently.”
    Gabrielle laid her head against Cloud’s neck and twined her finger’s in the horse’s dark mane. She quieted her mind, focused in, and her awareness slipped into the powerful body. But now how to...? She remembered how she had once tried to reassure Justine’s unborn baby.
Cloud?
Looking now not for injury or disease, but for a flicker of awareness, she gathered her affection for this gentle creature and sent it out.
    A startled flash flared back at her, and she laughed with astonished excitement.
    “Easy,” cautioned Féolan. “Do not frighten her.”
    She tried again:
Cloud, it’s me. It’s all right.
This time warm recognition rushed back at her. From Cloud’s generous heart she read love, and loyalty and submission, and this last pained her beyond words.
Friend
, she offered.
I would be your friend, not your master.
    Gabrielle’s eyes were bright with tears when she opened them and spoke again to Féolan. “I didn’t know,” she murmured. Cloud’s velvet charcoal muzzle whiffled her hair, and she laughed and stroked the horse’s long nose. “So much I don’t know.”
    “And so much you do,” said Féolan. “It’s amazing what you havealready learned on your own.” He smiled down at her. “You may be half-blind and clumsy as a toad, but there is nothing wrong with your mind.”
    “Nice. Insult the woman you claim to love.” Now it was Féolan’s turn to become penitent, until Gabrielle laughed and reminded him, “You deserved that.”
    “So I did.” Féolan touched her shoulder, serious once more. “Gabrielle, why don’t you ask Cloud if she would like to come for a ride with us?”
    F ÉOLAN PEERED OUT the doorway of the barn, scanning the path for Gabrielle. Still no sign. How long does it take to deliver a quick message? he thought, striving with limited success not to feel irritated by the wait. Gabrielle had left some time ago, just to change her clothes and tell Derkh they were going riding. He paced again to the back of the dim fragrant barn. Some of the horses shifted and champed as he passed—he was beginning to irritate them! Derkh might be still abed, he mused. It had been a very late night, and Humans seemed to feel the lack of sleep more than Elves. But no, surely Gabrielle would simply have left word.
    He knew Gabrielle felt responsible for Derkh here, and he understood why. He just wished it wasn’t so difficult to steal a little time alone with her.
    A few minutes later Gabrielle hurried into the barn. One glance was enough to see that something was wrong.
    “Gabi, what it is?”
    “Derkh’s gone.”
    Misunderstanding her anxiety, Féolan said, “I’m sure he’s fine. He’s probably just gone for a walk or a swim...” He broke off, interrupted by Gabrielle’s impatient head shake.
    “No, Féolan, he’s really gone. I think he means not to come back.” She held out a curl of birch bark. “He left this and all his Verdeau clothes folded in a pile.”
    Féolan unrolled the white bark and stared at the brief message, crudely carved into the surface:
GOOD-BYE
. And underneath that:
SORRY.
    Fear washed through him—could the boy mean to take his own life? Then he remembered how Derkh had lingered by the food table at last night’s celebration, to the point that Danaïs had teased him for his bottomless stomach. He had been stashing food, Féolan now realized. Preparing for a journey, then, not death. In the wake of his relief came a deep regret. He knew where Derkh must be headed, and what awaited him there. It wasn’t a life he would wish for a