Enna Burning by Shannon Hale Read Free Book Online Page A

against the kingdom on a Forest night, but when it came to addressing the prince, he became a little boy.
    Enna hurried back to Isi’s tent. Geric entered just before her, speaking low with one of his counselors. Isi was sitting on a floor cushion, her face in her hands. Enna sat beside her and began to plait one of Isi’s locks, as she used to do in the palace on cold evenings. The attention seemed to soothe her.
    “Well, my lady, what’s my part in all this?” said Enna.
    “I hope you’ll go.”
    “But as what? I need something to do, Isi. My arms are itching as though I’ve been idling an afternoon lying on wool. I’d like to help, but not like”—she hesitated—“not like before, when I lived at the palace with you. I can’t just be the princess’s friend, the girl who sits around while the princess does important things.”
    “I’m sorry, Enna,” said Isi, “I didn’t realize.”
    “Of course not. And I was happy just to be there, before. But now I need a place, Isi, a mission. I’m chewing at my bit just to go somewhere and run.”
    “Come as my maiden,” Isi said brightly. “A maiden usually serves a queen, but I’d rather call you that than my lady-in-waiting. I want you by me, Enna. I need your clear sight.”
    “Princess’s maiden. Fine. That’s me.”
    “So, you’ll go?”
    “Yes,” said Enna. “Of course, yes. You have to ask? You’re going, I’m going.”
    “You’re not going, Isi,” said Geric. His counselor left, eyes averted as though he did not want to witness to an unpleasant argument.
    “I’d like to go,” said Isi.
    “No.” Geric rolled up the maps. She stood beside him, but he would not look at her.
    “Bayern women go with their men to war, to inspire courage and, and to remind them of what they would lose.”
    Geric winced. “You’re not Bayern.”
    “Geric, I could help. I could read the wind and give you numbers and locations, and I could push them back, confuse them.”
    “I said no!” He slammed his fist on the table.
    Enna held her breath so she would not say a word. She was tempted to step in, but this was Geric. She had never seen him lose his temper.
    “I don’t need to be reminded what I would lose.” He looked at Isi. “I’m a terrible prince. I should put my kingdom first and everything else second, but you’re first. I want you by my side every second, but I know I would crumble if I lost you.”
    She stepped closer and he gripped her in his arms, burying his face in her neck.
    “But I will go.” Isi stroked his hair, and his shoulders began to shake.
    Enna slipped out, quietly lowering the tent flap behind her. She looked up to see Finn standing in the shadows, his arms flat against his sides as though he were already practicing at being a soldier.
    “Finn,” she said, surprised. She tried to keep her face relaxed, pretending not to remember their last uncomfortable confrontation in the market-square. “I didn’t realize that you were here.”
    “Seems that’s happening a lot lately,” he said.
    From anyone else, Enna thought, that statement would have been biting, but from Finn’s mouth it was just the truth.
    “I’m going to fight.” His face was smooth, almost without emotion. She had never seen him look so old. “I just wanted you to know, so if I go missing, someone would know I was here and could tell my ma.”
    Enna nodded. Finn returned the nod, smiled briefly, and walked back to his hundred-band. She stayed behind, leaning against a pine for comfort. Before her, the market-square and surrounding woods were dotted with cookfires, points of light mirroring the randomness of the stars. There was no singing. The general hush of many low voices drawn together swept to her on a Forest breeze, as though the Forest sighed disquiet and warning. Enna pressed her cheek against the bark and breathed in the grounding smell of pine. Everything had suddenly become quite serious.

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Chapter 5
     
    Geric’s bands marched south.