Wolfbreed by S. A. Swann Read Free Book Online Page A

and stepped forward to grab the edge of the cloak again, but he had to stop when she held up her right handbetween them. The hand trembled slightly, and Uldolf thought of how painful that arm must be to move, even a little bit.
    “You shouldn’t strain …”
    He trailed off, because even if she did understand him, she wasn’t listening. She had taken a step back and had pulled the cloak completely off. Holding it before her, she stared at it, then changed her grip and deftly pulled it up over her own shoulders. With both hands, she closed the cloak herself, refastening it.
    She looked down at the cloak with an expression of satisfaction, then looked up at Uldolf and smiled.
    “I understand.” Uldolf smiled back. “You aren’t helpless.”
    She took a step forward, and Uldolf saw the strength go out of her legs a moment before she realized it. Just as she swung her good arm out for some sort of support, Uldolf grabbed her. She fell into him, wrapping her arm and half the cloak around his chest. He found himself with his arm under the cloak, holding her to him. He felt his face flush for reasons completely apart from frustration at his missing arm.
    She sucked in a sob, and looked up at him. He looked into her face and saw something there trying to push back the tears and the frustration.
    He patted her on the back, careful to avoid her right shoulder. “I know how you feel. But I think if we are going to get anywhere, you’ll have to lean on me.”
    She sniffed and nodded, as if she might be able to understand him.

v
    other? What’s that sound?” Burthe looked over at her suddenly wakeful daughter. Hilde had sat up in bed, her nightshirt hanging loosely on her too-thin frame. Burthe set down the trousers she was mending and hurried over to Hilde’s bed. She felt the side of Hilde’s face for signs of fever, and was gratified to find that it hadn’t come back since breaking during the night. Still, she put her hand on Hilde’s shoulder to keep her from sitting up any farther.
    “Be still, child. You’ve been too ill to be jumping around.”
    “It’s Ulfie, Mama. Don’t you hear him?”
    Burthe grunted. Her daughter had always had keener ears than she did. Age, and an infection that had savaged her after Hilde was born, had left her half deaf.
    “Do you think he brought something for me?” She tried to toss her blanket aside, and swayed a little. “Oh …”
    Burthe put her hands on Hilde’s shoulders and firmly guided her back into bed. “If your brother’s home, he’ll be here soon enough. The more you rest, the sooner you’ll be able to get up.” It took all of Burthe’s considerable will to keep the heaviness she felt out ofher voice. Over the last month, she had exhausted what herbal lore she knew trying to break Hilde’s infection. She had not told Uldolf or her husband, but she had begun to doubt that Hilde would get better.
    Because of that fear, she found it hard to give into the same relief Uldolf had shown this morning. She held onto the worry, perhaps fearing that to let it go too soon would be to invite the evil back into her child’s body.
    So even though part of her wanted to encourage her to jump on the bed like any other six-year-old, she only gave Hilde a stern stare as she drew the blanket up to her chin. “You rest, child.”
    “I’ve been resting
forever
.”
    She bent down and kissed her forehead, thinking,
I mustn’t cry
. “Don’t talk like that. You have not been resting forever, and you know it.”
    “I’m sorry, Mama.”
    The words echoed in Burthe’s head.
Resting forever
. Hilde had two siblings the child had never known about. They would have been ten and eight, had either lived. Her older brother, Masnyke, had died of a fever before he was one year old. Hilde’s sister had never had a chance to have a name, as the Christians had come when Burthe had been five months with child. She had fallen in the panicked rush to city gates ahead of the invaders. The