Read Online Cursed by Ice by Jacquelyn Frank - Free Book Online

nothing except barren ground.
    “There’s nothing there,” he said with a frown.
    “There are tracks here,” she insisted. “The mage has obfuscated them from you. I can see them plainly.”
    “Do you see him in the distance?” Garreth asked.
    “No. Not yet. But it is too dark.”
    “Perhaps we should pick this up in daylight,” his brother said, looking up at the bright moon. It was so full it was almost as good as daylight, in some respects. Had it been waning, they would not have been able to see.
    “No! They will escape by then and I will never see my sisters again!” she said, panic in her voice and in the grip she latched around Garreth’s wrist.
    “I will not let that happen. Dethan, they cannot be far. They are on a laden wagon while we’re on horseback. We can easily catch up to them as long as we can follow the tracks.”
    “But she’s the only one who can see them.” Dethan’s eyes narrowed on her. “What’s to say this isn’t all some kind of an elaborate trap?”
    Sarielle scoffed. “The mage is wickedly clever, but the bennesah suffers no such affliction. He would not have thought so well in advance of his situation. Now, Vinqua—he is another story. But his downfall will be his hubris. He does not see anyone as a threat to himself or his skills. You should know, however, that he will abandon the bennesah instantly if it comes to a sticking point.”
    “That is good to know. Now, keep your eyes on those tracks and tell me if you need to stop and rest.”
    “I won’t. Come,” she said urgently, trying to spur the horse on herself. “Hurry!”
    “We will, little fira, be patient.”
    “Fira?” she asked as he kicked the horse into a canter.
    “It means ‘fire’ where I come from.”
    “Where do you come from?” she asked.
    From a mountain of ice and snow
.
    “A long way from here. Across the great Kolla Ocean, a land called Toren. My brothers and I were born there, though I spent very little of my lifetime there.”
    “Brothers? There are others?”
    “Aye,” he said, his tone short and hard. She was smart enough to know he didn’t wish to discuss it further, and she wasn’t much in the mood to press. Her whole body was on fire. Waves of nausea were beginning to roll through her. She swallowed hard, pushing it down inside herself as best she could.
    “Have you any sisters?”
    “Not anymore,” he said. Again, his tone was hard. This strong man harbored pain over the fate of his sisters. A feeling she could understand completely.
    “I’m so sorry.”
    “It was a very long time ago.”
    “Oh. The tracks go that way,” she said, correcting his course.
    “Is it just you and your sisters, then?” he asked.
    “Yes. My parents died some time ago.”
    “No brothers?”
    “Not anymore,” she echoed him.
    She expected him to ask her to explain but then realized asking the question would open him up to a similar question in return, and she had a feeling he would rather have a mouthful of sore teeth.
    “So … have you a sweetheart?” he asked her after a moment.
    She snorted at that. “Slaves are not allowed to have sweethearts,” she said bitterly.
    “But your parents had you. Surely the masters of Kith want slaves to … to propagate.”
    “They do. But they control it. They … force it. There is usually no love to be had. The women are forced to take whatever man is directed at them. It is a curse to be healthy. They think if they breed only the healthy ones they will make more healthy ones. Then they can worry less about feeding us, clothing us, and sheltering us. We’ll take care of ourselves.”
    “That’s ridiculous. If one were to look on a slave as any beast of burden, one has to put care into it in order to get good work from it. My horse Draz is stabled in a warm, dry stable or a roomy paddock, it’s fed good grain, and fresh straw is laid for its bed. If I don’t do these things, the horse wears down and becomes ill, perhaps even