Read Online Dragon Tree by Marsha Canham - Free Book Online

attacked?”
    “Must you do
this now?” Marak asked in a murmur. “Can you not see the child is
frightened beyond any clear thought?”
    “Frightened or
not, the questions need answering and she is the only
survivor.”
    Amie’s eyes
rounded. The only survivor? Dear Jesu...!
    “Did you know
the men who attacked your village?”
    The tightness
she was already feeling in her throat and chest spread, sending
chilling little pinpricks of sensation rippling the length of her
spine, making her heart beat faster, her breath come quick and
shallow.
    Unsettled to
the core, she could do nothing but shake her head.
    “Do you know
why they attacked or who sent them?”
    She shook her
head again and prayed that God would forgive the lie for it was
almost a certainty this cold, darkly visaged knight would not. The
healer, Marak, had attempted to reassure her with words of safety
and protection, and in her weakened state, she desperately wanted
to believe him. But there were no such soothing promises reflected
in the knight’s eyes. They were cool and forthright; there was
nothing to suggest he would not send a messenger to her husband
upon the instant simply to avoid any further complications.
    What would he
do if he knew he harbored a would-be murderess under his roof?
    Her hands
curled into small fists beneath the linen sheet. A wave of unbidden
images filled her head, not of the attack on the village this time,
but of a man’s hairy, muscular body sprawled face down and
unconscious on a blood-soaked mattress beside her, and of her
kneeling over him, the weight of a heavy silver candlestick gripped
in her hand. She had smashed his head once, but she had wanted to
smash it again and again until it was crushed to a pulp. She had
wanted to kill him a thousand times over, and then kill him again
just for spite. His whore, he had called her. His brood mare. Each
time he took her, it was with a brutality that promised worse to
come.
    “What is it?
Are you remembering something about the attack?”
    The sound of
the knight’s voice intruded and Amie blurted an answer without
thought. “No. No, I cannot remember what happened. I w-was asleep
and heard him scream, then...”
    “Him?”
    Shocked by yet
another blunder, she focussed blankly on the knight’s face.
    “You said you
heard him scream.”
    “M-my husband.
I heard my husband scream,” she stammered, thinking that much, at
least, was no lie. Even so, she could scarcely breathe through the
incredible pressure in her chest.
    "What happened
next?"
    She drew a
shaky breath, hoping to pull her thoughts into line, then added
what she prayed was an adequate elaboration which was, again,
mostly the truth. “The bothys were on fire and everyone was
running, everyone was confused and trying to escape. I... ran into
the forest, but I was followed.” She paused again and attempted to
moisten her lips with a dry tongue. “Did you say... I was the only
one who survived?”
    “We found no
one else alive.”
    “Not even the
children?”
    The healer
reached out and touch her arm.
    “Enough
questions for today,” he told the knight quietly. “She needs to
rest or all my work will have been for naught. Tomorrow she will be
stronger, and stronger the day after that.”
    Amie felt a
scalding hot tear slide from the corner of her eye and trickle down
her temple. She turned her face away from both men and let the
guilt flow unchecked alongside the tears. It was her fault. Her
fault that they were all dead. They had been good, simple people
who had offered her sanctuary and they had suffered the ultimate
consequence for their kindness.
    Odo de Langois
was a black-souled devil and God only knew what he would do when he
discovered that she had escaped the raid on the village. Certes, he
would send more men to hunt for her—men who would burn a castle as
easily as they would burn a village.
    She also knew
he would not rest until he found her. And this time, to be sure
there were no more