Read Online The House Of Gaian by Anne Bishop - Free Book Online

words to help her in whatever way they could.
    Sheridan, Bretonwood’s Lord of the Hawks, was coming as one of her huntsmen—chosen from others because he was also Morphia’s lover. As the Sleep Sister and Lady of Dreams, Morphia’s ability to use sleep as a defensive weapon had proved useful when hunting down the nighthunters and when she had stopped two Inquisitors from hurting a family during the Black Coats’ attack on Bretonwood, but there was no way to tell how effective that gift would be on a battlefield. Morphia was mainly coming with them in order to stay close to her sister, Morag.
    And Morag ...
    The Gatherer had looked so pale and shaken when she’d joined them for the morning meal, Ashk hadn’t dared ask what was wrong. They needed Morag, not just as mercy for the mortally wounded but as a warrior. Would she falter when she was needed most because of her passion for life?
    No. Morag would do what needed to be done. And so would she.
    “You’re going now.”
    Ashk turned around. Padrick stood back from the doorway, not quite within arm’s reach. “Yes. It’s time.”
    Then she was in his arms, taking and giving a kiss that was as fierce as it was loving. She didn’t want to leave him, didn’t want to leave their children, didn’t want to leave the Clan that had become her people.
    But they couldn’t wait for the battle to come to them. Not if they wanted to survive.
    Padrick broke the kiss, then buried his face against her neck. “Come back to me, Ashk. Just... come back to me.”
    Tears stung her eyes. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t promise him that. Instead, she whispered,
    “I will hold you in my heart. Always.”
    He stepped back slowly until they were no longer touching. “They’re waiting for you.”
    She took a moment more to look at him before she walked out of the Clan house. When the others saw her, they mounted their horses. She swung into the saddle and turned her horse toward the forest trail that led to the shining road, her companions following behind her.
    She didn’t look back. Sylvalan didn’t need Ashk, the Lady of the Woods and wife of the Baron of Breton. Sylvalan needed the Hunter. So she let them go—husband, children, family, and friends. By the time they rode up the shining road and were joined by the huntsmen waiting for them in Tir Alainn, all she was was the Hunter. It was all she allowed herself to be.

 

     
     

Chapter 5

 

     
     

     
    waning moon
     
    Jenny closed the iron grill gate of her new home and walked toward the sea. She could see it from some of the windows, could hear its song while she worked day after day cleaning more of the neglected rooms in the old house and getting them ready for her family. But standing at a window wasn’t the same as standing on the cliff, where she could feel the warmth of the sun on her skin and taste the sea in the air
    —where she could look to the south, hoping to see the sails of a vessel large enough to be Sweet Selkie , her brother Mihail’s ship.
    Had he been gone long enough to have reached Seahaven? Surely, he’d been gone long enough. With a good wind, it didn’t take that many days to sail the coastline of Sylvalan.
    He’d stayed with her an extra day to help her get herself and their nephews, Guy and Kyle, settled into their new home—and to unload his ship and store the cargo in some of the empty first-floor rooms. Then he’d sailed away, intending to go to Seahaven and wait for Craig and any cargo their cousin could send by wagon from the family warehouses in Durham. And to wait for any other family members who had chosen to flee to a harbor town in the south rather than go to their kin near the Mother’s Hills.
    There wouldn’t be many fleeing south. Mihail had gambled that he would be able to find a safe harbor in the western part of Sylvalan, had taken that gamble based on a conversation with Padrick, the Baron of Breton, whom he’d met when he’d gone to fetch Guy and Kyle at