Read Online Trinity Rising: Book Two of the Wild Hunt (Wild Hunt Trilogy 2) by Elspeth Cooper - Free Book Online Page A

to a bloodthorn bush and pick her way through the reed beds on foot, but the cover was good and the patter of the bone-white stems in the wind covered any noise she might make.
    Within a quarter of an hour Teia had dispatched a pair of widgeon at the largest of the lakes, recovered and cleaned her arrows, and tied the birds by the feet with a bit of twine. Now the rest of the afternoon was hers. She knelt on the shore and scooped water into a dainty bronze bowl she’d filched from Drwyn’s tent, small enough to hide in her belt-pouch. Holding it steady on her knees, she summoned a little of her power.
    At first the image was smeary and difficult to hold. Her face again, this time with a ragged gash on her temple that was the source of the blood on her cheek. As she watched it knitted up into a tight pale scar; where it disappeared into her hairline, her dark hair turned snowy white. The dead look in her eyes changed, too, becoming instead haunted, as if she carried a dreadful secret buried deep in her heart, like a worm in a blushberry.
    Then the image re-formed, stretching and filling the bowl between her hands until she saw herself, in exquisite detail, robed in snow-fox fur and carrying a Speaker’s staff.
    Teia gasped and dropped the bowl. Cold lake water soaked her knees. She was destined to become a Speaker? How was that possible? If Ytha found out about the Talent, she would know she had been deceived and only exile could follow. Teia would have to join the Lost Ones or die alone on the pitiless plains. But if Ytha did not find out, she would have to continue with the life she had.
    She closed her eyes and pressed her face into her hands. So the wedding fair would have been her best choice after all. The chance remained that Drwyn would give her up, but it was diminishing. The more she played his willing concubine, the more he tolerated her. In time, he might even make her his next wife, and then Teir would get the bride-price of which Drw’s death had cheated him.
    Poor Drw. He had been kind to her; vigorous but gentle enough that sharing his blankets had not been a chore. Sometimes, when he had only wanted her to sing or keep him company in silence, he had told her she reminded him of his daughter. Then the old chief had cried for the children he had lost, gone to join their mother in the next life.
    Macha keep you, Drw .
    Wiping her eyes, she retrieved her little bowl and pushed herself to her feet. The afternoon was waning fast, the lake flat and steely under a heavy sky. Dusk would be falling by the time she reached the tents if she didn’t hurry. She shook the bronze dish dry as best she could and stowed it away, then gathered up bow and catch and set off for her horse.
    When she reached the camp, the sky had darkened to purple and torches were being lit throughout the hollow. Tall iron braziers flamed on either side of the entrance to Drwyn’s tent where the two guards stood, looking tense and uneasy.
    As Teia dismounted, the tent flap was flung back and Ytha strode out, her face hard in the flickering light. ‘Where have you been?’ she demanded.
    Heart lurching, Teia held up the brace of fowl. ‘Up at the lakes, hunting.’
    ‘Did you see anyone else?’
    ‘No, Speaker. Is something wrong?’
    ‘I sensed someone working the power outside the valley.’ The words were bitten off as if by a spring trap. Teia flinched; it was all she could do to meet Ytha’s gaze. ‘Was it you? Do you have the Talent? Answer me, girl!’
    ‘I saw no one, Speaker.’
    ‘Answer me! Do you have the Talent? You know the penalty for deceit!’
    Teia shrugged helplessly. Ytha seized her head between her hands and her awareness swept into Teia’s mind on an icy wind.
    She shrank from it, pulling her thoughts deep down inside herself, hiding from the storm beneath the covers of her fear. ‘Speaker,’ she whimpered. ‘Please!’
    ‘What happens here?’ The deep, rough voice was Drwyn’s. He loomed over Ytha’s