Read Online Warrior Blind by Calle J. Brookes - Free Book Online Page B

looked to her to lead.
    “Thousands, last I knew.” Auri was in the suite that had unofficially become Bron’s—for all of one day. She’d met with Kindara and spoken with her brother Thadd. Then she, Auri, and Thadd had returned to Thrun. To prepare. They were gathering what Auri deemed essential for a woman on an epic task. Bronwen didn’t have a clue. Hadn’t she spent the last fifteen months feeling exactly like that?
    “Baby?”
    “Auri, I am so afraid. I can’t do this...” This was her real mother, though there was a definite connection with Eaudne. “What am I supposed to do? I cannot even see the people I am supposed to lead.”
    “Oh baby, you do not need sight to lead. You need heart, and courage. Two things Theo, Thadd and I raised you to have. You need to look past what you have lost. Like we all must do at some point or another.”
    Bronwen knew what Auri said was the truth, but how was she supposed to do it?
    Auri’s hands landed on her shoulders. “This was not something I ever wish upon my child. No burden I would not shoulder for you, if I could. But this is what you were meant to do. Embrace this path before you. For we both know that to do differently will not serve you well.”
    “I wish you could go with me.” Was she still a child, then? Even at her age? Wanting her mother to go with her into the scary world?
    That was not who Bronwen was, and she knew it. Some small kernel inside her.
    “That’s not my path, kiddo. Mine rests in Relaklonos, with Ren.”
    “I don’t know how to deal with destiny and a world filled with warriors and kings, and wars.”
    “No. I suppose that you don’t. I barely do, even at my age.” Auri hugged her tight. Bronwen resisted the urge to cling again. “One day at a time, baby. One moment, even, if that is all you can give. You won’t be alone. Not really. You will have Phaenna, and Eaudne. Your brother Thadd goes as well. And though you might not like the idea of it, I don’t think you can ever shake that warrior king.”
    “He’s a warrior, and a bull-headed one at that.”
    “Honey, they all are. Warrior. Dardaptoan. Lupoiux. Even little babes like my Thas can be a bit headstrong when they want something.”
     

Chapter 17
     
    THE distance separating him from the Healer girl seemed like twice what it should. Was that just because of the newly forming bond between them? Or because every instinct he possessed was telling him that she needed him close at all times?
    He’d never been so torn between duty and what he wanted to do.
    He wanted to be right next to her, ensuring she was safe...
    And happy.
    Her happiness was starting to be just as important to him as her safety.
    Was that a natural part of being gamata ?
    He stormed into the Lothicano castle he’d called home for twelve hundred years.
    He needed his twin. “Sinrik!”
    His brother appeared at the top of the grand staircase. In his arms he held a bundled spawn. Zephra? Had he convinced the Relaklonosian princess of her place? “The princess abides within?”
    “The prognosticator Theodoric of Sebastos claims that our spawn would be safer here in her father’s home. Her mother agrees tentatively. It is not as I wished it, but it is a start. I ought to rend your limbs from your body for what you’ve done.”
    “I did as I had to.”
    “Taking the girl? Again? How did that serve you, or our people well?” Sinrik passed his spawn to the woman standing just behind him. Koios recognized the Relaklonosian princess Danae. “Do you know how much difficulty you caused for me?”
    “She is my gamata . Can you claim the same for the princess there?”
    “Of course he cannot,” that princess said, with a definite fury in her words. “And Bronie is not your gamata . She wouldn’t be. Would not want to be.”
    “Yet she is.”
    “Then where is she?”
    “She waits in your home city. She is to lead the Healers to a new world. We are building a healing city in a world yet unnamed.”