Changing Fate [Fate series] Read Online Free PDF

still held Lord Ranulf's letter clutched in her hand. She dropped it on the bed beside her and opened the chest, reaching inside it for the dried fruit bars she kept there for times when she had been shape-changing and needed extra food in a hurry. She unwrapped one with shaking hands and crammed it into her mouth. Even chewing it took enormous effort, but after she had eaten three of them, she felt at least half-human again.
    She picked up the letter and looked at the salutation. It was addressed to her.
    Well, that explains why Briam gave it to me, she thought. But how odd, why would Lord Ranulf write to me? Did Stefan tell him that I made the decisions around here—no, Stefan wouldn't know that, because Father was here when he was, and besides, I heard what Stefan was telling Lord Ranulf...
    She turned her attention back to the letter. After the part about the coffin which she had read earlier, it continued “...It may relieve your heart to know that I neither killed your father nor ordered his death. The mercenary Stefan brought his body to me in hope of a reward, which I have not given him."
    But Stefan is still with you, Akila thought, so you must have promised him something, or else he still hopes for something.
    "...I bear no ill will toward you, nor towards any of your people, and you may assure your brother that my intentions towards you are quite honorable. I ask that you do me the favor of becoming my wife. I feel sure that you have sufficient sense to see the advantages to this plan. You will be able to live comfortably in your own home and remain mistress of your estate. In time, the property will pass to your children..."
    Akila dropped the letter, feeling profoundly shocked. It was silly, of course, that the idea of having children should shock her, but children of her own were not something she had considered. Her father had made it quite clear, without ever saying anything explicit on the subject, that she was never to marry or have children. The inheritance was Briam's, not Akila's. Now Lord Ranulf seemed to be looking at it from the opposite point of view. Akila picked up the letter and read it carefully from start to finish. Except for the one reference she had already seen, there was no mention of Briam. So what does Lord Ranulf plan for him? Akila wondered.
* * * *
    She continued to wonder during the next several days, during which they buried their father next to their mother in the family graveyard behind the main hall, cut the food first to half-rations, then quarter-rations, and watched Lord Ranulf's army.
    Most of the army patrolled outside the walls, but Akila and Galin noted that every morning a large group of men would march off toward the village and fields and would not be seen again until after dark, when they returned to camp. She wished she dared change to eagle shape and find out what they were doing, but she did not think that Lord Ranulf had been bluffing about shooting any creature trying to leave the castle. Even if the shot was merely intended to disable—an arrow through the wing, for example (Akila shuddered, visualizing an arrow tearing through feathers, tendons and muscles, and told herself firmly that she had too vivid an imagination), Akila was unsure of her ability to land safely using only one wing and even less sure of her ability to hold eagle shape if she were injured. And the idea of being naked and helpless in the middle of a strange army was terrifying.
* * * *
    They were all down to one meal a day now, a gruel made from the last few barrels of last year's grain in the storerooms. There was no meat, no fruit or vegetables. Water was no problem, the castle had a good well inside the walls. But the harvest, the fruit trees, and the wild game that was their usual diet at this time of year was all outside the walls. They weren't dying yet, although some of the younger children were starting to sicken, but Akila knew that time was against them. They could hold out for a