Deepwood: Karavans # 2 Read Online Free PDF Page A

has begun,” he told her gently.
     
    “Oh, Mother.” Audrun held the infant more tightly yet, closing her eyes against the sympathetic expression on the guide’s face.
     
    “But if it calms you to know, you will likely see nothing immediately. Alisanos seeks out the blood and bone, first. Lastly the flesh. It may take years, Audrun, for a complete change. By human reckoning.”
     
    She swallowed around a painful lump in her throat, fighting back tears of fear, of anger, of helplessness.“And are they gone? Those creatures that wanted the baby?”
     
    He grimaced. “For the moment. But I am neither my sire, nor a primary, for all my recent posturing, and they will remember that at some point. They will seek us again.”
     
    Anger, oh, yes, anger was in her heart. Anger and utter despair. The baby was safe again in her arms, a warm bundle wrapped in the remains of Rhuan’s leather tunic, but the karavan guide—the
Alisani-born
karavan guide!—had laid claim to her daughter. Yes, he explained it was for the child’s safety, and a part of her accepted that, but the balance of her mind and emotions rejected the idea outright. With Davyn absent, with Davyn
missing
, she could not bear to think of his daughter being claimed by another man.
O Mother, let him be safe. Let us find him, let him see his child!
     
    Even as she cradled the baby against her chest, Rhuan stepped in behind her, undid the knot in his tunic sleeves, adjusted the length of the sling, and retied it at the back of her neck.
     
    She felt a mixture of gratitude, embarrassment, and annoyance because he performed the act of a husband. “You may take it back,” she said. “Your tunic. I can carry her.”
     
    He shrugged bare shoulders. “It’s easier with the sling.”
     
    Yes, it would be, but he was a stranger, and male. It stirred a question. She latched onto it, relieved to finda topic that did not emphasize their danger. “How do you know about such things?”
     
    His smile was fleeting. “
Dioscuri
help in the creche.”
     
    The words meant nothing. “What is that?”
     
    “Children are kept together from birth. They are raised by secondaries and neuters, not their parents. Part of a
dioscuri’s
duty, before puberty, is to assist in the creche.”
     
    She could not keep the skepticism from her tone. “And you said
dioscuri
are—children born to gods?”
     
    Dimples flashed as he grinned. “Is it so difficult to believe I’m the son of a god?”
     
    “Difficult?” The impulse was to laugh in desperate disbelief, but she curbed it even as she answered with pointed honesty. “More accurately impossible.”
     
    Unoffended, he nodded, irony twisting a corner of his mouth. “Yes, well, Brodhi has said the same. I will have to tell you about Alisanos and the lives of my people, but later. For now, we would do best to move on.” He placed a warm hand on her shoulder and turned her. “I suspect we’ll be followed anyway, but if we can make it to the Kiba, we should be safe.”
     
    Distracted, she allowed him to urge her into motion. “Where and what is that?”
     
    His tone was odd. “Well, I know where it was the last time I was here. It may be elsewhere, now. But we’ll go first to where it was when I departed Alisanos.”
     
    Audrun stopped dead, turning to face him. It took all of her strength to keep her voice level and nonconfrontational,to banish panic. “You will forgive me, I do hope, that I must ask you to be clearer. That I require more information, more
explanation
. I know only that somehow we have come to be in Alisanos, that my pregnancy was inexplicably escalated, and that I now have a newborn to tend four months before the proper time. I am not alone, you see. I have more than myself to deal with. And also, there is my family to find, my children, my husband.” She drew in a breath that shook; steadied it with effort. “I know you mean well, but I must ask questions. I must
know
things. I require