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Isana woke to the sound of feet pounding up the stairs to her rooht had fallen while she slept, and she could hear the anxious rattle of rain and sleet on the roof She sat up, though it asped a breathless Beritte She tripped in the darkness at the top of the stairs and stuasp and an unladylike curse

"La out a familiar effort of will The spark i the roolow She pressed the heels of her hands to her tehts Rain pounded, and she heard the wind gust into an angry howl Lightning flickered outside, folloiftly by an odd, bellowing thunder

"The storht"

Beritte gathered herself to her feet and bobbed in a hasty curtsey Holly-bells, the scarlet flowers just beginning to wilt, dropped petals to the floor "It&039;s horrible, mistress, horrible Everyone&039;s afraid And the Steadholder The Steadholder is here, and he&039;s badly hurt Mistress Bitte sent me to fetch you"

Isana jerked in a sharp breath "Bernard" She pushed herself out of bed, rising to her feet Her head throbbed with pain as she rose, and she had to rest a hand against the wall to keep herself fro to still herself against the rising panic inside her, to steel herself against the pain Dier and anxiety of the rest of the people in the steadholt, rising up froth and leadership now,her eyes and forcing her features to smooth out "Take me to him"

Beritte rushed out of Isana&039;s room, and the woman followed her with short, determined steps As she stepped out into the hallway, the anxious fear flowing up froainst her, alan to seep inside her She shivered, and at the top of the stairs paused for a hts, until it no longer pressed so tightly against her The fear would not sih that she distance herself froain

Isana then walked down the stairs, into Bernardholt&039;s great hall The roo, half as wide, and o raised fro quarters above had been added on, wood beale shaped piece of stone, wrought by long and exhausting hours of furycrafting from the bones of the earth Storreat hall or anyone sheltered within it or the only other such building in the steadholt-the barn where precious livestock lived

The hall was croith folk All of the steadholt&039;s residents were there, representing several large faathered around one of the several trestle tables that had been set out earlier in the evening, and the food that had been in preparation since before dawn had been taken to the tables and laid out upon them The mood of the room was anxious-even

the children, who noraave them a virtual holiday, seemed subdued and quiet The loudest voices in the hall were tense murmurs, and every ti toward the doors of the hall

The hall was divided Fires burned in the hearths at either end At the far fire, the Steadholders had gathered at a s her toward the other, where Bernard was laid Between theether, with blankets laid by for sleeping on, should the storht The talk was subdued- perhaps due to the confrontation earlier that day, Isana thought, and no one seemed to want to be too near either of the fireplaces

Isana strode past Beritte and toward the nearer fire Old Bitte, the steadholt&039;s furycraft teacher, was crouched down beside where they had laid Bernard out on a pallet near the fire She was an ancient, frail wo to the small of her back Her hands shook as a matter of course, and she couldn&039;t walk far, but she was still confident, her eyes and her spirit undimmed by the years

Bernard&039;s face had the stark pallor of a corpse, and for a hten with terror But then his chest rose and fell in a slow, ragged breath, and she closed her eyes, steadying herself again He was thickly covered with blankets of soft wool, except for his right leg, which was ses, also soaked in blood, had been wound around his thigh, but Isana could see that they would need changing shortly

"Isana," Old Bitte croaked, her voice gently ragged with the roughness of her years "I&039;ve done all I can for him, child Needle and thread can only do so much"

"What happened?" Isana asked

"We don&039;t know," Bitte said, sitting back "He has a terrible wound on his thigh Perhaps a beast, though it could be a wound froed to put a tourniquet on it and to let it out once or twice We -but he lost so much blood He&039;s unconscious, and I don&039;t know if he&039;ll wake up again"

"A bath," Isana said "We need to draw him a bath"

Bitte nodded "I&039;ve sent for one, and it should be here in a few et Tavi over here I want to hear what happened to my brother&039;

Bitte looked up at Isana, dark and keen eyes sad "Tavi didn&039;t come home with him, child"

"What?" Fear flooded her, swift and chill and horrible She had to fight to push it aside, covering the effort by pulling tendrils that had escaped her braid back from her face Calm She was a leader in this steadholt She had to appear calm, controlled "Didn&039;t come home with him?"

"No He&039;s not here"

"We&039;ve got to find him," Isana said "This is a furystorm He&039;ll be defenseless"

"Only that poor idiot Fade would go out into the storm at all, child," Bitte said in an even tone "He went out to make sure the barn doors were sealed and was the one who found Bernard The furies watch over fools and children, they say Perhaps they will help Tavi as well" She leaned forward and said, lower, "Because no one here can do anything about it"

"No," Isana insisted "We have to find hiled down the stairs, carrying the big copper bathtub They set it down on the floor nearby and then began, with the help of some of the children, to relay buckets of water to the tub froot on the wall

"Isana," Bitte said, her voice frank, almost cold, "you&039;re exhausted You&039;re the only one I knoho has a chance of bringing Bernard back, but I doubt you&039;ll be able to do even that, much less find Tavi in this weather"

"It doesn&039;t matter," Isana said "The boy is my responsibility"

Old Bitte&039;s hand, warripped her wrist "The boy is out there in that storm He&039;s found shelter by now, Isana Or he&039;s dead You must focus on what you do now-or Bernard will be dead as well"

The fear, the anxiety pressed closer, in tune with the terror rising inside of her Tavi She shouldn&039;t have let herself become so distracted with the preparations, shouldn&039;t have let Tavi deceive her He was her responsibility The iht in the storm, torn to shreds by the windhts, and she let out a quiet sound of frustration, helplessness

She opened her eyes to find her hands shaking Isana looked at Bitte and said, "I&039;ll need help"

Old Bitte nodded, but her expression was nervous "I&039;ve spoken to the hold woive you what they can But it , there would be no chance at all of saving him, and even with it-"

"The hold women?" Isana snapped "Why not Otto and Roth? They&039;re Steadholders They owe it to Bernard For thatfor hirimaced "They won&039;t, Isana I already asked"

Isana stared at the old matron, startled After a moment, she asked, "They what?"

Bitte looked down "They won&039;t help None of them"

"In the name of all the furies, why not?"

The matron shook her head "I&039;m not sure The stor about their folk at ho he can I think he&039;s hoping to stop the Meet"

"Kord? He&039;s in from the barn?"

"Aye, child"

"Where&039;s Warner?"

Bitte grimaced "The old fool Warner nearly flew at Kord Warner&039;s boys took hiirl of his talked him into a hot bath, since they&039;ve not had a chance to bathe since arriving Otherwise, they&039;d have been at one another&039;s throats an hour ago"

"Bloody crows," Isana snarled, and rose to her feet Thethe tub blinked and took a cautious step back frolance around the hall and then said, to Old Bitte, "Get him in the tub They&039;ll help my brother, or I&039;ll shove those Steadholder chains down their cowardly throats" She turned on one heel and stalked across the hall toward the trestle table at the head of it, where several athered-the other Steadholders

Behind them at the fire were Kord&039;s sons, the er brother, the handsome-and accused-Bittan Even as Isana crossed the hall, she saw Fade, his hair and tunic soaked with cold rain, his head ducked down, try to slip close to the far fire He reached for the ladle standing in a pot of stew hung by the fire to stay warm

Bittan scowled up at the slave from his seat immediately beside the fire Fade rotesque parody of a smile He bobbed his head at Bittan nervously, picked up a bowl, and then reached for the ladle

Bittan spat so harsh and sibilant to Fade The slave&039;s eyes widened, and he ," Bittan spat, letting his voice rise "Obey your betters You stink, and I&039;et away from me"

Fade nodded and picked up the ladle, his motions hurried

Aric spun the slave around by his shoulder and threw a short, sharp blow at his mouth Fade let out a yelp and stu his head repeatedly and shuffling off away fro men

Aric rolled his eyes and looked at Bittan, scowling Then he folded his arainst the wall on the other side of the stone fireplace

Bittan smirked and called after Fade, "Idiot coward Don&039;t coain,his folded hands

Thunder shook the air outside, and Isana braced herself against the accoh the room It washed over her a second later than she would have expected it, and she re still, her eyes closed, until it had passed

"That&039;s crow fodder," snarled one of theout into the silence after the thunder had passed Isana drew herself up short, assessing the Steadholders before she confronted them

The speaker, Steadholder Aldo, continued, his hazel eyes fastened on Kord, his shaven jaw thrust out pugnaciously "The holders of this valley have never stood idly by while one of the others needed help, and we&039;re not going to do it now"

Kord tilted his grizzled head to one side, chewing on a bite of meat he had spit on his knife "Aldo," he rumbled "You&039;re new to your chain, aren&039;t you?"

Aldo stood over Kord, but the di man hardly topped the seated Steadholder by a head "What&039;s that got to do with it?"

"And you&039;re not married," Kord said "You don&039;t have any children Any family that you knohat it&039;s like to worry about"

"I don&039;t have to have a faer at the other two roup, Steadholder&039;s chains around both their necks, "should be on your feet and helping Bernard Roth, what about when that thanadent was after your pigs, eh? Who hunted the thing down? And you, Otto-who tracked down your youngest when he went ht him home safe? Bernard, that&039;s who How can you just sit there?"

Otto, a roundedhair looked down

He took a breath and said, "It isn&039;t that I don&039;t want to help him, Aldo Furies know But Kord has a point"

Roth, a spare elderly o with his darker beard, took a pull froht There&039;sdown than the valley usually sees in an entire aututh we can save-to protect all of our lives" He frowned at Aldo, his expression drarinkles to his brow that time had not "And Steadholder Kord is also correct You are the youngest here, Aldo You should show more respect to your elders"

"When they whine like whiht need your strength?" He turned and spat toward Kord "Convenient for you His death would end the Meet and you&039;d be off the hook with Count Graood, Aldo," Kord ruy Steadholder split his lips into a yellow-toothed smile "Say what you want of me, but the life of oneeveryone in the valley"

"We&039;ve ridden out furystorms before!"

"But not like this," blurted Otto Still, the man didn&039;t look up "This is different We haven&039;t seen one this violent before It makes me nervous"

Roth frowned and said, "I concur"

Aldo stared at the in frustration "Fine," he said then, his tone low, hard "Which one of you wants to be the one to tell Isana that we&039;re going to sit on our hands and do nothing while her brother bleeds to death on the floor of his own hall?"

No one said anything

Isana stared at theback to Aric, who refilled it and passed it back to hi, sat with his back against the wall, his head down, one hand half-shielding his eyes as though his head hurt Isana thought of his cruel treatment of Fade, and hoped that it did

But so struck her odd about the Kordholders, about the way they had arranged themselves, or carried themselves, in the midst of the storm It took her a moment to pick it out They seemedfuries outside the hall

Carefully, she lowered her defenses, just by a bit, in the direction of Kord and his sons

None of the, with a casual reaching out of her senses, but a ain, and she knew she would never be able to raise her defenses again in tiain, the tide of terrified e her to hold steady against it onceon her feet, and then a hand gripped her ar beside her, holding her steady

"Mistress," Fade said, ducking his scarred head in a cluun to dry, blackening "Mistress, Stead-holder hurt"

"I know," Isana said "I heard that you found him Thank you, Fade"

"Mistress hurt?" The slave tilted his head to one side

"Fine," Isana breathed She looked around at the fa to the fury of the storhten you?"

Fade nodded his head, his expression absent, eyes focusing elsewhere

"But you&039;re not very afraid?"