The Silver Siren (Iron Butterfly, #3)(6)

Hemi looked at the farm skeptically. “I don’t think they would even open the door to us.”

Darren waved his hands in the air. “Nonsense. They wouldn’t open the door to you. A strapping young man like myself who is traveling with his wife and children on the way to Haven—yes.” Darren held out his arm to Fanny who laughed and latched on to it playfully.

“Yes, my darling husband,” Fanny batted her eyes at him. Hemi looked at the exchange and his face darkened, turning red.

“The rest of you would do best if you stayed back out of sight. Kael, that includes you. Your whole body language reads trained killer. Hemi, you look…uh...hmm, well.” Darren paused as he took in the huge muscular frame, the wild red hair, his long beard and fur pelt Hemi wore around his shoulders. “Umm let’s just say, you look like you could scare them into saying yes, if it comes to forcing them to let us stay the night.”

“Darren, you don’t really think we would force them?” Fanny looked up worriedly.

“Of course not. Watch and learn.” Darren had Kael and Hemi lead Mona into the woods along with two of the horses. While Fanny rode one of our horses, Darren led Faraway, and Joss and I walked demurely behind.

“Joss, now remember you’re my devoted son who wants to grow up and be just like his good ol’ dad.”

Joss snorted and his shoulders shook in mirth.

“Shhh, stop laughing. You’re blowing our cover,” Darren admonished.

I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing as we tried to play the parts that Darren assigned to us. Fanny the worried mother, Joss the devoted son and—Darren spared one look at my skeptical face and deemed me the mute daughter.

No way on earth would this scheme actually work. But sure enough, Darren slumped a shoulder, ruffled his hair, and took on the persona of a worn out father who was looking out for his family. He knocked and we waited.

The elderly farmer and his plump wife were slow to open the door, but once they looked at Darren’s face and saw Fanny and her children, the door opened wider.

“What can I do for you?” the farmer asked, his eyes crinkled in concern.

“Well, good sir. We only wish to take shelter in your barn for the night. We are on our way to Haven, to take young Jon here to my brother’s to become his apprentice. Our horse threw a shoe and we’ve lost the light. We had hoped to make it to an inn by now, and my wife and daughter don’t wish to sleep out in the open again.”

“Oh, the poor dears.” The farmer’s wife looked at us with understanding, leaving me to believe that she had been in a similar situation. Faraway played his part perfectly by favoring one hoof.

“We would be willing to pay for the use of your barn, hay, and some feed. We have our own food stores so we won’t need anything else.” Darren spoke slowly and calmly.

I shot a look over to Darren and had to bite my tongue. Of course if I were the one negotiating I would have asked for a bathing tub and maybe some food. The baked bread I smelled coming out of the kitchen made my stomach growl. But then we would have a hard time explaining why we ate enough food for a party of seven.

When the deal was struck, Darren gave the farmer and his wife enough money to seem generous but not make them overly suspicious. He told them we wouldn’t need anything else and to not worry about us, but the extra few coins paid them for our privacy.

We led our horses to the barn and waited till dark to motion for Kael and Hemi to bring Mona. The barn was a great distance from the house, so none of us worried that they would hear us talking. Still, few words were spoken as we settled in to sleep, everyone grateful for the abundance of hay to pad our beds. Everyone, that was, except for me.

Sleeping on the straw brought back awful memories of being a prisoner of the Septori and how Kael had set the whole prison on fire—an underground prison beneath a stable. The similarities were too much, and every time I closed my eyes, I saw the iron butterfly and the cold metal table.

Not to mention that the fever and burning stomach pain was back. Rolling on my side, I tried to concentrate on breathing until this latest episode passed. That is what I had started calling them. Episodes. Which usually only came during the night.

Joss had even taken a look at me and couldn’t find anything wrong.

“It burns. Everything’s on fire,” I whimpered. Tonight, it wasn’t letting up. It was getting worse. My body felt as if I were literally on fire. I wasn’t being as quiet as I thought, because cool hands pressed themselves to my forehead.

“She is burning up,” a soft feminine voice whispered. I felt a cool energy pass through me as Fanny attempted to heal me, but the energy came and went. “It’s not working. I can’t identify what is attacking her, so I don’t know how to heal it. It’s not a regular infection. I don’t know what to do.”

A few muffled words were spoken. And someone mentioned Mona’s name in question.

“No, I’ve checked for signs. It’s not Mona,” Joss spoke.

More muttering and someone cursed in aggravation.

You’ll be fine. It will pass, Faraway intoned sadly.

Do you know what’s happening? I gasped as another wave of pain overcame me.

It’s as the Raven said. You are changing.

AGHH. I grunted and tried to think the words to my horse. Into what?

Silence followed.