Prince of Dogs (Crown of Stars 2)

“Ai, there, child!” The horseman reined up beside her. He unhooked his helm and pulled it off. She stared up, astonished, at Lord Wichman himself. He had a crazed look in his eyes and a wild grin on his lips. “You’re the one my men found foraging in the woods. Why didn’t you go with the refugees we sent off months ago, to the marchlands? You’re a cursed nuisance, almost ruining our raid like that.”

He had the full cheeks of a man who doesn’t want for food, even in hard times. Terrified, she did not know how to address him. No lord had ever even noticed her before.

At last, stammering, she found her voice. “Master Helvidius is my grandfather, my lord.” The lie came conveniently to her lips. “I had to stay with him, and he was too ill to walk so far when the others left.”

He grunted, sheathing his sword. “He’ll have a victorious tale to sing tonight. A good sixty cattle and as many goats we’ve claimed back today.” His grin was fierce and sure, and he looked ready to ride out this minute on another raid. “Go on, then.” He gestured to the west. Snow blew and skittered round him, white flakes spinning in the wind. “It’s a long walk back to Steleshame.”

Then he turned and rode away to meet a half dozen of his mounted soldiers. They headed east. Anna ran for the top of the hill and there—

All the breath slammed out of her as if she had been struck in the stomach. There! At last she found breath to shout.

“Matthias!”

With the other slaves, rescued now, he had formed up to help the remaining soldiers herd cattle and goats back to Steleshame. Hearing her voice, he started away, cast about, then saw her and limped up the slope.

She burst into tears and ran down to meet him. Ai, Lady, he was all bone with only a layer of skin holding him together.

“You’re so thin,” he said, hugging her tightly. “Oh, Anna! I thought I’d never see you again.”

She couldn’t speak she was sobbing so hard.

“Hush, now,” he said. “It’s over and done with.”

“It’s not done with! It’s never done with! They’ll never go away. They’ll always be here, hunting us, won’t they?”

“Hush, Anna,” he said more sternly. Because she had learned to obey him, she choked down her sobs and quieted. “I just thought of Papa Otto,” he continued. “I thought if Papa Otto could survive even after he lost everyone in his family, then I could, too, knowing you still lived.”

“But you didn’t know I still lived—you saw them attack—”

“I had to believe it!”

That silenced her.

“Come now.” He took her hand. The herd had begun to creep sluggishly westward. “Other Eika will come when this group don’t report back to the main camp. We’ve got to be long gone. Lord Above, Anna, why were you with them? Are there so few of you left at Steleshame that they’re taking children out to fight?”

Like the Eika made by illusion into stone, he appeared to her different than what she had known before. Still familiar, he was no longer the same Matthias. He was not a boy any longer.

“There aren’t any dogs here,” she said softly, to say something, finally beginning to tremble with reaction. Her feet hurt, and her nose was cold.

They fell in line with the others. Matthias used his stave to nudge back a straying goat. “The dogs kill the cows, and the Eika would have to spend more time guarding the cows against the dogs than the cows against—well—a raid like this. Out here with the livestock we don’t see many dogs.”

“What’s wrong with your leg?” she asked.

But he only shook his head and would not answer.

It took them the rest of the day to walk back to Steleshame. Matthias’ limp got progressively worse, and finally one of the soldiers took pity on him and let him ride behind him.

Mistress Gisela fell into ecstasies, seeing what a great number of livestock had been rescued from the Eika. At once, she ordered her servants to prepare a thanksgiving feast.

Anna led Matthias out to a hovel in the courtyard where she, Helvidius, and Helen made their home, such as it was. Stuck cheek by jowl with a number of other hovels constructed after the attack, the tiny hut had at least the benefit of lying within the newly reconstructed palisade wall. No one slept outside the palisade now; of course, Steleshame was no longer as crowded as it had once been.

Master Helvidius sent Anna to sit with Helen while he tended to Matthias’ leg, grumbling all the while about Mistress Gisela and her airs of nobility: “Feasting when there isn’t enough to feed the weakest! The biscop of Gent would have fed the poor, bless her memory!”

Matthias was feverish, too restless to sleep, too nauseated to eat much more than a sip of ale and a crust of bread, but at last he fell asleep on their single pallet, little Helen curled up at his chest. Anna heaped all three blankets over him and resigned herself to shivering out the night.

“Nay,” said Helvidius. “You’ll come with me into the hall. No use your getting sick when you have both of them to tend for. And there’ll be roasted cow, I’ll wager. You can grab a bone before the dogs get to it.” Thus coaxed, Anna reluctantly left Matthias and the little girl.

But later that night as Anna sat half-dozing by the hearth, after Lord Wichman had returned from his scouting expedition, after he and his men had feasted and the fortunate servants been allowed to wolf down their scraps, after Helvidius had serenaded the young lord endlessly with his exploits, a sudden cold undercurrent chilled the girl like a wordless cry for help.