I hesitated, not sure what I should say. I didn’t owe this man the truth. Jafir’s gaze locked on mine, and I saw the misery in his eyes. He shook his head slightly. No. If I had no worth, they might still let me go.
I looked at the crowd gathering behind him. The rest of the clan had caught up, a sea of eyes and gaunt stares. A baby cried. Another child whimpered.
Soon. It clutched at my chest. Four days out.
“Answer me!” Fergus yelled.
“No,” I whispered.
He hissed out a frustrated breath and grabbed my chin, turning it one way and then the other. He looked at Steffan, who held me. “Fit enough for a wife. She’s yours, Steffan. She should be able to bear you a brat or two—my grain’s not going to waste.”
“No!” I yelled. “I won’t—”
Jafir’s roar came on the heels of my scream. “You can’t defy Harik! He—”
Fergus spun, punching Jafir in the stomach, the force of it vehement and brutal, making the men holding Jafir stumble back a step. He struck him again in the ribs. I screamed for him to stop. Jafir’s head lolled to the side, his feet collapsing beneath him. Only the men gripping his arms on either side kept him from crumpling to the ground. Jafir coughed, spitting out blood.
“Like you defied me?” Fergus yelled. He grabbed Jafir’s hair, pulling his head back so Jafir had to look at him. Jafir’s eyes remained defiant.
“You betrayed the clan,” Fergus growled. “You betrayed me. You’re no son of mine. Just like Liam was no brother.” He drew his knife and held it to Jafir’s neck.
“No!” I screamed. “Wait!”
Fergus looked back at me.
“Harik was right! I do have the knowing, and I am strong in it!” I said. “I’ll guide you safely through the mountains and well past that, but only on one condition—I do it as Jafir’s wife. Not Steffan’s.”
“Shut up!” Steffan yelled, shaking me.
Fergus smirked. “Look at yourself, girl. You’re in no position to lay down conditions. You’ll guide us at my orders.”
A woman squeezed past the others, laying a hand on Fergus’s shoulder. “Give her what she wants, Fergus. If she has no hope for the end of the journey, what’s to keep her from guiding us into peril?”
“Or abandoning us to die halfway through the wilderness?” another woman called out. A rumble of fear ran through the rest of the clan.
“Hush!” Fergus yelled, waving his knife in the air. “She’ll do as I say if she wants to live!”
You’ll do as I say, if you want to live, I wanted to tell him. I’ve already seen you all dead just four days out. But I held my tongue because his moves were erratic and the knife still waved in his hand.
A man stepped forward. He was taller and older than Fergus. “It would serve us all to have one of her kind leading the way,” he said. “But Laurida is right, if the girl has no hope for reward, it might spell our own doom.”
Fergus took several steps, as if weighing the man’s words, and sheathed his knife. He surveyed the clan and their worried glances, then walked back to me, fingering the hair on my shoulder. “Very well, Morrighan of the Remnant. I’ll strike a deal with you. If you lead us safely to a place of my liking and you please me with your helpfulness along the way, at the end of the journey, you will be Jafir’s. If not, you will be Steffan’s. Do you agree to this without argument?”
I knew there was no way I would ever please this man. He would never concede to my condition, but there was nothing else I could do. If I agreed, it would give Jafir and me more time—and maybe all of those who stood behind Fergus more time too.
“Yes,” I answered.
He told Steffan to release me, then turned to the men holding Jafir and nodded. They let go of his arms, and he fell to the ground, coughing. I ran to him and dropped to his side. His breaths shuddered, and he held his ribs. I cradled his head in my lap, wiping the blood from his mouth with my skirt.
“Morrighan,” he started to protest, but I put my finger to his lips. He knew what I knew. His father would give me nothing.
“Shh,” I whispered. My vision blurred with tears and I leaned closer so I was certain no one would hear. “For now, this is a way. A way for us. I love you, Jafir de Aldrid. I will always love you.”
I looked back at Fergus. He and Steffan already stood shoulder to shoulder, their eyes shining with victory. The clan was appeased, and he would still get what he wanted. But for now this agreement, however fleeting, bought Jafir and me more time. The only thing that was certain was that at the end of this journey, I would be the wife of an Aldrid.
Chapter Twenty-One
Morrighan