Fire Angels. Jane Routley

dark and staying at inns which gave Parrus and I the joyful opportunity to make the most of our supposed status as a married couple. By this time I was almost certain that Tomas hoped that Parrus and I would eventually make a match of it despite our considerable social distance. I didn't let myself worry about what he thought. I knew perfectly well that Parrus would never care for me that much. Tomas would find out soon enough, foolish fellow. For the moment he was too concerned about Tasha to try anything embarrassing.

      I couldn't help being glad Parrus had come and not just for physical reasons. I'd known him for much longer than my brothers and sometimes it was good to have someone to roll your eyes at. Sometimes Tomas could be very bossy and as for Hamel, he finally revealed that his beloved wife, Radiance, was a member of the Burning Light and that he had given permission for her to bring up his son Shine in her faith.

      ”But what does she say about your family background?” I said. He'd just shrugged and said there was a lot to be said for having the church control magecraft.

      The last morning of our journey Tomas was in a fever. Only the strongest arguments had persuaded him to stop for the night. He would have preferred to have continued through the darkness to Annac which was only half a day's journey away and he roused us out of bed well before dawn the next morning.

      It availed us nothing, however, for halfway through the morning we became caught up behind a prison caravan and were forced to follow it for several miles. Tomas was bitterly impatient, but there were deep ditches on either side of the road and beyond stretched muddy fields of new wheat that would have been even slower going. The heavily guarded wagons where impossible to pass and whenever we went through a village, people gathered by the road to watch. Sometimes small groups of people, most of them Burning Light, but some of them not, would start singing hymns about Holy Tansa and his healing fire, but mostly people just stared with fearful eyes. The sight of those white faced prisoners with heavy iron manacles round their necks and wrists filled me with dread. I was glad when we came to the turn off to Annac.

      As we came closer to our journey's end, I scanned the countryside trying to recognize things. Nothing looked particularly familiar. I had expected to feel excited at returning to a place so long in the past, but my main feeling was apprehension. It was not just that I would soon have to do that searching spell. It was Annac itself. What would it be like? Perhaps I would hate it. Maybe the rest of my family were terrible people. What if they didn't like me?