FOUR

 

"No, Thibault, don't!" Julia cried, reaching for her cousin.

Her brother William was frozen in horror. No help at all.

They were both too late. Thibault let go, and Julia would remember his terrified eyes and flailing limbs forever, until he hit the tree floating beneath the bridge with an ominous crack and lay still.

"You've killed him!" she screamed at Thibault. "He came to warn us!"

Thibault just shrugged and pushed past her, on his way back to his horse. "You should be thanking me for defending your honour, and your father's," he said, mounting up. "Your father would have had his tongue torn out first for spouting such lies. I did him a mercy." He dug his knees into his gelding's sides, and headed off.

"Come on, we should get going. Thibault wasted enough time. We'll have to spend the night in Elst, before heading on to Veluwe. And pray that there is nothing to gamble on in Elst, or the journey will take even longer." William peered over the side of the bridge and shook his head. "Thibault was right about one thing. Your father never would have tolerated such an insult." He headed for his horse.

Julia could not just leave him lying there. Whoever he was, whatever he'd said...the boy had not deserved to die. She bit her lip, and asked of the water, "Does he live?"

The sound of the boy's heartbeat drifted up to her, magnified by the water.

She dared to breathe again. "Will you please carry him to where he will be safe, and he may receive healing?"

A wave rolled down the river, rebounded off the bank, then lifted one end of the log the boy had landed on. A second wave turned the tree so that it faced downriver, instead of pointing toward the banks. For a moment, it bobbed in the water, before another wave swept it under the bridge, speeding it downstream.

"Protect him," she whispered, biting her lip one last time so the river might taste her magic, and know how much she wanted it to help her.

Another wave crested, carrying the log and its precious cargo around the bend, and out of sight.

Julia peered after it, wanting one last glimpse. Or at least an answer that he would be protected...

"Come on! No wonder this journey takes so long. Just get back on your horse and forget about him. That's what your father would do," Thibault shouted.

Julia sighed. She was not her father, and she would not forget about the boy. He hadn't been wrong – Father's justice was swift and brutal, for she'd seen the evidence of that herself, back home. If the people here had experienced it for themselves, no wonder they said such things about him. But these were her lands now, as they had once been her mother's. Things would be different now she was Lady of Veluwe, she swore.

But she had to get there first. So she slid into Epona's saddle, patting and praising the horse for coming across the bridge, even though it had scared her, and rode into Elst.