He caught her, and she clung to him, squeezing tight.Cenric stroked her back.“What’s the matter?”
Brynn scared?Snapper asked, cocking his head.Even the dog felt her anxiety.
“I wasn’t gone that long.”Cenric tried to jest, but something must be wretchedly wrong.
“Esa, Lena, give us a moment.”Brynn nodded to the girls.
Esa scurried out to wait with Kalen.Another shape stirred from beside her, what looked to be a Valdari thrall.The second girl ducked out, shutting the tent flap after her.
“Who’s that?”Cenric’s gaze followed the thrall.
“Tullia’s translator.”Brynn turned back to Cenric.“She’s a sorceress.”
“What?”He’d never heard of sorceresses on Valdar.
“She has the ability, anyway.”Distress flickered across Brynn’s face.“That’s another thing.One of many things.”She exhaled a sharp breath.“It has been quite a day.”
“What else?”Cenric studied her carefully.He could see the worry lines had deepened on her forehead and her clothes were askew as if she had been plucking at them.“There’s something else, isn’t there?Tell me, love.”
Did she know Ovrek had all but commanded his allegiance?Was she going to ask him not to?
“Ovrek’s concubine was poisoned.”
Cenric blinked, but recovered enough to ask, “How do you know?”
Brynn’s hands knotted and unknotted before her.“The atheling Tolvir asked me to see her, so I did.The damage to her internal organs…I think it was pennyroyal.”
“Pennyroyal?”Cenric was hardly an herbalist, but he recognized the name.“The plant you use to keep fleas off the dogs?”
“It’s used for many things.”Brynn waved her hand in the air.“It can also cause miscarriage.”
Cenric considered that.“I see.”It wasn’t unheard of for a woman a third of her lover’s age to not want to bear his child, especially when that would make it harder for her to marry after his death.
“No, I don’t think she took it on purpose,” Brynn clarified.“She seemed genuinely upset, as did her servants.I think someone else meant to make her miscarry.”
Cenric pinched the bridge of his nose.Things kept getting worse.
“The pregnancy is over, but I think she will survive.”
Cenric straightened.“She was hurt?”
“Pennyroyal can be highly poisonous.”
Cenric exhaled.Ovrek would not be pleased to learn someone was poisoning his women.“Does the girl know?”
“I told her and her servants through the translator.I’m not sure they believed me.”Brynn made a short, frustrated sound.“I don’t know…where to go or who to tell.I feel like I should tell someone, but I don’t want to get her in trouble.”
Cenric was not meant for this kind of intrigue.Brynn was far better versed at such delicate matters, but she didn’t speak the language or know these people well enough.“We must tell Ovrek.If someone is poisoning his consorts, that could be a plot.”
“But what if the girl gets in trouble?”Brynn wrung her hands.
“Her life could be in danger.”Another thought occurred to Cenric.“Ovrek could be in danger.”
Brynn covered her face with her hands.She’d probably been tormented by this all day.“There’s more.”
“What?”Cenric braced himself.
Brynn dropped her hands.“Tullia…”
