Theodora walked next to the wooden pallet, playing the dual role of holding Ana's hand while doing her best to keep anyone running by in a panic from bumping her. Although she hadn't known Ana long, she knew her by reputation. Her husband had been a stranger. He had been seen by few and known by fewer, even before he mysteriously disappeared shortly after the birth of his youngest son. He was still remembered as being tall, strong and striking to behold. The gossipmongers whispered that he had ties to the rebellious Sidhe, the strange folk said to haunt the forested mountainsides.

  Thea didn't care one way or the other, but Ana herself was strong both in mind and body. In many ways she had to be, raising the two wild brothers, but that strength had been in her long before then. Her strength radiated from her even now, broken and battered and burned. Nobody in town would claim that she wasn't still beautiful, even as she aged. Thea could easily imagine even one of the legendary Sidhe falling for her.

  The brothers took after their mother: dark-haired and dark-eyed but fair-skinned, and tall and strong. Math was the older by a handful of years, but still claimed to have no real memory of his father. The man had not spent much time in the home. Thea wondered if he ever spent more than the two nights with Ana that gave her the two sons. Math seemed none the worse for the lack of father figure. He had assumed responsibility for his mother and younger brother even at a young age, and never seemed to care where his father had run off to. He and his brother were far from the only boys to be missing a parent. War, work, accident and illness separated many a child from one or both parents.

  Rai was the younger, but taller even than Math's above average height, with muscle corded thicker around arms and shoulders than his older brother. They stood out now as his hands gripped the edge of the improvised stretcher, lifting wood and woman with no apparent difficulty. With Math taking on the duties of the home, Rai helped out by apprenticing himself to Randal the stonemason. A few years of lifting and setting those stones had quickly added mass to his tall frame. His strength was becoming legendary in the small town. She loved that man.

  Thea had actually met Math first. He had been a tall, handsome, mysterious stranger who appeared from nowhere in a heavy downpour and helped her and her father dig their wagon out of the muck. He had insisted that the father and daughter follow him to his new house on the edge of town, where his mother and brother were visiting. She and her father had spent the evening sharing in his family's simple but satisfying stew and warming themselves with conversation by the fireplace. Then, when the rain let up later in the evening, it was Rai who jumped up and offered to walk them home by lamplight. Math had accepted their thanks as they departed, then gone back to the books he was never long without.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  “We shouldn’t have left her,” Math said, voice full of self-accusation. “We shouldn’t have let her live alone.”

  “Come on, Math,” Thea scolded. “You know she didn’t want you hanging around thinking she was some helpless old lady.”

  “She’s right,” Rai said. “Mom would be mad if she thought you were calling her helpless.”

  “Besides, whether we lived with her or not, we’d still have been out today instead of sitting around in the house,” Rai added.

  “I know,” Math replied. “I just feel helpless myself.”

  Thea glanced down at Ana. The woman was barely holding on to consciousness and gave no sign that she heard the conversation around her. Her hand was limp in Thea’s, but the younger woman didn’t let go.

  The crowd got thicker as they approached the center of town. People were gathering, looking for loved ones, trying to gather news or just figure out why their homes were now in rubble.

  “I’m telling you, I saw it! Something came out of the mountain! Something big!” a distraught, soot-smeared man was arguing to a few companions.

  “Knock it off,” another answered. “It’s just an eruption, I heard about them before. Just never happened ‘round here before is all,” another answered. His own clothes were singed and his hands blackened, his wild eyes a contrast to his evident attempt to sound informed.

  The benefit of the large crowd gathering in the square was that the bulk of the fires had been contained. Water lines had formed and walls had been torn down where necessary, sacrificing one building to keep the fire from spreading to a neighbor. The disadvantage was that their progress was slowed substantially, and the press of the people got tighter.

  Math led the way through the crowd, raising his voice to warn of their approach and lowering his shoulder a bit to force his way through when needed. As they neared their destination Thea could see tents and tarps erected around the doctor’s home. Before she could make out their purpose, the press of the crowd got too close and she had to let go and fall in behind Rhaiven’s broad shoulders.