Free Wanderling (Spirit Seeker Book 1) by Hannah Stahlhut

his
salt-and-pepper hair, and next to him, hunched over a map and trembling
slightly, huddled the little boy that Jarod had captured. His face was
tear-streaked now, and he looked scared, but Tobin saw no signs of abuse.
    Adala’s chest heaved with a silent
sob at the pitiful sight of her brother. The boy saw her and began to cry
again.
    “What is it?” barked Burano. When
he looked up and saw them, however, his demeanor quickly changed.
    “We’ve got this girl here,” Ollie
explained.
    Burano cut him off, saying, “I
know who she is.” He addressed Adala, saying, “Do you know this boy?”
    The way she choked on a sob at the
sight of her brother, dirty and weeping in his night shirt, made an answer
unnecessary.
    “Shem, are you okay?” Adala said,
voice cracking. “Did he hurt you?”
    Shem shook his head and sniffled.
“I’m okay.”
    “Who’s the boy?” Ollie asked.
    Burano cleared his throat,
ignoring Ollie to address their female prisoner. “So you tracked my men through
the mountains alone. Are there others searching for him?”
    Adala raised her chin and stared
past Burano in defiance, her lips pressed in a thin line.
    “I ask simple questions,” Burano
said succinctly, moving in to tower over his prisoner. “And I will get an
answer from you one way or another. Now tell me, who knows your whereabouts?”
    Tobin cringed at the threat,
feeling ill with the knowledge of how female prisoners were often handled in
the village. If she proved defiant, she could have a very rough life.
    “Please,” the little boy began,
wiping his face. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know, just don’t hurt
her.”
    Burano put a hand up to silence Shem,
keeping his eyes on Adala the whole time. “Who have you told about the banished
men who took your brother?”
    She swallowed. “I left a message
for my betrothed, and he won’t rest until me and my brother are safe.”
    “If he comes, we can kill him,”
Burano said dismissively. “Will he have others with him? Will his family come
to avenge him?”
    “There will be hundreds searching.
My fiancé is the master of arms in Gerstadt, and he will bring his men to
retrieve us. They may be coming through the mountain pass as we speak.” Her
voice grew a little high at the end of her speech.
    Burano paused for a moment, then
threw back his head in laughter. “I’m sure,” he said. “Honestly, that wasn’t
even a good lie. And you are a fool, to boot. Wandering into the mountains
alone without telling anyone where you went.” He made a tsssk sound.
“However, you are here now, where so many others have ended up.” Turning to
Tobin, he said, “Put her to work in the fields.”
    Tobin cringed. “I really don’t
think that’s a good idea, with all due respect,” he blurted.
    Burano seemed surprised, but
allowed him to continue.
    “She isn’t going to follow orders,
not in the foraging groups or the fields,” Tobin said. “Besides, she can read.
I thought you might have a use for her.” He waited for a response, hoping that
she would be spared the drudging work of tilling the rocky soil where he had
spent most of his childhood.
    Burano studied Adala, eyes
narrowed. “Are you sure?” he asked Tobin, eyes still on her dirt-smudged face.
    “Test her yourself.” Tobin nudged
her toward the table.
    “What does this say?” Burano
demanded, pointing to the swirling script at the top of his map.
    Adala cleared her throat. “The
Northernmost Wilds of Our Magnificent Bolgish Empire,” she said.
    Burano’s face lit up, and he
rushed to a trunk behind him. “Here’s a book. Read the first page to me.”
    She squinted at the faded text and
began aloud, “When the Sabrian people, having been ordained by the mighty and
just assembly of gods, weighed anchor in the North Sea, they were challenged by
the most ferocious of savages. These primitive people were warriors without
pity on the battlefield, and called forth the evil spirits of the earth to
plague