Free Warrior Untamed by Melissa Mayhue

Torquil’s hands.”
    For once, Brie agreed with Halldor. Anywhere near Tordenet was the last place she’d choose to go until she had recovered the sword. Then she’d be ready to take her revenge on the monster who had murdered her father. Unfortunately, it sounded as if the choice was not hers to make.
    “Torquil and his intent for me are of little importance. If that’s the only place to seek healing for O’Donar, then that’s where we’ll go.”
    “No,” Halldor said again, attempting to rise to his feet, but Editha held him where he was with one delicate hand to his wounded shoulder.
    “In that case, I’ll do what I can to help him get there. Bring me water and bandages,” the Tinkler ordered, and her husband hurried back toward their wagon. “And you, Halldor O’Donar, I’d have those jewels of which you spoke.”
    “Wait!” Brie could hardly believe her ears. According to Halldor, the jewels were as necessary to their quest as the sword itself. He’d told her the jewels must be reunited with the sword to rein in its power. Giving them to the Tinklers was out of the question. “There must be some other payment you’d accept.”
    “Bah! Dinna you be so foolish, lassie.” Editha’s eyebrows knit together into a straight, dark, disapproving line. “I’ve no desire for payment. I need the gems to bind the evil within his wound.”
    “Oh.”
    Brie’s face flamed with her embarrassment as she silently berated herself for sinking to all the closed-minded judgment she’d heaped at Halldor’s feet such a short time ago. She was every bit as bad as he was. Worse, in fact, because she’d convinced herself that she had no prejudices, and yet, at the very first opportunity, she had jumped to the wrong conclusion about the people who had risked so much to help her when she needed their help.
    More proof, as if she required it, that her father had been right. Her lack of patience and hasty judgment made her her own worst enemy.
    “Bridget!”
    Brie’s head snapped up, her attention refocused on the scene before her.
    “I need you out here with us, lass, no drawn deep inside yer own thoughts. Listen to me well. Should the bandage need redressing before you reach Rowan Cottage, there’ll be none but you to do it, aye? You must pay attention to the proper way.”
    Brie nodded and sank to her knees next to the Tinkler. Though why the woman seemed to think dressing a wound was so complicated was beyond her understanding. A bandage was a bandage.
    “Watch carefully,” Editha instructed, pointing to the ground in front of her, where a long strip of folded linen lay with the jewels tucked in between the layers of the cloth.
    “You’ll line the stones up, just so,” she said, working through the linen to straighten the stones next to one another like little soldiers standing at attention. “You’ll want to make sure you dinna touch them with yer bare hands. You must ensure that the five of them are kept close together at all times with the linen drawn over them. To do otherwise could give Fenrir a clear view of everything around the jewels.”
    “Fenrir?”
    “The Beast that inhabits Torquil’s body. An ancient being of immense evil.”
    A shudder crawled down Brie’s spine and she drew back a little, uncomfortable with her nearness to the stones. She’d known they were powerful, but she’d had no idea just how powerful they actually were. Neither had she understood how direct their connection to the Beast could be.
    “You’ll want to make sure the center stone is directly over the wound,” Editha continued. “Come. Watch.”
    As Brie leaned in close, she could feel the heat rolling off Halldor’s fevered skin. The wound had puckered, the skin red and heated. Small gray bubbles formed along the line of the opening, tumbling out over one another like ants escaping a hill, battling for their release from the confines of his skin.
    Editha laid the cloth over the wound and Halldor sucked air into