Free Changing Fate [Fate series] by Elisabeth Waters

rest of this before you try to move in the morning. If you don't, I assure you that you really will have morning sickness!” He laid her limp body gently down and wrapped Briam's cloak securely around her. “Rest well.” He walked out of the clearing, still in human form.
* * * *
    When she woke, the sun was high in the sky. She lay still, trying to sort out where she was and what was going on. Slowly her memories of the past few days returned: her father's death, the escape from the castle, a fight with a couple of Stefan's men, and advice from Lord Ranulf—but surely a lot of it had been a dream? Her mind couldn't tell her; to it everything seemed equally real or unreal.
    There were no bodies in the clearing—if the fight had really happened, Briam must have disposed of them somewhere. But Briam was sitting across the clearing cleaning a sword, there were now three hobbled horses browsing in the trees at the edge of the clearing, and there were more saddlebags piled with their supplies. So the fight with the mercenaries hadn't been a dream. There was also a pile of bloody clothing—apparently Briam had grasped the principle that they needed all the food and clothing they could get. Or maybe after last night he'd decided he wasn't that fond of her wolf-shape after all.
    Her current shape was normal human, caked in spots with dried blood—both she and Briam's cloak were going to need washing as soon as she could move. There was a fruit bar turning sticky in her left hand. Briam must have tried to feed her while she was crying, not that she could remember it, but she certainly appeared to have fallen asleep with the bar in her hand. She pulled it toward her mouth and froze. It wasn't one of her dried fruit bars—it was one of Lord Ranulf's honey bars.
    She opened her mouth to ask Briam about it, then decided against it. There was no point in worrying him. She wasn't sure she wanted to know anyway. She forced herself bite off a piece of the bar and began to chew on it. Wherever it came from, it was food, and she badly needed food. Her mouth still tasted a bit bloody, but by now she was too hungry to care.
    The food helped; by the time she finished it she felt merely seriously ill, instead of dead. “Briam?” Her voice came out as a croak.
    "Akila!” Briam crossed the clearing, still holding the sword. “I was afraid you weren't going to wake up. Are you all right?"
    Looking closely at him, she saw that he was red around the eyes; either he'd been crying or he'd sat up watching after she fell asleep—or maybe both. But if he'd sat up watching, wouldn't he have seen Lord Ranulf? Her head ached, so she decided to worry about that later.
    "I feel stiff, sore, and very tired, but I'll live.” She forced a smile. “How about you?"
    He shrugged. “A few bruises—I've had worse. I buried the bodies, but I saved all the clothes and supplies so you could go through them. Was that right?"
    "Exactly right.” Akila reached out and patted his hand. “Help me up; I want to go wash the blood off me.” She gritted her teeth as Briam pulled her to a sitting position, then helped her to her feet. She had aches in every muscle she had ever been aware of, and she discovered several new muscles on her way to the stream.
    She was glad now that she had slept until the sun was high—this meant that the stream was only cold, not icy, at least in the shallow part near the bank. She wasn't even tempted to change into a water-loving shape; at the moment changing seemed impossible. I wonder if I can lose the talent if I overuse it?—no, I'm probably just over tired. After what I've been through the last three days, anyone would be exhausted. At least Briam is holding up well.
    Her internal voice was still with her. Of course Briam's holding up well. Why shouldn't he be? He's been fighting in his own shape, not trying to make his mind and various sets of reflexes work together with insufficient practice. He's also gotten more sleep than