Free Barrenlands (The Changespell Saga) by Doranna Durgin Page B

caravan through the magical hazards with his unmatching eyes, they'd been back in force. Wintering at home had made their re-emergence obvious to a light sleeper like Shette, if not to their parents.
    Such knowledge had made good ammunition when she was pestering him to take her on the route this year.
    She flipped a hand at the bug whining near her ear. As brothers went, she supposed he wasn't so bad— but then, their isolated childhood left her little comparison. He was handsome enough, in a brawny sort of way. At fifteen years, Shette had discovered she preferred to eye a man built long and lean— Ehren — so it had taken the earthy teasing of the caravan whores to make her see anything in her brother. They liked his eyes, which were nearly always filled with guileless humor, and which had slightly down-turned corners that at the same time made him look puppy dog sad. And they especially liked the way a body had to get close to tell the difference between the black eye and the blue one.
    Laine made another little noise, as if someone had stepped on his stomach. Shette sighed, a dramatic sound. Despite the irritated way she occasionally poked him awake, she'd learned long ago that it was best— and safest— not to disturb him in the middle of these spells. Once he'd blacked her eye; once he'd been dazed for hours. It never lasted long, anyway— in a few minutes she could go back to sleep.
    Another grumble of sound from Laine; another sigh from Shette, as only a wronged fifteen year-old can sigh. She hadn't taken the stupid dreams into account when she'd begged to see a little of the world with her brother.
    Of course, she hadn't taken magical monsters or handling Spike into account, either.
    Laine jerked; the faint starlight dimly picked out the features of his face, the tightened muscles of his neck. The noise he made was harsh, torn from deep inside. Shette didn't like it.
    "Laine?" she said. "Laine, wake up."
    His body arched and jerked, and suddenly she didn't like it at all .
    "Laine!" she said sharply, getting on her hands and knees and leaving the blanket behind. She heard the dull thud of his head hitting the ground as he spasmed again, saw his fingers splayed out stiff, then suddenly clutching at nothing. "Dammit, Laine!" she cried, forgetting she wasn't supposed to use such language. She grabbed his arm, finding the muscles clenched so tightly she might as well have been holding oak. Thud went his head on the ground, as he arched back so hard she swore she heard him creak.
    "Laine, stop, stop !" In desperation, she threw herself over his broad chest and held him tightly, riding him as she would a pony. " Laine !"
    He gave a great gasp and fell limp, drawing in air as though he'd been drowning, his chest heaving up and down beneath Shette. She held him tight, feeling very much five years the younger— and at the same time somehow older, protective. "Laine?"
    "Shette. What... ?"
    "Dreams is what," she said, anger stirring in the wake of her fear. "I hope it was worth all this trouble, whatever it was."
    "Not a dream," he whispered, still breathing heavily, bringing one arm up to rest over the back of her shoulders. He patted her once or twice in an absent and consoling way. "Definitely not a dream."
    She knew. And she sure didn't like it.
    ~~~~~~~~~~
     
     

CHAPTER FOUR
     
    Laine spent the morning dazed, Shette talked too much, and Ehren— though patently miserable— spent more time watching Laine with unreadable expression than getting the rest he ought.
    Laine knew he should make something of that. He should have been amused, too, at the outrage on Shette's face when both Dajania and Sevita showed up in the early morning to inspect Ehren's wrist and concur he would, indeed, live. They left a pack of herbs for compresses and promised to return in the evening, although Laine frankly thought the women would have their hands full with merchants whose aching muscles needed massaging. None of the men and