Branded By Etain Read Online Free Page B

kingdom during the past months. Étaín and the two younger daughters were the progeny of Mac Eiccnigh mac Dalagh’s third wife who had died giving birth to a stillborn son. The king’s second marriage had been fruitful indeed. His second wife had birthed four sons and three daughters. All had been killed in a Viking raid and Caul Cairlinne burnt to the ground ten and nine summers before.
    Mac Eiccnigh mac Dalagh had been taken prisoner, no doubt to be blood-eagled by his captors. Brand had witnessed the slow, tortuous death practice as a mere boy and the vision of a berserker slicing the screaming prisoner’s ribs from the spine, and breaking them one by one, remained as fresh as ever.
    He relaxed his facial muscles, and bowed to the king.
    “Arise, warrior. Daughter, this man is your choice?”
    Étaín met her father’s ferocious glower with nary a beat of hesitation. “Aye, Da. He is.”
    “What know you of him?” The monarch folded his arms across a massive chest draped by a velvet tunic the color of wet leaves in the height of summer.
    “Naught but what my heart tells me.”
    The king scowled and stared at his child. “Have you e’en spoken with this man?”
    “We have spoken, Da. We have broken a morn fast together. He is Brand of Bärvik, a remote settlement on another isle. Daren the blacksmith shoes his horses and is fashioning a new shield for him.”
    The monarch considered Étaín, his stare piercing and severe. “We will speak of this later, daughter, and I will have Darren’s hide for allowing you two to court without my permission.”
    “Da, Darren knew naught. I, alone, am to blame.” Étaín hold on Brand’s forearm tightened.
    “You would have me believe Margie knew naught?” The monarch jammed thick beringed fingers onto his hipbones.
    “I beseech you, my king, do not punish Margie. ’Tis my doing and I will bear any penalty you deem fit for my actions.”
    King Mac Eiccnigh mac Dalagh shifted to face Brand. “I would know your true thoughts on my daughter and my holding. Truthsayer, to me.”
    Brand stifled the urge to grasp the hilt of his sword.
    Étaín transformed in the space of a heartbeat.
    All expression and color drained from her features. Her eyelids fluttered to half-closed. She stiffened and crossed around to stand on Brand’s left. She stood sideways to him and set her palm to his chest.
    The pounding of his heart drowned any other noise. Brand felt the steady thudding in her fingertips and could not move a muscle.
    “Are you Brand of Bärvik?”
    He bowed to no man and answered to none, not even a king. Brand clamped his lips together. To his utter astonishment words jumped out of his mouth. “I am.”
    Étaín droned, “He speaks the truth.”
    “Do you intend harm to any at Caul Cairlinne?”
    “I do not.” What magik was this that Brand had no control over his own tongue?
    “Truth.”
    “Will you cherish Princess Étaín?”
    “I will.”
    “Truth.”
    King Mac Eiccnigh mac Dalagh met and held Brand’s gaze. “Will you be true to Princess Étaín?”
    “I will.” He fought the other declaration leaping up his throat to no avail. “Princess Étaín will lose my respect and my favor if she cuckolds me.”
    “He speaks truly.” Étaín’s voice had lost the musical quality of this morning.
    An audible sigh rumbled around the great hall and echoed off the wooden rafters.
    Étaín crumpled and Brand had to dive to collect her into his arms. The blue-green veins in her temple were clearly visible. The thick fringe of her lashes cast shadows on cheeks that held no dust of peach.
    Brand stifled a coarse oath when he noticed the gray cast to her normally ruby lips. He snarled at the monarch, “What did you do to her?”
    “The truth saying saps her strength. ’Tis always the same after her trance. She will recover shortly.”
    “You would force this on her? E’en knowing the consequences to her? She is but a tiny female. I tell you now, if she is