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Chapters (58)
  1. Cover
  2. About Den of Wolves
  3. Title page
  4. Contents
  5. Dedication
  6. Character List
  7. Chapter One: Bardán
  8. Chapter Two: Cara
  9. Chapter Three: Blackthorn
  10. Chapter Four: Bardán
  11. Chapter Five: Grim
  12. Chapter Six: Cara
  13. Chapter Seven: Blackthorn
  14. Chapter Eight: Bardán
  15. Chapter Nine: Grim
  16. Chapter Ten: Blackthorn
  17. Chapter Eleven: Bardán
  18. Chapter Twelve: Grim
  19. Chapter Thirteen: Cara
  20. Chapter Fourteen: Bardán
  21. Chapter Fifteen: Blackthorn
  22. Chapter Sixteen: Grim
  23. Chapter Seventeen: Blackthorn
  24. Chapter Eighteen: Cara
  25. Chapter Nineteen: Grim
  26. Chapter Nineteen: Grim
  27. Chapter Twenty-one: Grim
  28. Chapter Twenty-two: Bardán
  29. Chapter Twenty-three: Grim
  30. Chapter Twenty-four: Blackthorn
  31. Twenty-five: Cara
  32. Chapter Twenty-six: Grim
  33. Chapter Twenty-seven: Blackthorn
  34. Chapter Twenty-eight: Grim
  35. Chapter Twenty-nine: Blackthorn
  36. Chapter Thirty: Cara
  37. Chapter Thirty-one: Bardán
  38. Chapter Thirty-two: Blackthorn
  39. Chapter Thirty-three: Cara
  40. Chapter Thirty-four: Grim
  41. Chapter Thirty-five: Blackthorn
  42. Chapter Thirty-six: Cara
  43. Chapter Thirty-seven: Blackthorn
  44. Chapter Thirty-eight: Grim
  45. Chapter Thirty-nine: Blackthorn
  46. Chapter Forty: Cara
  47. Chapter Forty-one: Blackthorn
  48. Chapter Forty-two: Grim
  49. Chapter Forty-three: Cara
  50. Chapter Forty-four: Blackthorn
  51. Chapter Forty-five: Bardán
  52. Chapter Forty-six: Grim
  53. Chapter Forty-seven: Blackthorn
  54. Chapter Forty-eight: Blackthorn
  55. Acknowledgments
  56. About Juliet Marillier
  57. Also by Juliet Marillier
  58. Copyright page

‘Not in the garden here. Up on the edge of the woods there may be a plant or two. If I’d thought earlier . . .’

‘Someone must run up there and gather it. Now. Someone who can find the right thing straight away. I’d go myself, but I need to stay with her.’ I prayed that this would not come to a choice between mother and infant. I had never had to cut a child from the womb, but I had seen it done when a woman would have died anyway, and it was a brutal, bloody business.

There was silence in the room, save for Fann’s breathing.

‘Does anyone know exactly where the plant grows? We must make up a tea to get labour started again. A very strong infusion. I need the herbs right now. Or as soon as you can possibly get them.’ I promised myself I would never again let the supply of dried calamint in my healer’s bag run out. Never. Though the fact was, the fresh herb was far more effective.

‘Up by the old hut,’ Ide said. ‘Where that strange woman used to have her garden, you remember, the one folk said was fey?’ She glanced at the others. ‘If there’s calamint anywhere, it’s there. Only,’ she said, looking at me, ‘it’s all overgrown. Turned to wilderness long ago. The son buried his whole family close by the place. Father, mother, wife. Folk have given it a wide berth ever since.’

The others were avoiding my eye. It seemed that even with their friend at risk of her life, nobody was going to volunteer.

‘I can’t run,’ Ide said. ‘My joints are too stiff. And I’m the only one likely to find the right plant in all the weeds around the old hut. Apart from yourself, Mistress Blackthorn.’

‘Can someone take you on horseback?’ Morrigan save us, did they plan to wait until Fann expired right before their eyes?

‘Not all the way there. It’s off the track. Too steep for horses.’

There was only one answer. ‘Start making a tea with fresh thyme,’ I said. ‘Strong. See if you can get Fann sitting up, or even walking around if she can manage that. Keep on sponging her face. Let her sip warm water. I’ll be back in a moment.’ Grim was not a wise woman or a druid. But he was a gardener. And he could run.

Chapter Sixteen: Grim

16

~Grim~