BooksBarbecue
Back Winterkeep
Chapters (63)
  1. Dedication
  2. Map
  3. A Note to the Reader
  4. PART ONE
  5. The Keeper
  6. Chapter One
  7. Chapter Two
  8. Chapter Three
  9. Chapter Four
  10. Chapter Five
  11. Chapter Six
  12. Chapter Seven
  13. Chapter Eight
  14. Chapter Nine
  15. PART TWO
  16. The Keeper
  17. Chapter Ten
  18. Chapter Eleven
  19. Chapter Twelve
  20. Chapter Thirteen
  21. Chapter Fourteen
  22. Chapter Fifteen
  23. Chapter Sixteen
  24. Chapter Seventeen
  25. Chapter Eighteen
  26. Chapter Nineteen
  27. Chapter Twenty
  28. Chapter Twenty-one
  29. PART THREE
  30. The Keeper
  31. Chapter Twenty-two
  32. Chapter Twenty-three
  33. Chapter Twenty-four
  34. Chapter Twenty-five
  35. Chapter Twenty-six
  36. Chapter Twenty-seven
  37. Chapter Twenty-eight
  38. Chapter Twenty-nine
  39. PART FOUR
  40. The Keeper
  41. Chapter Thirty
  42. Chapter Thirty-one
  43. Chapter Thirty-two
  44. Chapter Thirty-three
  45. Chapter Thirty-four
  46. Chapter Thirty-five
  47. Chapter Thirty-six
  48. Chapter Thirty-seven
  49. Chapter Thirty-eight
  50. Chapter Thirty-nine
  51. Chapter Forty
  52. Chapter Forty-one
  53. PART FIVE
  54. The Keeper
  55. Chapter Forty-two
  56. Chapter Forty-three
  57. Chapter Forty-four
  58. Chapter Forty-five
  59. Cast of Characters
  60. Acknowledgments
  61. About the Author
  62. Don’t miss any of THE GRACELING REALM novels
  63. What’s next onyour reading list?

The fox badly wished the woman hadn’t done that. Now he was afraid for her life.

—

Ferla and Benni worried constantly, but they did so in their own separate worlds. Each was trying to find a way out of the mess certain to ensue should Lovisa or the queen emerge somewhere and make accusations. Benni was trying to find a way out for the entire family, which, like most of his plans, was unrealistic. Benni was a romantic. He imagined success and glory for the Cavenda name. The fox tapped on his mind sometimes, puzzled by how someone with so much ambition could be so immature.

He was searching for Lovisa as discreetly as he could, but it was hard without his airship. To his friends who owned airships, he pretended to cling to the hope that since Lovisa’s body hadn’t been found, maybe she’d escaped the fire. Maybe she was out in the world somewhere, injured, muddled, confused. Would anyone be willing to lend an airship to Benni, so that he might have a look around for his child?

Benni went out in a borrowed airship most days, sad and apprehensive, unwell, then came back with nothing, slowly climbing the stairs. He took that guard with him when he flew, the young one with the dead eyes. The fox suspected that if that guard saw Lovisa or the queen from the airship, she might keep quiet about it. The fox suspected that Benni’s chances of success were very low indeed. Still, the fox worried, anxiously waiting.

Ferla, in contrast, was trying to find a way out for herself. She didn’t like that this essentially meant pinning everything on Benni, but she had little choice. And she couldn’t figure out what to do should Lovisa show up alive. Ferla had tried to pull the girl away from the burning house and Lovisa, her own daughter, had attacked her with a shovel. Ferla wondered what her father would have done, a train of thought that was no comfort to the fox, since Ferla’s father had basically been a sadist.

And Katu? Her baby brother, Katu, was where Ferla reached her rational limit. Ferla chose to stop seeing the truth about Katu, because it was too much. In their childhood, Katu had often been her charge, and always her ally. Her father had sent her into the cave alone for her punishments, until Katu had been old enough to understand; and then he’d sent them in together. And Ferla’s terror had vanished. She’d had something to do in the cave, someone to comfort.