Boartusk Heights upon return

what had her mother said?

agrippina tried desperately to remember as cold rain slanted down upon her, threatening the few footholds she managed to secure upon the rock face.

"we are never leaving this place, girl. never. he will never allow it. make your peace with dying here, agrippina. death is the only thing that is truly yours.

filthy knuckles pressed into the corner of her mouth. a sob shredded her throat. but in the flash of lightning which forked across the early morning sky, she saw gentle grass leading up toward spires of stone. their shadows represented something vague for agrippina.

refusing to let desperation or hunger make a theft of her dignity, she did was she was able for the mud smeared up to her flanks. but dabbing at the mess only worsened it, and now her shoulders too were stained in the muck. thin legs trembled and the knots of her spine ran in a neatly visible column.

but she was here and by all the gods who had freed her, agrippina meant to make her start. the woman's call rang out into the stormy darkness, genteel despite her deepening fear.