Kindra paced the tent like a trapped beast after the flap shut behind Corbin. The nerve of Chief Obsid to expect her to be wooed into marriage by the promise of power. To think she would turn her back on her tribe and marry him. The thought left a bad taste in her mouth, and she spit on the ground again.

“That could have gone better,” the High Priestess said, her demeanor as calm and collected as ever.

“I agree. You could have let me kill him and send his head back on the end of my spear.”

A small smile did play at the corner of the woman’s lips then. “I apologize, Kindra. I did not know his intentions, other than returning your spear.”

Kindra stopped pacing and stared at her, trying to decide if the apology was sincere. The High Priestess wasn’t one to play games, so it must be. Kindra inclined her head. “Thank you. I accept your apology.” She looked at the closed door as if Corbin would grab her to take back to Fie Obsid, then relaxed a little. “I apologize for ruining your chance to get Deer Valley back peacefully.”

“That chance was ruined when he took your sister.”

Kindra looked at her feet; she had put herself and her sister before the tribe again. That was not the behavior of a warrior. Eoin was right not to name her. “Thank you for not making me go with him.”

The High Priestess smiled. “I have already learned that it is very difficult to make you do anything that you do not wish to do, or keep you from doing something that you want to. And you have already promised yourself to the God. No Chief or Priestess has the right to break that promise for you.”

Kindra doubted that. Kaye had promised herself to Aleda, even if she hadn’t made the blood bond, and the chief had broken that promise for her.

“They’ll attack now, won’t they?” Part of Kindra enjoyed that thought—she would get her chance to take revenge against the Obsidians. She would search out Chief Obsid and teach him to laugh at her scars and mock her with marriage. She could avenge her parents and all those who died in the battle for Deer Valley and the Starving Winter that followed.

The other part of Kindra, much smaller but persistent in its presence, regretted the harsh words. The mountain passes were still too snow-covered to get an army through, but after the thaw and flooding the passes would be easy for a large group of men to maneuver. Chief Obsid’s pride was already sore from Kaye’s disappearance; Kindra’s whole-hearted refusal would make his retribution unavoidable. If he didn’t attack, his men would think him weak or scared, and a chief could be seen as neither if he wanted to retain his position in the tribe.

The High Priestess was quiet for a long time, perhaps her thoughts traveling in the same direction as Kindra’s, but she sighed. “Chief Obsid will have no choice but to attack for this fresh dismissal. Even if he tires of war—and I believe he does—his tribe does not. They will call for your blood. If we do not hand you or your sister over to him with many apologies, I fear there is no way to avoid war.”

The part of Kindra that enjoyed the thought of battle shrunk significantly and she nodded, head down and eyes closed. “We will have to meet them in Deer Valley then, and win this time.”

“Yes. We will have to win, or we will become part of the Nation.”

Kindra’s heart sank. Her words, which seemed so brave and honor-bound moments ago, might be the last thing to send the Seven Tribes into the hands of the Obsidians. Instead of avenging her parents’ deaths, she may be doomed to repeat them. “Will you ask me to reconsider?”

“No. I will talk to my brother about it. We have time to prepare for war, if it should come to that.”

The High Priestess looked away and Kindra took it as her signal to leave. She was opening the door flap when the woman smiled. “And Kindra?”

“Yes, priestess?”

“I am the most powerful woman in the tribe.”