Ellyn groaned. ‘Where is he then? I can’t wait to get going out of this shithole.’
‘He’s meeting us here.’ But Bastien was already late. Grace was trying to ignore the feeling of dread rising in her chest. What if they had locked him up and wouldn’t let him go? What if something worse had happened to him? She might have promised to leave without him, but she hadn’t meant it. He had to know that.
‘Thorndale… I’ve heard stories about that place. Not good stories. And I suppose that means we have to make sure he gets there alive.’
‘That’s the job.’
‘Do we have a plan at least?’
Grace smiled, held Ellyn closer. ‘No, we don't have a plan. We never have a plan.’
‘Oh well, nothing changes. We’ll improvise.’
A knock on the door broke through the silence that followed.
‘Come in,’ Grace said.
Daniel opened the door. ‘Lara’s back. We have a problem.’
Grace didn’t even turn. She closed her eyes, resigned.
‘Of course we do,’ she sighed.
The Valenti, as Grace had noted when they first arrived on these wretched islands, loved a celebration. Any excuse. Any reason. This, the last day of Carnaefal, was the largest party in their year. There was music everywhere, streamers and banners hanging from all the buildings. Flower petals floated in the air and in the canals and everywhere there was music. It was still morning but the party went on and on.
People flooded the streets, but Grace noticed the Royal Guards as well. They stood on every corner, manned open rooftops and patrolled the plazas. Oh, they wore their finery too, but the weapons they carried were not for show.
Well, neither were hers.
It was the glimpse of sigils that unnerved her the most. Why did they need sigils?
Lara’s return had thrown everyone into confusion. Bastien wasn’t coming, she told them. He had vanished in the palace. When Lara had finally tracked him down, early this morning, he’d just said he was staying there and dismissed her.
There was more. Whatever he had said had Lara deeply worried but she wouldn’t share it, especially not with Grace.
‘They’ve got to him somehow,’ said Daniel. ‘Blackmailed him or threatened you. There has to be a reason.’
Grace wasn’t so sure. She had a terrible feeling about this.
She ordered Ellyn to stay on board the ship, which, while she wasn’t happy about it, she agreed to do. She needed to heal, and the Valenti clearly had it in for her particularly. Misha would look after her. Grace set out with Lara, Jehane and Daniel.
The Temple to the Winds shone in the bright sunlight, its polished marble exterior rippled with veins of different colours. They slipped through the hushed and reverent crowd gathered in the plaza outside, keeping their faces covered as much as they could, but Daniel’s colouring and Grace’s hair stood out like beacons among the pale Valenti. Anyone could spot her. The hood hid it as best she could. It would have to do.
A patrol of guards passed by as they joined the crowd and her heart beat a little too hard in her chest. But they kept going, laughing about something instead of paying attention, and she somehow managed to breathe again.
Suddenly the crowd roared, ecstatic.
‘Shit,’ Daniel said on a long, drawn-out breath almost drowned out by the cacophony. ‘You’re joking.’
Grace followed his line of vision across the crowd, to the top of the steps in front of the Temple. The carved wooden doors, twice the height of any man, decorated with gilt and mother-of-pearl inlays with images of the four winds, opened and a couple walked out to tumultuous cheers. All around her people cried out in delight, waved their arms in the air or jumped up and down. She felt like a statue, standing among them, frozen in horror.
Bastien was holding Rynn’s hand. He was smiling broadly, a smile she had never seen on his face before, bright with delight and wonder. There was no trace of the shadows of his past or his many regrets. This was a man who had everything he had ever wished for, right in his hand. He was wearing clothes of white and gold, wedding clothes, and he gazed at his princess whose gown matched him in brilliance and beauty. His bride…
He’d never looked like that with Grace, never looked at her that way. She was scarred and cynical… and this girl…
She was just a girl, but she was so beautiful, like a goddess standing there, dressed in white and gold, a shining diadem on her fair hair.
But some instinct made Grace look at her a little more closely. Unlike Bastien, she didn’t look delighted. She didn’t even look happy. She looked terrified. It was the only word for it.
The priest followed them, holding the wide silver chalice from which they were to drink. And behind him, with the bride’s family and the other nobles, Grace finally saw Asher Kane. He smiled, a nasty sort of knowing triumph on his face. Bastien had warned her Kane was here, but she still hadn’t been prepared for it.
Grace swore loudly enough that several people turned and stared, so she ducked her head and turned away, Daniel, Lara and Jehane following her.
‘Did you see him?’ she asked as they walked away, making for the edge of the plaza and another laneway, which was empty. It led towards the harbour and no one else was going that way. They were too busy watching the love of Grace’s life marry someone else.
It was a stupid question. Of course they had seen him.
‘Couldn’t miss him,’ said Daniel. ‘What the fuck is he doing?’
‘Nothing good. Nothing good at all.’ Grace leaned against a wall, trying to force herself to breathe evenly, to get control of herself, to hold her body intact and not shatter into a million pieces. This had to be a mistake. A trick. Maybe. Bastien had to have something planned, didn’t he?
He always had something planned.
It was just that she had seen his so-called plans go horribly wrong before.
‘We need to get into the palace, to find him. We need—’
‘Grace…’ Lara began and then went quiet.
‘I’m not leaving him. Not unless he tells me to.’
‘He already did.’
And go where? Thorndale? What would Grace do in Thorndale without Bastien? What was the point? She couldn’t do anything about the nightborn or the Maegen without him.
If something happened, if something went wrong. That was what he meant. If he was dead or imprisoned or… but he had to know she wouldn’t do it. Not if there was a chance to get him out of there. Not… not if he changed his mind and chose Rynn instead. Chose power and a throne. Chose to give up fighting.
The ring on her hand felt unnaturally heavy. She shouldn’t have worn it. She should have put it away safely and kept it secret.
‘It doesn’t matter.’ She turned to Jehane instead. ‘Get me in there. I have to talk to him.’
‘Grace, are you sure?’ he asked. ‘It’s dangerous. And he doesn’t look like—’
This wasn’t the time for a discussion. ‘Just get me in there!’
Lara got them inside with relative ease, Jehane once more using his magic to hide them enough so they weren’t recognised. The guards were on the lookout for magic, he said. They were watching all the mageborn for any sign of trouble. Grace could only focus on getting there; finding Bastien alone was going to be another matter. But again it was Lara who came through. She led them upstairs to an opulently decorated room, one with rose petals strewn on the bed and every luxury surrounding them. Their wedding chamber, Grace realised, as Daniel went a funny shade of grey and refused to meet her gaze.
What had happened to Bastien? Why would he have…?
The urge to vomit made her wrap her arms around her stomach, but she couldn’t look away from the bed, the silken sheets, the furs, and the flowers. This was for him… for the two of them. And this was what he had chosen.
It had to be a mistake. She had to keep telling herself that. It had to be…
But the voice in the back of her mind said it was in
evitable. He’d marry a princess, not an orphan dragged up in the Academy. That she had only ever been fooling herself.
A voice that sounded like Miranda. Or Celeste. Or Aurelie…
‘I’ll get him,’ Lara assured her. ‘Just stay here, out of sight. No one else will come in here, not yet. So stay put.’ She cast a warning look at Jehane, who nodded solemnly. He’d keep them here then. Grace didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t do this herself. Not here.
The panic was getting the better of her. She didn’t even trust herself to walk down a corridor of this palace without breaking down or attacking someone.
Instead, she locked all the feelings inside herself. She had to.
When the door opened again, Bastien was looking over his shoulder, laughing at something Lara was saying, perhaps arguing gently with her.
‘And then Asher said, when we get back to Rathlynn, he’ll have to order one the size of a—’ His voice stopped when he saw the two men. ‘Lara? What’s the meaning of this?’
‘Bastien?’ Grace said, amazed she could even get her voice to work.
Something in his whole demeanour changed. It rippled over his skin, something violent and terrible, something so alien to his nature it was like watching some kind of possession in progress.
‘You,’ he said and the word came out twisted with loathing. He launched himself at her, so quickly no one had a chance to intervene. No one expected that they would have to. Before she even could react, his hands closed around her throat.
The force of the attack drove her across the room. She slammed into the far wall, striking her head, his grip crushing her throat as he lifted her from the ground. She kicked out desperately but his hands tightened around her neck. She stared in bewildered horror into his face, the face of a stranger, a monster, someone who clearly hated her. The world around her was turning to dancing lights and a darkening tunnel. Wind roared through her head. She could hear her own heartbeat, racing, thundering, ready to burst in despair.
Chapter 14
The noise of the others shouting fell away. Grace tried to prise Bastien’s hands off her, tried to draw up her knees again to get a kick in, to drive him back.
Shadows coiled up around him as Jehane, Lara and Daniel tried to pull him off her. Their hands dug into his shoulders, his arms, but he was like a statue, a rock, unmoveable. And he was far too strong.
And Bastien… Bastien… she didn’t know him any more. He drew back his lips in a snarl. His eyes, so dark, so endless and black…
‘Stop it! Bastien, please, stop.’
Another voice, one Grace barely knew. Rynn. She stood in the open doorway, still in her wedding gown, but she had clearly run from wherever she had been to find this scene of horror.
To Grace’s shock, Bastien shuddered and then released her, leaving her to crumple to the ground and throwing the others off him. He looked at Rynn like a dog looking to its mistress and turned away without so much as a glance at Grace.
‘Get them out of here, Lara,’ he snarled, joining his princess. ‘All of you, get out. I’ve made myself clear. I’m not leaving Rynn, not now. She is my wife.’
His wife. Grace’s heart wanted to scream, but everything hurt too much. The words were like daggers. She gasped for breath and fought not to vomit as Daniel tried to coax her upright.
Rynn gripped Bastien’s arm, stopping him from leaving. He looked down at her tiny form, clearly confused as she gently, but firmly, closed the door behind her, shutting them all away from the wedding, inside this godsforsaken room.
‘Calm down. Captain Marchant, perhaps if you could… if you could be silent for a moment, and stay away from him.’ It wasn’t a threat. It couldn’t be construed as that. Rynn’s voice was still gentle music but it was a warning. ‘He could kill you. I don’t know entirely what that bastard implanted in his head but he can’t help himself. General Kane was quite detailed.’
Asher Kane. That bastard. Rynn wasn’t wrong about that. Of course. Bastien had said he was up to something.
‘He what?’ Daniel stared at them in horror, and Grace knew he above all others should understand. He’d been bespelled by Celeste to betray her too. His voice came out thin and disgusted.
But Bastien wasn’t even looking at them any more, all his attention fixed on the princess. ‘Rynn, this is madness. She’s dangerous, I know that better than anyone. Call the guards. Let me defend you.’
She still held onto him, a tiny pale hand on his arm. Grace wanted to scream at her to stop touching him, to leave him alone. But right now Rynn appeared to be the only thing keeping him in check. If she released him, Grace wasn’t sure what would happen.
‘I don’t need defending. Not from them. Try to understand.’ She sighed and looked at Lara, begging her for support. ‘There was a potion. A drug. They gave it to him last night. I didn’t know what it was, or what it would do.’
‘You—’ Grace’s voice was a wretched and broken thing, a hoarse croak of dismay and indignation, but at the sound of it Bastien swung towards her like an enraged bear, murder in his eyes.
‘No!’ Rynn cried out and when her hand touched him again, the spell seemed to settle once more. He turned to her, Grace forgotten, his only thought of Rynn. It was like Grace didn’t even exist any more. His face softened to fondness. Grace wanted to scream but she didn’t dare make a sound. Daniel held her, his face like stone.
‘It’s your voice, I think,’ Rynn went on, as if it was some kind of hypothetical problem to be examined.
‘How are we going to get him out of here now?’ Daniel said.
‘I’m not leaving,’ Bastien murmured, gazing down at his wife in adoration.
Grace closed her eyes. It was easier. And it almost held back the tears.
She’d never felt so weak and broken in her life.
‘I could knock him out,’ Jehane offered, assessing Bastien with a critical eye. He didn’t seem particularly put out by the idea either. In fact, he sounded like he would positively enjoy it. Knowing he had her back helped a little. ‘Just hold him still for a moment.’ The shadows rose from the floor and dropped like vines from the ceiling.
‘We’d have to carry him,’ Daniel said. ‘Through his own wedding celebrations. That’s hardly inconspicuous.’
Lara waved him back. ‘Parry’s right. Besides, it’s no good if he attacks Grace again every time he hears her. It’s lyriana root, it has to be. The Larelwynns used it on him in the past. Must have been a hell of a dose and Asher must have been very detailed. We’re lucky he even knows who he is. If you don’t give specific instructions…’ She trailed off guiltily. She clearly knew far too much about the drug.
Grace sat down on the bed, dislodging a waterfall of rose petals onto the ground. The stench of them turned her stomach.
They’d won. They’d stolen him from her, wiped all his memories of what they had, and remade him as her would-be assassin.
He hated her.
Rynn meanwhile threaded her fingers with Bastien’s, the way they used to do. She spoke so softly, as if cajoling a wild animal. Given what Grace had just experienced, that wasn’t far from the truth.
This couldn’t be happening. He was like a different man. Her Bastien, the one she knew and loved, was gone, wiped away. Instead here was a man who was by turns a besotted fool or a rage-filled murderer.
Asher had won.
Her eyes filled with scalding tears again and she couldn’t blink them away any more. She couldn’t bear to watch as he took Rynn in his arms and bent to kiss her.
But Rynn stepped back, awkwardly, turning her face from him like a demure temple virgin. He moved forward again but she put up a hand to stop him. ‘Trust me,’ she told him. ‘Not yet. Wait.’
He looked so hurt.
Grace buried her face in her hands.
‘I don’t want to wait any more, my love.’ She knew that tone. She could hear the arousal in his voice. She wanted to say his name, to tell him to stop this madness, to say something, any
thing, but she couldn’t. Even if she could find the words.
Daniel wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight, and she gave up, turning to him so she could smother herself in his chest and try to block out the world. She didn’t even dare let the sound of a sob escape.
‘I came across a passage in Inariant’s Alchemy about lyriana root,’ Rynn said, her voice still shaking. ‘Part of my studies, theoretical but… it doesn’t matter. Lyriana works on mageborn, makes them… well…’ She waved one elegant hand at Bastien, then caught Grace’s glance and her expression grew placating. ‘But there’s an antidote. It’s not… not difficult to make.’
‘Are you the royal apothecary all of a sudden?’ Jehane asked harshly. His gaze flickered to Grace, just for a moment. Whatever he saw in her face made his expression harden but nothing more.
Rynn narrowed her eyes and her voice took on a formal tone. It was defensive, Grace could hear that, but it was withering as well. ‘I have many skills. My education is second to none. At least in that my family didn’t fail me. I can make it.’
‘And why would you make it for us?’ Lara asked, her own shrewd mind more firmly on the subject in hand.
‘I can’t stay here. Take me with you and I can cure him. It might even be like he never took it. Or at least… we could try to make him like… like he was…’ She didn’t sound so sure about that. Hopeful but not certain.
‘You don’t know where we’re going, Princess,’ Daniel warned her.
Rynn rallied again and fixed him with a look that branded him an idiot. ‘I don’t care.’
Grace lifted her face. Bastien had turned to look at her again, but now he just looked confused, as if he was trying to recall something from a dream he had long ago. Or a nightmare. Maybe deep down he still recognised her, maybe there was still some way to get him back. She had to believe that. If she didn’t, she’d fall to pieces.
Even if he was married to someone else. The very someone who now held his future in her tiny hands.
Nightborn: Totally addictive fantasy fiction (The Hollow King Book 2) Page 11
