The Thief's Daughter

by Jeff Wheeler

  Owen knuckled his brow.

  Kathryn lay still. A solemn silence fell over the room. He saw Etayne swaddling the bloody infant. An infant who made no sound.

  Kathryn was gasping. “I . . . I can’t . . . hear. I can’t . . . hear . . . him. Is it a boy . . . truly?”

  “He’s a boy,” Etayne said in a solemn voice. A voice full of dread. Owen met her gaze and knew the truth. He could see it in her eyes.

  The babe was stillborn.

  Owen’s heart wrenched with pain. He sheathed his sword and approached the bed, feeling the dizziness threaten to knock him down.

  “Let me . . . see . . . him,” Kathryn gasped.

  Etayne looked heartsick. She wiped splotches of blood and goo from the babe’s puckered face. She held the boy as tenderly as the mother herself would have, gazing sadly down at the face, the cold, limp face. Owen saw the tears well in Etayne’s eyes as she pressed a kiss to the babe’s forehead.

  “Let me . . . hold him,” Kathryn pleaded.

  Etayne offered the child to his mother. Sweat made her auburn hair cling to her forehead. She was utterly spent and exhausted from the difficult labor. Her black gown was hanging over a chair, and her white chemise was soaked with sweat and blood. Owen watched Kathryn’s face twist with emotion as she stared down at the little child in her weak arms.

  “No . . . no!” she moaned. “It can’t be!” Sobs began to rack her chest.

  Owen stared at the babe. And then he knew what he needed to do.

  Fighting his doubts, he approached the bedside and took the babe from the weeping mother. Etayne stared at Owen, her eyes widening with the realization of what would happen.

  The babe had been born . . . dead.

  Just like Owen.

  The prophecy of the Dreadful Deadman spoke of a dead king who came back to life. Owen felt the power of the Fountain well inside his heart. He could hear it in the crashing surf beyond the sanctuary walls. He could feel it in the storm clouds scudding across the sky.

  Owen cradled the tiny infant in his arms, staring at his waxy skin. He felt the love of the mother radiating from the woman below. He remembered watching as Eyric suffered at Kingfountain, a prisoner bound by bitter fate in companionship to Dunsdworth, maintaining a lie so that his offspring might be kept safe. Owen felt a spark of hope as he stared at the little babe—the hope that a better reign might soon come to the land.

  Owen brought the babe’s face close to his lips. He didn’t remember the words. But somehow he knew what to say in a language he’d only spoken once. He felt the power of the Fountain gushing from him as he whispered it.

  “Nesh-ama.”

  Breathe.

  The tiny eyelids of the quiet king fluttered open.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  There is usually some basis of fact in my books and this one is no exception. During my studies of the Wars of the Roses in medieval England, I learned about the mystery of Perkin Warbeck and how he claimed to be one of the lost princes murdered by Richard III. Because this story is set in an alternate universe in which Richard III won the battle instead of Henry VII, I thought it would be even more interesting to explore how Warbeck’s claim to the throne would be received by the uncle who purportedly murdered him. It created some great tension for the story and some guidance on the plot. For those interested in learning more, I’d recommend Ann Wroe’s book The Perfect Prince: The Mystery of Perkin Warbeck and His Quest for the Throne of England. One of the elements of the book that has haunted me was what happened to the child of Perkin and Lady Katherine, the Earl of Huntley’s daughter. Historians don’t really know. Why is it that we authors are attracted to such mysteries?

  I’ve mentioned many times a fondness for middle books. I don’t know if I will be able to say that about this one because I’ve never cried as an author as much as I did writing the concluding chapters of this book. If you feel you’ve been put through some form of emotional torture, I have been there right alongside you. I’m deeply involved in the lives of the characters.

  There is a story told about the sculptor Michelangelo. As he was chiseling the statue David out of a huge marble block, a young boy asked him, “How did you know he was in there?” For me, writing books is a similar process. It feels sometimes like I am bringing to life a story that has always existed. This was part of the story that needed to be told. In our lives, we don’t always get what we deserve or what we want. But how we deal with those misfortunes mold our character.

  As with this second book, time will leap-frog again into the future for book three, where the ramifications of the decisions made here will play out. You will also learn more about the mysteries that have been eluding Owen for so long. Get ready for some surprises ahead in The King’s Traitor.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to thank many who helped this series move forward. First, to my early readers who dealt with the emotional trauma in this book with great equanimity! Robin, Shannon, Karen, and Sunil. My wife and oldest daughter were also great listening ears as I discussed what to do with this book and the tortures Owen would face. I’d also like to thank my amazing editorial team for their enthusiasm about this series! That would be Jason Kirk, Courtney Miller, and Angela Polidoro (who got an intentional cameo in the book because her last name coincided with the actual sixteenth-century historian Polydore Vergil, a source I used during my master’s thesis as well as in writing this series).

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Photo © Kim Bills

  Jeff Wheeler took an early retirement from his career at Intel in 2014 to become a full-time author. He is, most importantly, a husband and father, and a devout member of his church. He is occasionally spotted roaming among the oak trees and granite boulders in the hills of California or in any number of the state’s majestic redwood groves. He is the author of The Covenant of Muirwood Trilogy, The Legends of Muirwood Trilogy, The Whispers from Mirrowen Trilogy, The Landmoor Series, and The Queen’s Poisoner, book one of the Kingfountain Series. He is also the founder of Deep Magic: The E-zine of Clean Fantasy and Science Fiction (www.deepmagic.co).