Princess Avenger - Brightcastle Saga Book 1

by Bernadette Rowley

  Princess Avenger

  Bernadette Rowley

  Published by Bernadette Rowley at Smashwords

  Copyright 2015 Bernadette Rowley

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

  Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favourite ebook retailer.

  Cover design by Katrina Joyner, www.ebookcovers4u.com

  Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Discover other Titles By Bernadette Rowley

  Connect with Me

  The Lady’s Choice Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Dedicated to the memory of my father, Jim Garton.

  Chapter 1

  Pain dragged Alecia Zialni of Brightcastle back to awareness. Her face throbbed and hard stones gouged her shoulders. Cobblestones? And my bow is digging into my spine! Gentle fingers grazed her left cheek and she froze, willing her body to remain still but unable to slow her racing heart. The sharp metallic odour of blood swamped her senses as her mind sought to explain her situation. The fingers moved from her head to her arms and legs, brisk and practiced, deftly exploring her body for hurts.

  She gathered her nerve and opened her eyes. Pain shot through her left temple and she blinked tears away. A man in a charcoal-gray soldier’s tunic and black breeches leaned over her, his dark curls falling forward to frame a face all hard planes and straight lines. Gold flecks sparkled in sea-green eyes that reminded her of the stormy ocean at Wildecoast.

  “You should be more careful with whom you pick a fight.” His deep voice caused a thrill of unease within her. He rose and strode down the cobbled street, his dark cloak swirling against the taut muscles of calves in fitted black leather boots.

  Alecia released her trapped breath, mesmerized by the grace with which the soldier moved: more like a stalking wolf than a man. Where is he going? And then she saw the body of the burly redhead, the handle of a knife sprouting from his chest, the crude tattoo of a serpent and dagger on his forearm. Alecia’s insides clenched at the sound of steel against bone as the dark stranger pulled the blade free, cleaned it on the victim’s shirt and slid it into his boot. She glimpsed a ridged scar on the back of her rescuer’s left hand as he returned to her side.

  Alecia raised tentative fingers to her cheek and pain throbbed through her skull in response. What has happened? Jumbled images crowded her mind but she sorted through them and remembered the inn and the mercenary. I attacked that man in the street and now he is dead! She peered at the hand the soldier offered her and followed his arm up to eyes that now held more than a trace of impatience. Her heart lurched. The man had likely noted her every feature! She touched her head and sent a quick prayer of thanks to the Goddess. At least her hood still hid her long blonde hair. If only he didn’t look too closely at the clothes she wore, perhaps her secret was safe.

  “You --” Alecia struggled to speak around the lump in her throat. She swallowed and tried again. “You have my gratitude,” she said, her voice husky. She clutched his hand and he pulled her to her feet as if she weighed no more than a child.

  The sudden movement sent shooting agony through her skull and she wavered, dizzy, her palms on the silver buttons of his broad chest. The soldier caught her wrists and the hairs on Alecia’s arms rose at the contact. Her gaze locked onto the curious amber stone that hung at his throat. It emitted a faint ochre light that flared and then died as she pulled away. Her eyes must be playing tricks.

  When the world stopped spinning, she pulled free and straightened the longbow across her shoulders, then stooped to retrieve her quiver and arrows. Her movements caused the soldier to arch one strong dark brow. Alecia’s face grew hot. He didn’t seem impressed by her armoury.

  “You’ve the look of trouble about you, lad.” The soldier, a captain by the insignias on his tunic, stepped closer.

  Alecia’s heart raced. So far her disguise held, but for how long?

  “I’m not looking to cause trouble,” she said. “I’ll be on my way, if you don’t mind.” Damn, why did I ask him for permission?

  “I do mind.” The captain’s words were low and gruff. “I’d like to know why you picked a fight with a man twice your size.”

  More like three times, Alecia thought. His closeness made her skin tingle. What was wrong with her? He was just a man -- and a soldier at that!

  “If you can’t explain yourself you must come with me to the prison.”

  He seized her arm and her body stiffened, heart thudding against her ribs. Any one of her father’s soldiers might recognize her.

  Alecia pretended to go along with the captain as he walked past the inn towards his horse. As they neared the mouth of Firedrake Alley, the weak midday sun struck the quartz walls of the hilltop castle that gave the town its name. The captain threw up his arm to shield his eyes from the glare and Alecia seized her opportunity. She wrenched her arm from his grasp and bolted between the buildings. The odour of rotten garbage and human waste assailed her nostrils but she barely noticed. This was her world.

  Captain Vard Anton swore. Damn, the lad was fast, but he wouldn’t get far. Even though Vard wasn’t familiar with this part of Brightcastle Town, he did have a nose for a trail, and that nose still twitched with the lad’s scent. Was it lavender? He shook his head and started towards the lane. The youth was already halfway to the first crossroads.

  “Blast!” The stiff leather of his new military boots pinched his toes. It was typical of Prince Zialni, heir to the throne of Thorius, to supply boots for show rather than comfort. The air was thick with the foul stink of the slop that caked the alley. Each step brought new and hideous smells to his nose but he grasped the amber talisman at his throat, mentally sorted through the jumble of odours and locked onto the faint hint of perfume. Despite the slippery surface, he picked up his pace and was gratified to see that the young man hadn’t pulled any further ahead.

  If Vard could just stay within sight, the lad would tire soon. He recalled those startling lilac eyes as they stared up at him out of that battered face. Why not just turn around and get back to his horse before some scoundrel rode off on it? But he knew he wouldn’t. The sharp prick of instinct told him he needed to discover why the young man had attacked an armed mercenary on a public street in broad daylight.

  He slid to a halt in the dirt of the alley and strode forward to the next laneway. His quarry had disappeared. A scrawny dog rifling its way through a pile of refuse sniffed at Vard, whined and ran the other way. Vard smiled. He could still put the canines in their place.

  He sent his senses out into the surrounding alleys, searching for a trace of the lad. The faint echoes of a racing human heart drifted back, several alleys towards the town centre. No need to give up yet. That lad needed help and, if Vard’s instincts were right, it might well have something to do with the tyrant, Prince Zialni. The groan of a swollen timber window being
forced open sounded and he glanced up. The contents of a chamber pot cascaded over his head and down his shoulders, the stench overwhelming. He spat the fetid concoction out of his mouth and wiped his eyes clear in time to see his quarry’s amused lilac gaze as the window slammed shut.

  Alecia gasped, hands on knees, her face throbbing in time with her thumping heart. Her left eye had swollen shut. The one person who could help her now was Hetty, her childhood nurse and a gifted healer, who lived on Firedrake Alley. Alecia had circled around and was now only two alleys from where the captain had found her, close to Hetty’s.

  His gold-flecked eyes burned in her memory. She thought she knew all her father’s soldiers, but her dark rescuer was a stranger. Something about him put her on edge, suggested he was neither tame nor civilized. She settled her bow and arrows over her back, feeling for the knives in her belt and right boot. The hard knot of fear in her gut softened at the touch of the weapons.

  The hide of her boots made not a sound as she crept to the end of the lane and peered around the corner of a two-storeyed brothel. From here she could see the rear of Hetty’s small double-level shack and had a clear view back to the main street. Foot traffic had returned to the market precinct in the short time since she had fled from the captain, but the narrow street that ran behind Hetty’s was deserted except for a whiskered drunk snoring against a wall several doors up.

  Alecia crossed the street to Hetty’s and climbed onto the edge of the rain barrel, reaching for the handholds below the second-storey window. Once she was high enough to peer over the sill, she removed one hand to give the window a shove. It opened a crack. Alecia grasped the sill, pushed the glass all the way open and pulled herself through. She landed with a soft thump on the wooden floorboards of Hetty’s bedchamber and crossed to the window that overlooked Firedrake Alley. Nothing moved down there.

  A shoe scuffed against the floorboards and she spun, knife in hand. Hetty stood near the door, wiping her hands on a stained apron, bushy gray eyebrows bristling above eyes so dark they were almost black. Deep wrinkles framed those eyes and wild silver hair spiked unrestrained from her scalp.

  “Did your mother never tell you it was bad manners to enter the house of another without permission?” Hetty’s low voice rasped past a throat horribly burnt some years ago when Prince Zialni had sentenced her to burning at the stake. The old woman had been one of Alecia’s first rescues.

  Alecia pulled the cap and hood back to bare her head, flinching as she brushed her injured face. “My mother is dead,” she snapped, then instantly regretted her tone. “How did you know it was me?” she said, pointing to her outfit.

  Hetty frowned. “You call that a disguise? You were lucky this time, though by the look of that eye, your fortune almost ran out.”

  Alecia fingered the puffy flesh around her left eye and a wave of nausea struck her. How would she explain the injury to her father? “Please do not lecture me, I feel bad enough already.” Her belief in her fighting skills had been misplaced. Twenty-four summers of sheltered royal existence had been no match for the violence of that mercenary.

  Hetty dropped her apron and folded her arms beneath her scrawny bosom. “Come down to the kitchen.”

  She followed Hetty down the stairs and left her bow and quiver in the hall. A small pot bubbled over the fire in the kitchen hearth and the odour of rotten eggs, stinkweed and garlic hung in the room. Hetty shuffled across to the window, drew the heavy curtain and turned up the lamp.

  Alecia wandered over to the shelves on the opposite wall. No matter how often she visited Hetty she always had a reluctant fascination for the brains, spiders, eyes and teeth in the glass containers.

  Hetty clutched Alecia’s arm and pulled her to a seat at the small wooden table in the centre of the room. Her gaze softened as she examined the injuries at close quarters. “I can help you, Princess, but it’ll take all my skill.” She soaked a snowy cloth with water from a wooden bowl and bathed the crusted blood from the damaged eye.

  “Ouch!” Alecia’s eyes watered at the sting of bruised flesh and she gripped her knees to stop herself from pushing Hetty away.

  “Nearly finished,” the old woman said, her gaze gripping Alecia’s. “Did he do this to you? The man with the gilded eyes?”

  Alecia frowned, recalling the disturbing eyes of the captain. How did her old nurse know of him? “He was my rescuer. One of the mercenaries lies dead.”

  Hetty reached into her apron pocket, removed a velvet-wrapped object and uncovered a flat amber stone the size of her palm. She dropped it into the pot over the fire, muttering under her breath.

  The hairs on Alecia’s arms stood up as an orange vapour rose over the pot. She longed to ask what Hetty knew of the captain but the witch would not welcome any interruption.

  Alecia suppressed a yelp as Hetty whirled from the fire, virulent ochre mist oozing from the hearth pot that hung from a wooden hook in her hand. The old woman plonked the pan in the centre of the table then removed the stone with wooden tongs, rewrapped it and placed it in her pocket. She poured the concoction onto a saucer, soaked a small piece of linen in the potion, picked it up with the tongs and turned to Alecia.

  “That smells terrible.” Alecia leaned back in her chair.

  “I wouldn’t have thought you’d let a small thing like this upset you,” Hetty said.

  “I am not upset,” Alecia said, sitting up straight so that Hetty could reach her. “How does it work?”

  “Ah, that would be giving away my secrets, and I wouldn’t do that unless you were my apprentice. Tilt your head to the side, please.” Alecia complied and Hetty laid her poultice over the wounded eye and cheekbone. “It must stay there while the sand timer empties.” She dragged the large wooden timer from a hook on the wall and placed it on the table.

  Bile rose in Alecia’s throat at the smell; she concentrated on the feel of the cloth to distract herself. The gentle warmth of the poultice changed to a tingling. Something was happening but would it be enough to fool her father? “You mentioned the man with the gilded eyes. When did you see him?”

  “Hetty doesn’t miss much.” The old woman shook her wild silver hair. “He chased you into the alley and came here looking for you.”

  “He came here?” Alecia didn’t quite manage to keep the squeak from her voice.

  “Yes, he barrelled in as if he owned the place. He charged up the stairs to my bedchamber, asking all sorts of questions about a lad with lilac eyes who fought a mercenary in the square. When he didn’t find anyone, he looked as though he would do murder. His eyes turned fully golden, and I don’t mind saying he frightened me. I have my little secrets but I’m no match for the likes of him.”

  “Why would he come here, Hetty?”

  The old woman’s eyes dropped from Alecia’s and she studied her calloused palms.

  “Hetty?”

  The dark eyes rose again. “I saw him chase you. He would’ve caught you. I made him think you were in this house.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I emptied my chamber pot over his head and ensorcelled him so he believes he saw you at the window.”

  “Hetty, he could have throttled you.” Alecia’s lips twitched at the thought of the dashing captain covered in slop.

  “He’s one of your father’s soldiers. I thought I was safe until he fixed me with those eyes and called me a witch. He knows what I am, Princess.”

  “Does he know what you did?”

  “I can’t say, but he’ll return. He said so. You must be careful. There is something about that one. Something wild.”

  Alecia chewed her bottom lip, the cloth on her face forgotten. She recalled the unease she’d felt when he spoke to her. A sixth sense warned her he was more dangerous than the mercenary he had killed. Alecia had never seen Hetty frightened, even when she had been tried for sorcery. The witch maintained her anonymity with a thin veneer of magic that changed her appearance, but if the captain knew her true identity, she was in danger. W
hat to do? Housing was scarce in the town and Hetty was fiercely independent. She would not want to leave her home.

  “Let’s see what we have under this cloth.” The old woman slid the linen from Alecia’s face, her eyes darting over the area around the damaged cheek. Then she lifted a silver-edged mirror from the table. What Alecia saw astounded her. All the puffiness and most of the bruising had vanished, leaving the soft skin of her cheek and temple near perfect. Her left eye looked back at her with a clear lilac gaze.

  “Thank you, Hetty. A little powder and rouge and Father won’t suspect a thing. I owe you a huge debt for the potion and for risking yourself with the captain.”

  Hetty shook her head. “It’s nothing you wouldn’t do for me, child, or that you haven’t already done.”

  Alecia smiled. “Where will you go?”

  “I’m going nowhere, Princess.”

  Alecia shook her head. “He will come back. He said so.”

  “I’ll not run from him or anyone else,” Hetty said, a familiar stubborn set to her jaw.

  “No, you must listen to me. You are not safe here --”

  “Don’t fret,” Hetty said. “I’ve enough tricks up my sleeve to fool a stupid man.”

  Alecia couldn’t believe her ears. “You said you were scared, Hetty. So am I. I do not want anything to happen to you.”

  “Then stay away. Now you must go.” Hetty pulled Alecia up from the table, her grip strong for one so withered. Alecia barely had time to collect her bow and quiver as she was ushered to the back door. The witch unlocked the heavy metal padlock, slid the bolt aside and peered into the alley.

  Alecia slung her weapons about her person and checked her knives, reluctant to leave.

  “It’s clear,” Hetty said and while Alecia still struggled to think of a way to keep Hetty safe, the old woman shoved her though the door and slammed it in her face.

  The barracks of the Prince’s Guard lay just inside the castle walls. Vard dismounted and tossed his reins to a groom. Swift, his brown horse, shied away as Vard handed the horse over, bringing the familiar surge of frustration and sadness. After ten years of training, the gelding still feared him and Vard had to face the fact that despite all his careful nurturing, the horse would never overcome its instinctive terror. It was just another price he had to pay as a member of the ancient and mysterious order to which he belonged. Defenders were destined to live out their lives in isolation and secrecy while protecting the innocent. It was a high price to pay, and as Vard was yet to find a mentor, he risked losing his human core with every transformation -- and, worse, he endangered those around him.