by K J Taylor
Kullervo let himself be led to the village square, and before long he was surrounded by a chattering crowd. Northerners, Southerners, and some in between.
‘Where did the baby come from?’ a woman asked.
Kullervo held the child up for them all to see. ‘This is Flell,’ he said. ‘She’s my niece. But she’s lost both her parents now, and I have to care for her. I thought, there’s no better place in all of Cymria to raise a child than Gwernyfed. So here I am! But where’s Lord Rufus?’
‘He died,’ said one of the Southerners. ‘Just a few months ago.’
Kullervo sighed sadly. ‘Was it peaceful?’
‘He died in his sleep,’ said a woman. ‘He had a good long life. But now you’ve both returned, we’re complete again, aren’t we?’
‘Complete?’ said Kullervo. ‘How?’
‘Well, you’ve come back, haven’t you?’ said the woman. ‘Gryphus sent you back here to be our new elder.’
‘I’m not — ’ Kullervo began, but then he gave up. ‘I’d like to live here, if you don’t mind.’
‘Of course we don’t!’ several people said.
‘You’re welcome here, Kullervo,’ said the woman. ‘And we’ll be glad to have you here to help us the way Rufus did.’
‘If you want me to, I will,’ said Kullervo. ‘Wait — what do you mean “both”? You said we’ve both returned?’
‘Yes, that’s right,’ said the woman. ‘It’s been an odd week. We never expected to see either of you again, and you both turn up a few days apart! First Senneck, and then …’
Kullervo leapt to his feet. ‘Senneck? Senneck’s here?’
‘Yes, she got here a few days ago …’
Kullervo didn’t hear anything more. He almost ran through the village, calling Senneck’s name.
He didn’t need to do it for long. She was there. Real and alive, coming out of a barn to meet him.
Kullervo stood there stupidly and stared at her. ‘Senneck …’
Senneck stared back. ‘Is that your sister’s pup?’
‘Yes. Her name’s Flell. Senneck, I …’
‘Enough.’ Senneck came closer. ‘I did not know where to go, and so I came here. It is the only home I have had other than Malvern. It sheltered me when I lost Erian, and when I lost you I returned.’
‘You left me,’ said Kullervo.
‘Lost you,’ said Senneck. She sighed. ‘I have lived a long life, and seen many things. Since I was a youngster at Eagleholm, I have done nothing but chase power wherever I found it. My mother Shoa taught me to be this way when I was in the nest, and I have followed her words ever since. But no matter where I went or what I did, true power evaded me. I was an Eyrie ruler for a day, and now I am nothing again. Unpartnered again. Powerless again.’
‘You’re not unpartnered,’ said Kullervo. ‘You still have me.’
‘I made myself unpartnered by leaving you,’ said Senneck. ‘And since then I have thought. All my struggles won me nothing. Nothing but you, and a tiny human nest far from anywhere.’
‘And what did you decide?’ asked Kullervo.
‘I have seen that perhaps it will be better for me not to struggle any more,’ said Senneck. ‘I have done many things and won many battles. Perhaps it is enough for one life. And you … why are you here?’
‘I don’t have a home any more,’ said Kullervo. ‘This is the only place I was ever happy. It’s where I met you. Laela’s child and I both need somewhere to live, so I’ve chosen here. I think we can be happy here. And safe.’
‘My home is wherever you are, Kullervo,’ said Senneck. ‘You are my human.’
Kullervo smiled a soft, loving smile. ‘You’re right, Senneck. About everything. Since we left here together we’ve done so much, but we ended up right back where we started. So we might as well accept it. Besides, the people here want me to be the new elder now Rufus is gone. Maybe we can be rulers after all.’
‘Of a sort,’ said Senneck, but she sounded amused.
‘And we’ll raise this child,’ said Kullervo, cradling Flell. ‘We can be the family to her that I never had. I’ll teach her everything I know.’
‘That will not take long,’ said Senneck.
Kullervo laughed. ‘Then once I’m finished you can teach her everything you know, and that’ll take a lifetime.’
‘I shall,’ said Senneck. ‘Now, I think your new followers wish to celebrate.’
‘Then let’s go!’ said Kullervo. ‘Come on, Flell, let’s go and meet your new friends.’
He went back to the village square, where a firepit was already being dug, and felt his heart soar. The war was lost, but it didn’t matter to him any more. The world was too big for him to change. Let North and South do whatever the two races decided. One day, maybe, a united Cymria would come. And when it did, he hoped he would be there to see it. Or Flell perhaps, or her descendants.
This will be my task, he thought. My life’s work. I will be Flell’s guardian. And …
Some of his joy darkened as he remembered the thing he had hidden outside the village.
And I will guard the heart. I will make sure that its powers are never used again. I swear.
Far away, in Malvern, a very different sort of celebration took place.
Caedmon was crowned at midnight, not in the Eyrie’s council chamber, but in the new Moon Temple out in the city. Whatever else Laela had been, she had done a fine job of rebuilding it.
The new High Priestess and her underlings conducted the ceremony, and every griffiner in Malvern came to witness it. Commoners came too, packed into the Temple and spilling out into the street.
Caedmon and Shar stood together in front of the altar, as young and proud as Arenadd and Skandar had been at their own ascension. Shar held out her forelegs to accept her golden bands of office, and Caedmon accepted the crown. It was a simple thing: a band of silver, set with a single blue stone. Once Arenadd’s, and now his. And because he had fought so hard for it, and lost so much, it meant more to him than it could ever have done if it had been simply handed to him, as it had to Laela. Nobody, of course, would mention her again except in the worst terms. Caedmon had already ordered for her name to be struck from the records, and had had her body burned without ceremony and the ashes thrown away. She would never be officially recognised as a Taranisäii, or as a true queen, and his people would curse her name forever.
When the crown touched Caedmon’s head, the Temple erupted in cheering and applause. Griffins screeched Shar’s name, and humans shouted Caedmon’s.
Caedmon raised a hand and silence fell.
‘Sire,’ the High Priestess said. ‘What do ye command?’
Caedmon’s black eyes glinted. ‘The Southerners who came here before came hoping to take our lands for themselves. They’ve proven that they can’t be trusted, whether full-blooded or only half.’
The crowd hissed hatefully.
‘We have rebuilding to do,’ Caedmon continued. ‘There will be hard work ahead: traitors to subdue, cities to repair. But with loyalty and dedication, we can do it. After all, we know who we are, and we are united!’
Cheers rose to the roof.
‘But,’ said Caedmon, ‘here today, before that hard work begins, I have one promise to make. And it’s a promise that will be kept. I, King Caedmon Taranisäii the First of Tara, hereby swear that one day, maybe in one year, or maybe in ten … when the day comes when we’re ready, we will declare war on the South.’
Excitement rippled through the crowd.
‘We will go beyond the Northgate Mountains,’ Caedmon said, ‘and we will enter the South. We will smash the Southerners. We will take their cities for ourselves, and sell their people into slavery just as they did to us. We will show them what a true Northern army can do, and we will show them — we will show them what happens to our enemies!’
Excitement turned to ugly shouts and roars of approval.
‘The Southerners thought they could take us!’ Caedmon shouted. �
�But we will take the South!’
‘Caedmon!’ the people shouted back. ‘King Caedmon! Conqueror of the South!’
‘Death to the Southerners!’ others bellowed.
Shar lifted her head high. ‘We will have their territory for our own!’ she screeched. ‘Griffins, are you with me?’
‘Shar!’ they screamed back. ‘Mighty Shar!’
But there was one griffin there who did not screech, did not rear up or spread his wings.
Lurking among the legs of the adults, Kraego listened, and glared silently up at Shar. Shar, who had killed his father. Shar, who had stolen the glory that should have been his. Shar, who thought she could be mightier than a dark griffin.
Kraego kept his eyes on the red griffin, and rasped a curse that no-one heard but him. ‘I will return,’ he said. ‘I will be back, Shar. You conquered my father, but one day I will conquer you.’
He turned and slunk out of the Temple, unnoticed in all the confusion. Once he was in the open he took to the air and flew away out of Malvern.
However, he did not head North, but South. In the South he would be safe. And to him, it was home.
But I will return, he promised himself.
And then let the land tremble …
About the Author
‘Never let yourself be defined
by what you can’t do.’
Born in Canberra in 1986, Katie J Taylor attended Radford College, where she wrote her first novel, The Land of Bad Fantasy, which was published in 2006. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Communications from the University of Canberra, and a Master’s Degree in Information Studies. She recently quit writing at midnight and now prefers to wear T-shirts with humorous slogans. But she does have a griffin tattoo and a nose piercing.
For news and author contact, visit
www.kjtaylor.com
Other Books by K J Taylor
The Fallen Moon
The Dark Griffin (1)
The Griffin’s Flight (2)
The Griffin’s War (3)
The Risen Sun
The Shadow’s Heir (1)
The Shadowed Throne (2)
The Shadow’s Heart (3)
Copyright
HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2014
This edition published in 2014
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © K. J. Taylor 2014
The right of K. J. Taylor to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Taylor, K. J. (Katie Jill) 1986– author.
The shadow’s heart/K. J. (Katie Jill) Taylor.
978 0 7322 9424 3 (pbk.)
978 0 7304 9792 9 (epub)
Series: Taylor, K. J. (Katie Jill), 1986– Risen sun; bk. 3.
Griffins — Fiction.
A823.4
Cover design by Darren Holt, HarperCollins Design Studio
Cover images by shutterstock.com
Map by Allison Jones
