by Dyan Chick
Heir of Illaria
Book One of the Illaria Series
Dyan Chick
Illaria Publishing, LLC
Contents
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
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
About the Author
Acknowledgments
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters and events in this book are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Published by Illaria Publishing
Copyright © 2017 by Dyan Chick
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Artwork by Clarissa Yeo
Editing by Laura Kingsley
1
Leaves rustled behind me. I pulled my dagger from its sheath on my wrist and held my breath, frozen in place. The rustling stopped, everything was quiet. I let out a breath and replaced my dagger. Must have been a squirrel. I’m starting to be as paranoid as my grandmother. A pang of guilt rose through me for sneaking out again. Hopefully she’ll forgive me when she sees the basket of berries I’m bringing back.
Reaching for my neck, I made sure the pendant I wore hadn’t come loose. As usual, it was safely hidden under my clothes. I sighed. I really am becoming as paranoid as my grandmother. The necklace had been a tenth birthday gift, a keepsake left behind by my dead mother. The circular snake eating its own tail, the Ouroboros, wasn’t a symbol I saw anywhere except for my pendant, and I had been instructed to keep it that way.
Grandmother wouldn’t talk about my mother. I always figured it made her too sad, but I felt like something was missing. Like somehow, I wasn’t complete. When I was a child, I liked to imagine that one day, somebody with the same pendant would find me. They would explain everything, and I’d fill the hole inside me with the answers to the questions I couldn’t put into words. I shook my head. My parents were dead. Nobody was coming to find me. You’re too old for those fantasies.
I weaved around the trees to find my way back to the dirt road that cut through the woods. Low hanging branches caught in my hair, and I stopped to pull the leaves out.The birdsong above me shifted. The musical notes changed into warning cries. My heart rate quickened and I looked around, expecting to see a predator. Instead, hoof beats punctuated the silence. Somebody was riding through the woods. I was steps away from the road, and peered through the trees to see who was coming. Two men riding formidable black horses were headed in my direction. An uncomfortable feeling crept into me, as if warning me to avoid these travelers. I sank back into the trees, hoping they’d pass without seeing me.
As they got closer, I could see that they were wearing the king’s crest. A human skull embraced by the wings of a fiery phoenix. A chill ran down my spine at the sight of that skull. His crest was a reminder about his powers as a necromancer. My breath caught in my chest as they rode by and I clenched my basket tightly. All my life, I’d managed to avoid interacting with anybody who worked for the king. Today wasn’t the day I was going to break that streak.
I took another step back into the trees as they drew nearer, hoping to further conceal myself. A dry branch snapped under my feet. I cursed silently. The horses swung their heads in my direction and the riders pulled back on the reigns to look around. My heart beat wildly in my chest. I closed my eyes and stood frozen in place. If I don’t move, maybe they won’t see me.
The horses started moving again and I opened my eyes. They were right in front of me.
“You there, girl!” shouted the first rider from atop his horse. “Step out here where we can see you.”
My stomach jumped into my throat. I stepped onto the trail next to the large black steeds.
“What are you doing in the King’s woods?” he asked me.
I lifted the basket I was holding. “Picking berries.”
His tangled dark hair and thick stubble made him look more like a beast than a man. His dark eyes studied my blue ones. His irises were almost as dark as his pupils, making it seem like he could look right through me. I could practically feel the pendant burning into my skin and fought against the urge to check that it was still hidden. A shiver of fear ran up my spine, and I turned my gaze to the ground.
He dismounted and took a few steps toward me. My whole body tensed. What does he want from me? He reached his hand out and scooped a handful of berries from my basket. My hands began to tremble.
“What kind of berries are these?” He tossed them into his mouth.
“Blueberries.” I took a step back, but the ground was uneven and I stumbled, almost losing my basket. He grabbed my wrist to steady me. That’s when he found my dagger. I froze. Is he going to think I’m a threat? Is he going to hurt me? I'd started carrying a dagger after a villager had been attacked by a puma, though I'd never learned how to actually use it.
He pulled me closer to him, turning my arm. “What’s this?”
The other rider climbed off of his horse and walked over to us. He was smaller than the first man and had a stocky build. His red hair and red beard matched his ruddy complexion. The sleeves of his tunic were pushed up to his elbows, revealing several tattoos on his forearms.
“Everything okay here?” he asked.
“This girl looks to be hunting in the King’s woods.” The first man pulled my arm toward his friend, showing my dagger.
I struggled to keep my balance as he pulled me to him. The basket around my other wrist tipped, sending berries all over the ground.
“You know hunting in the King’s woods is punishable by death,” the second man said.
The beast turned to his friend. “We haven’t had a good hanging in a while in this part of the kingdom.”
I’d seen a hanging when I was younger. My throat tightened as if I had a rope around my neck. It was getting hard to breathe. I reached my hand up around my neck and swallowed, trying to shake the image of the twitching body from my mind. “I’m not hunting,” I pleaded. “I just have it in case of a puma or bear.”
The men looked at each other.
The second man started laughing. “You think you could take down a puma or bear with your dagger?”
“I don’t know, but I’d at least try.”
The first man smiled and threw my wrist away from him as if he found it disgusting.
I stumbled again.
“What’s your name, girl?” he asked me.
I cleared my throat, trying to find my voice through the fear. “Wilona.”
They looked at each other again.
Nervous butterflies flooded my stomach. I said too much. I needed to get out of here. Yet I stood there, glu
ed to the spot. I was afraid to move. The King’s Guard had too much unquestioned power for me to risk upsetting them. I pulled the basket back up my arm and crossed my arms over my chest.
“You live in the village nearby?” The beast lifted his chin toward my village.
“Yes.” My hands were starting to tremble. I looked around, wondering if I should make a run for the woods. Find a place to hide.
“No doubt with your parents and a brood of siblings?”
I ignored him for a moment, still glancing around. Warning bells were ringing in my head. My grandmother’s distrust of all people had resulted in lectures about not talking to people I didn’t know.
“What do your parents do, Wilona?”
I'm not going to get out of this without saying something. “My grandmother is a seamstress.” I looked away from his penetrating gaze.
“No parents, then?” he said.
I shifted uncomfortably and shook my head without looking up.
He took a step closer to me and lifted my chin so I was looking right into his dark eyes. They were cold and unkind. “How old are you?”
My eyes darted around. Is there a way out of this? Is he going to hurt me? I saw the other guard to my right. He had his hand on the hilt of his sword. He wouldn’t be of any help. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from crying out. “I’m seventeen.”
He let go of my chin and turned to his friend. They exchanged some sort of silent conversation. Then he looked back at me with a forced smile on his face. The expression was about as convincing as a hungry wolf.
“Best be on your way then. It’ll be getting dark soon.”
I nodded and slowly took a few steps onto the road. I let out a breath I didn’t know I had been holding but my hands were shaking. I glanced over my shoulder.
The men mounted their horses and the beast smiled at me. “Be careful out there, Wilona. There’s a lot of dangerous people in the woods these days.” They turned around and rode away from me and my village.
As I watched them leave, I felt a weight lift off of my chest. It was my first interaction with anyone who worked for the king, and it was not something I wanted to repeat. As soon as the horses were out of sight, I raced home.
Nearing my house, I slowed to a walk, working hard to catch my breath. I couldn’t tell my grandmother about this. It would only upset her. Besides, they left and went the other way. They probably just wanted to scare me. I’m sure they enjoy scaring people. Why else would they join the King’s Guard?
I opened the front door a crack and listened for any signs of my grandmother. Silence. I stepped inside and froze. Grandmother was sitting in the kitchen.
“Wilona.” She shook her head.
I squeezed my eyes closed. Guess she wasn’t still in town.
“Where were you?” she asked.
I moved the basket behind my back. “I went for a walk.”
She frowned. “With a basket?”
I was almost eighteen. There were people my age who already had homes of their own. When will she start letting me make decisions for myself? I sighed. “Okay, you caught me. I went to the woods to pick berries.”
She stood and walked over to me. “You know I don’t like it when you go to the woods. It’s just not safe for you.”
“I can handle myself.”
She glanced at the dagger. “You don’t even know how to use that thing. Besides, it wouldn't do you any good if you ran into the King’s Guards.”
I rubbed my nose and looked away from her, wondering if I should just tell her about the guards. It will only make her upset if I tell her.
“What happened?”
I avoided eye contact. “Nothing happened.” I lifted the empty basket. “Just no berries today.” I walked past her to put the basket in the kitchen.
“Wilona, be honest with me. I know when you’re keeping something from me.”
I sighed. I was a terrible liar. The words tumbled out, too quickly. “I ran into two King’s Guards, but I’m fine. They talked to me but then they left.”
Her face fell and she sunk into a chair. “Wilona, it might be time we had a little talk.”
Something in her tone of voice was different. My stomach knotted. She patted her hand on the chair next to hers. I sighed and plopped down on it. She leaned back in her chair and pinched her nose between her finger and thumb. I waited.
The ringing of bells cut through the silence. I jumped to my feet. It wasn’t a feast day or time for service. The bell tolled again. It was ringing in a series of three rings with a pause in between. I’d never heard that pattern.
My grandmother looked at me, face ashen. She stood. “We have to get you out of here right now.” She dragged me to the back door of the house.
I pulled away from her and grabbed her hands. “What are you doing?”
“There’s no time, Wilona. They’ve found you.” She threw open the back door. The men I had run into in the woods were smiling back at me. The hair on my arms stood on end.
“Looks like we found the right house,” the beast said.
My grandmother pushed me away from the door and stood in front of the men. “Run. Don’t look back. Run!”
I ran toward the front door, heart threatening to break free of my chest. My grandmother let out a scream amidst the thundering sound of their boots behind me. A hand clasped around my wrist, pulling me back. I screamed and another hand covered my mouth. They’ve come back for me. A dangling corpse filled my vision, lifeless body hanging from the gallows.
The beast whispered in my ear. “There’s nobody here to help you. You’ll be dead before those White Ravens even know we found you.”
Why does he want me dead? He knows I wasn’t hunting. What Ravens? He had let me go in the woods. Why show up at my house? Whatever the reason, he planned to harm me. Fight back. I pulled my dagger out of its sheath and he knocked it away. I tried to wiggle out of his grasp as he raised a knife above his head. Swallowing hard, I closed my eyes tight. I can’t die like this!
There was a blur of movement. I found myself out of his grasp and he was on the ground, gripping his throat. There was blood flowing under his hands and a look of terror in his eyes. He dropped to his knees and fell back on the ground, unblinking.
The other guard grabbed me by my hair. He produced a small knife out of his waistband and held it to my throat. He turned me so that we were facing the newcomer, the person who had saved me.
The figure pulled back a hood, revealing a strikingly beautiful woman. She had green eyes and light blond hair that fell in messy ringlets. Her nose was small and pointed, mouth formed into a tight angry line, eyes narrowed. She reached inside her cloak, removing a sword, and gripped it with both hands. She bent her knees, getting into an attack position. My eyes widened. I had never seen a woman fight before.
“If you want her,” she said, “you have to go through me!”
The man holding me shifted. He laughed as he tossed me aside, knocking me to the ground. I crawled away to put more distance between myself and the impending battle. My heart was still pounding and my hands were trembling. I looked toward the back door and saw my grandmother on the ground. I couldn’t get to her without putting myself in the middle of a fight. Please be okay. The guards came here because of me and my grandmother had protected me from them. I didn’t see any movement from her. What would I do if she was dead? I needed to get to her but that wasn’t possible while the other guard was still alive. I returned my gaze to the unlikely pair as they faced off.
He unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the blonde woman. “What are you going to do with that thing?”
“You shouldn’t underestimate me,” she said.
“You’re just a woman.” He spat on the ground.
Her eyes never left his. She didn’t seem rattled by his taunting and took a step forward, making the first move. She swung her sword with practiced movements, catching him off guard. He looked surprised, but managed to dodge it, taking a coupl
e of steps back.
“This might be more fun than I thought.” He lunged at her, causing her to spin away and her steel made contact with his, blocking his blow.
She returned his aggression with a quick thrust to his abdomen, piercing the skin. He backed up, howling in pain. Then he narrowed his eyes and charged her, swinging wildly. She smiled. In his haste, he left his body unguarded. He raised his sword above his head, preparing to strike. She ducked down and in one clean motion, sliced across his waist. Blood spewed everywhere.
He finished his swing but it didn’t even touch her. Then he fell to his knees, eyes wide. He wrapped an arm around his waist and stared, open mouthed at the wound. All the color drained from his ruddy face. He struggled to speak, but couldn’t get any words to come out. With a look of sheer panic, he fell to the ground and stopped moving. I sat there, feeling numb, staring at the dead man’s lifeless, open eyes.
“Wilona,” the woman said gently, “we need to go.”
I looked up, her words breaking me from my trance. Grandmother. “Grandmother!” I shouted, looking around frantically. I raced to the back door.
She was laying on the ground on her side, one arm outstretched. I turned her over so I could see her face. Her eyes had the same lifeless look as the man I just watched die. No! A lump rose in my throat and my eyes stung with the beginnings of tears. This is my fault. These men had come here to kill me.
How did I let this happen? I'd done nothing, I was useless to protect myself or anybody else. I should have done something, anything. It’s my fault she’s dead.
“Wilona, we need to go.” The woman said more forcefully.
I glared at this stranger who had just saved my life. “What’s going on? How do you know my name?”
She lifted her wrist to show me a leather bracelet. A circular snake eating its tail, an Ouroboros, was burned into it. “My name is Saffron, I’m here to keep you safe. I’ll explain everything later but right now, we have to go.”
I stared at the Ouroboros on her bracelet and reached for my pendant. It looks just like mine. I’d dreamed of this day, the day somebody would fill in the gaps. Shouldn’t I be happy? I swallowed down the metallic taste that filled my mouth. Not like this. Not without my grandmother. I shook my head. “I can't just leave my grandmother here!” My vision was blurry from the tears.
