Heir of Thunder (Stormbourne Chronicles Book 1)

by Karissa Laurel

  “Marlis,” I said she stuck her head in my room.

  She pressed her finger over her lips and shook her head. Behind her loomed the darkly robed figure of Lord Daeg.

  “It is time, my child,” he said, gliding into the room. Gideon’s sister came in bearing a thin silk gown, more like something one might wear to sleep. It shimmered a deep maroon, the color of drying blood, as she laid it across my bed.

  “What’s this?” I asked Daeg. “All you need is my cooperation. What does it matter what I’m wearing when I give it to you?”

  He folded his arms over his chest. “The House of Daeg has been waiting for this day for a long time. Forgive us if we make a bit of a spectacle out of it. I want to create a ceremony worthy of the grandeur of this occasion. My people will celebrate it for years to come, and I don’t want it dampened by the memory of a girl in muddy tatters.”

  “Or you want it to look like you have my complicity,” I spat back at him.

  His face turned red, and he balled his fists at his sides. “I do have your complicity, Stormbourne, or I’ll have your death. The color of your gown shall complement the color of your blood.” He spun on his heel and stalked out of the room, leaving me with a shamefaced Marlis.

  She reached into the satchel she’d also brought and pulled out velvet slippers dyed to match the gown, a brush, hairpins, and several thin ribbons also colored a bloody maroon.

  “You know what he plans to do,” I hissed at her. She refused to meet my gaze, but she nodded. “And you won’t do anything to help me?”

  She stared at the floor and waited. Contrary to what Daeg assumed, he did not have my consent. He had exited the room, leaving me with the diffident Marlis, a wide open door, and my Thunder Cloak. I might not make it far, but I had to try. Yanking my cloak from the hook, I pinned her with a threatening look. “You don’t have to help, but you don’t have to get in the way.”

  The cloak wouldn’t work inside the house. It needed full sunlight for the invisibility effect, but if I could get outside.... My gaze swung to the window. The clouds that had mirrored my mood for most of a week blocked the sun, but maybe I could do something about that. I stepped into the dark hallway outside my room, fastened the clasp of my cloak, and whispered my father’s name.

  I closed my eyes and tried to overcome the gloom in which I had dwelled for the past several days, looking for a bright memory that might chase away the clouds. Malita’s face popped up in my mind’s eye, and she wore her effusive grin. The brilliance of it made me smile. Buoyed by the memory, I stepped toward the staircase, but a firm grasp on my arm turned me back.

  “He’ll hurt me,” Marlis whispered, and the shock of hearing her speak stole my own words. “Don’t go, or Daeg will punish me.” Her emotive eyes, so much like her brother’s, revealed her fear. “He’ll blame me.”

  I stepped closer and took her hands in mine. They felt cold as ice. I rubbed her thin fingers, trying to generate some warmth. “But, if I don’t go, he’ll hurt me. He’ll take everything from me, and I might as well be dead.”

  She implored me with her eyes, but said nothing else.

  “Come with me,” I said. “We can both leave this place.”

  “Where will you go?”

  “I have friends who can help.”

  “The Fantazikes?”

  I nodded. “Maybe. And others. If I can’t find them I can make it on my own. I’ve done it before.” I watched her and thought I saw her hesitancy turning into something else. Hope? “I have to try, Marlis. Please.”

  A brief smile touched her lips, but then shook herself and backed away. “I can’t leave my father, or my brother. This is my home.”

  No matter how I felt about her brother’s betrayal, I understood family devotion. I didn’t press her again to go with me, but I couldn’t stay for fear of Daeg’s retribution. Maybe Gideon would protect his sister and not fail her the way he had failed me. “I understand. You can’t leave your home. If Daeg hadn’t taken mine away from me, I would have never left my home either. I’m sorry, but I have to try.”

  I turned away, ignoring the desperate look on Marlis’s face, and hurried for the stairs before I could change my mind. Please, Father, please, I begged as I skipped down the stairs, hugging the walls, urging my feet to move swiftly and silently.

  Daeg’s household had prepared for a grand affair: swaths of flowers decorated every surface, candelabras blazed in the corners and on a grand banquet table laid with linens and fine crystal. A few starched and liveried servants dashed about, moving furniture, carrying trays laden with dishes and crystal.

  None of them noticed me as I slipped around the corner into a back hallway. I had no idea where the passage led, but I prayed I wouldn’t encounter anyone along the way. The smell of roasting meat, baking bread and heat from the kitchens greeted me long before I stepped into the room full of ovens and gas stoves.

  A large woman elbow-deep in dough yelled to a man stirring something in a bubbling pot. Both of their backs were turned to me, and I sidled through the room, trying for stealth, praying the cooks kept their attention on their work. I had almost reached the pantry and the exit on the other side when my knee brushed a wayward pan stacked haphazardly under one of the worktables. It clattered to the floor, louder than the shrieking of a banshee.

  I ran.

  Chapter 36

  I didn’t look back to see if anyone chased me, but I flew—through the courtyard, across an open lawn, to the stables Gideon had pointed out on our walk earlier in the week. The first guests had arrived for the ceremony, and several young boys lead two horses toward the stable.

  The ray of sun that had broken through the clouds when I thought of Malita’s smile sparked the powers in my cloak and turned me into a semi-transparent blur. Without more sun light, I might avoid notice from a distance, but I would look like a blurry shadow to anyone paying attention.

  I paused and gathered my wits. The boys took a big bay gelding into the barn, but they left his pretty gray companion tied up outside. I searched my memories again for something uplifting, and remembered the wind in my face as I stood on the deck of the Tippany’s airship. Another cloud burned away.

  I felt it then, the hollow sensation of my cloak when it reached full power. I crept toward the gray mare. Her head turned when she caught my scent, but when she couldn’t see what she knew she could smell, she stamped her foot, shook her head, and whinnied.

  “Shhh,” I whispered in her ear as I loosened her reins from the hitching post outside the barn entrance. “Easy girl. Don’t be afraid.”

  I slipped my foot into the stirrup and let her feel my weight. She sidestepped, but I anticipated her move and hauled myself onto her back before she could pull away. I gave her a moment to get used to me and gathered the reins. When she settled, I kneed her into a swift trot and headed toward the forests lining the estate boundaries.

  “Hey!” one of the stable boys shouted when he returned to collect the horse I had just stolen. Glancing back, I saw him racing after us on foot, and the cook who had been kneading dough in the kitchen stood in the yard behind him, watching an apparently riderless horse hurrying for the woods. I nudged the mare again and she responded, transitioning into a smooth lope.

  “Aren’t you a bonnie girl?” I patted her neck as she carried me into the woods surrounding the estate, and we delved into the dark shadows until the calls of the stable boys faded away. The shadows sucked away the abilities of my cloak, leaving me visible and vulnerable, but there was no avoiding the trees until I reached the eastern border of Daeg’s estate. Once there, my pathway opened to sunlight and freedom, but until then, the horse and I picked our way over roots and stones, and hoped the forest’s shadows would hide us from observers.

  I had no plan, no hope for success. I made up my escape as I went along. Maybe that was why it failed. In the trees ahead, only a few yards away, a man sat on a horse. I paused, hoping he hadn’t seen me, but I wasn’t that lucky, of course.
>
  “Hello, Evie,” the rider. “Long time no see.”

  I recognized the voice before I recognized the face. As he approached, my eyes confirmed what my ears had already told me. Perched in the saddle of a beautiful stallion, the head of my father’s Crown of Men smiled like a starving animal of prey—a wolf, or more likely a jackal.

  “Terrill,” I said with a sneer. “What are you doing here?”

  “Security, my dear. Your father’s men have been put to better use.” His horse moved forward with slow, plodding steps. “Daeg suspected you might get this far in an escape attempt, and we’ve set up a perimeter, just in case.”

  “If you and Gideon worked for the same master, why were you chasing us?”

  “Once Gideon removed you from Fallstaff, I was ordered to do whatever was necessary to ensure you made it here, to Daeg’s estate. He wasn’t certain of Gideon’s loyalties; thought he might have succumbed to the Stormbourne influence. Thought he might feel sorry for you. Besides, if I brought you in alone it meant a bigger reward for me. I’m not inclined to share the glory.” Terrill raised an eyebrow and swept his eyes over my figure in a lewd way. His lips curled into a lecherous grin. “Or the spoils of war.”

  “Looks like you’re a puppet on another string, to me.” I urged my horse to back up a step, one for each of Terrill’s horse. “Did you kill my father?”

  Terrill’s wolfish grin turned even more malevolent. “I took pleasure in it, my dear. The same as I’m going to take great pleasure in watching Daeg bring you to your knees tonight.”

  “Why, Terrill? I understand greed, but why have you made it personal?”

  I never got his answer. While he kept me distracted, another betrayer from my father’s guard snuck up behind me and clamped down on my leg and shoulder. He yanked me from my horse.

  I struggled and kicked and bit, but I never stood a chance of overcoming a trained warrior, especially not after Terrill slipped from his horse and joined the assault. Before long, they had me tied and trussed like a roast pheasant. They draped me over the rump of Terrill’s stallion and carried me back to the castle.

  Daeg greeted us in the courtyard with a triumphant smile on his face. He chuckled when Terrill removed me from his horse and tossed me over his shoulder.

  “Oh, Evelyn,” Daeg said through his laughter. “I almost regret what I’m about to do to you. You’re so much more worthy than my son to carry the honor of your birthright. Too bad you were born to the wrong father.”

  I cursed at him through my gag, but the muffled sounds that came through only made him laugh harder. He and Terrill tossed me back into my room, dumping me on my rear onto the hard stone floor. Daeg crouched beside me, removed my gag, and gripped my jaw. He whipped a flask from his pocket and pressed it to my lips. “I said I would have your compliance. I take no chances.”

  He pressed the flask to my lips as Terrill pinned my arms to my side. I clamped my mouth shut, kicking and struggling again, but Daeg’s fingers dug into my flesh and forced my lips apart. A bitter liquid trickled into my mouth. I tried to spit it in Daeg’s face, but he pressed a hand over my mouth and clenched my nose shut. Either I swallowed, or I choked. I might have chosen the latter, just to spite him, but my survival instincts kicked in, and I swallowed.

  Daeg grunted, nodded, and Terrill let me go. The men left the room and two women swept in to take their place. Whatever concoction Daeg forced me to drink went to work fast, making my bones heavy, and my head droop. The women stripped me, scrubbed me in frigid water, and dressed me in the blood-silk gown. It glided over me like a second skin, and I tried not to relish its softness and warmth.

  The women stole my breath, yanking my hair. Perhaps they had snatched me bald. A strip of color flashed past my eyes, and I recognized the ribbon Marlis had shown me earlier. It disappeared into my hair with more yanking and tugging. At the end, they shoved the velvet slippers on my feet and forced me to twirl around as they inspected their ministrations. Not a modicum of pity shown in either woman’s eyes, but I recognized the looks on their faces as satisfaction.

  One of them disappeared, but returned moments later with Terrill. He paused at the doorway when he saw me, and his eyes poured over me in an oily gaze. “My, my, Evie. There’s a woman inside you after all.”

  My skin crawled as his eyes grazed over me like creeping, crawling things in the dirt. I felt naked and longed for the modesty of my Thunder Cloak.

  “Come along,” he said. “Everyone is waiting.”

  Chapter 37

  The candelabrum in the common room cast a soft, almost romantic glow over the guests who filled it. Their excited babble reached me before Terrill guided me down to the last step, but when they saw me, their prattle fell silent, and a heavy quiet oppressed the room. A strong aroma of incense coated my nose and tongue with a sickening sweetness. I tried to absorb all the details and picked over the faces of the crowd, looking for sympathy, but found none. Terrill let go of me and I swayed on my feet. Keeping upright and awake required a great deal of focus and escape now seemed like in impossibility.

  Daeg waited at the forefront of the room, wearing a long black cloak over a dark gray suit. His blond hair spilled over his shoulders and gleamed like polished gold in the candlelight. Next to him stood Aodan, wearing similar attire, but his cape matched the sanguine color of my gown. He had tried to tame his spiky hair, but a mischievous cowlick threatened to rebel. He saw me looking at it and scowled as he patted it back in place.

  A strange man I didn’t know stood beside him—his air of self-importance indicated he would play a major role in the evening’s events. He towered almost a head above Daeg, possibly even as tall as Gideon, and his long gray hair draped the sides of his wizened face. Comparing his height to Gideon’s made me think of my reluctant guardian, despite my vows not to. He was noticeably absent, but I didn’t know how I felt about that. Had I expected him to be there, or had I thought he would hide in shame for what he had done to me?

  “Our honored guest has arrived,” Daeg announced. “I would like to introduce you all to Evelyn Stormbourne, daughter of Lord Trevelyan, and temporary Heir of Thunder.”

  The crowd twittered and Daeg crossed the room to my side. He waited for them to hush before continuing. “As you all know, this night has been a long time in the making, and you are all witness to the fulfillment of promise our ancestor made so long ago. The birthright of the Lord of Thunder has returned to its rightful home, and soon, it will be bestowed unto its rightful heir. You are all here to testify to the beginning of a new legacy.”

  As he spoke, he led me toward his son and drew us both to his side. Daeg joined my right hand and Aodan’s left hand between his own, forcing us to clasp hands, palm to palm. He held our hands together until the older, gray haired man bound them with a bit of gold rope. He whispered a few strange words over the rope, and it tightened. I couldn’t pull away, even after Daeg released me from his grasp. The incense was cloying and overpowering. My head spun, and I longed for a breath of fresh air.

  “Diodorus, please proceed,” Daeg said, turning the events over to the Magician who must have been hired to perform the transformation of the birthright.

  The Magician led Aodan and me to the front of the room, where two chaise lounges sat parallel to each other. Aodan went to one seat and stretched out while Diodorus pressed me down against the other. I wanted to fight against him, protest the whole affair, but my body ignored my commands, and, when I opened my mouth to scream, my thick and swollen tongue refused to cooperate. Aodan’s hand and mine swung loosely between us, and he stared at me with dark, sunken eyes. Greed and hunger burned in his gaze.

  Diodorus crouched beside Aodan and rolled up his sleeve. Lord Daeg stooped beside him, offering the Magician a polished gold chalice encrusted with rubies. From the folds of his cloak, Diodorus drew out a long, thin knife made of a dark metal that absorbed the candlelight. In a flash, he drew the blade across the tender flesh of Aodan’s forearm. He flinched b
ut held his silence while the Magician captured the blood flow, trickling dark and viscous, in the chalice. Aodan watched me watching him, and the corner of his mouth twitched up in a haughty smile.

  Because our arms were connected, the Magician had only to turn to draw the dagger across the delicate skin of my own forearm. I tried to pull away, but he moved swiftly and cut a ragged gash that stung like fire. He and Daeg held my arm over the cup, letting the blood course into it.

  “This is barbaric,” I said, though through my swollen tongue and dry throat the words came out as imperceptible gibberish. They ignored me and kept their eyes trained on the blood dripping from my arm.

  When they had filled the chalice to their satisfaction, Diodorus staunched our wounds. Daeg poured in a measure of wine from a second cup. The Magician chanted something unintelligible as he mixed the concoction with his knife blade. It reminded me of my nightmare wedding to Jackie, and I wondered how much had been my imagination, and how much premonition.

  Diodorus brought the golden cup to Aodan’s lips. The boy gulped without taking his eyes from me. I wanted to look away. I wanted to close my eyes and retreat into myself but the Magician or Lord Daeg’s elixir had entranced me somehow. When the Magician pulled the cup away from Aodan, blood had dyed his lips a deep crimson, and the boy grinned at me revealing red stained teeth.

  Diodorus turned and put the chalice to my lips. I refused it, but he struck at my throat with a viper fast motion, choking me and forcing me to gasp. When my lips popped open, he poured the chalice’s contents in my mouth. He had managed to poison me much easier than Lord Daeg, but I had less fight in me this time, thanks to Daeg’s preparations.