by K. A. Linde
“She’s not one of your girls that you can drunkenly find at a tavern.”
“I didn’t find her in a tavern, did I? I found her when she broke me out of prison, took out four Byern guards single-handedly, and then helped orchestrate my escape.”
“I orchestrated your escape,” Cyrene grumbled.
“Yeah, but you’re…you.”
“Why, thank you, Ahlvie. You have quite a way with words.”
He continued, ignoring her, “Plus, she’s beautiful.”
Cyrene rolled her eyes. Just what she needed on this already complicated trip—to have Ahlvie and Ceis’f kill each other. She generally thought Ahlvie was smarter than that. In fact, many considered him to be a genius, which is why he had been promoted to First Class and made a High Order even though his entire family was Third Class. At times like this, she wasn’t so sure about his supposed genius status.
“Let’s concentrate on what’s important here,” Cyrene said. “We’re being chased by the entire Byern Guard, we almost sparked a war between Byern and Aurum, and we still need to get to the capital and procure a ship to take us to Eleysia. Not to mention, we need to locate Matilde and Vera in Eleysia.”
“You’ll work out the details,” he said, clapping her on the back. His eyes were distant as he stared across the boat at Avoca. “I have faith in you.”
“So, where do you think Cyrene will go from here?” Eren asked Rhea.
He was hunched over a map in the study attached to the war room in Krisana. He had taken it over, despite the complaints from Captain Merrick, King Edric’s personal Royal Captain of the Guard, that the King’s guards would find more use for it.
Rhea was under the impression that Captain Merrick had no interest in Cyrene’s rescue even though, more than a month later, it was still King Edric’s top priority. Captain Merrick was a man who, first and foremost, looked after his job. That job just didn’t always coincide with what anyone wanted, the King included. Rhea was starting to despise any time she had to be around the man.
“Oh, it’s hard to know where the kidnapper will take her,” Rhea said. She had been staring at Eren’s profile while he worked, and she needed to focus. “Perhaps the capital. They have the largest seaport on this side of Emporia. He could take her anywhere from there.”
“Yes, but so many pieces don’t add up. Why not get a ship out of the Albion port? It’s not as big as Aurum but not insubstantial either. Why take Cyrene across Aurum? Where is the kidnapper headed?”
“I doubt he thought he would be pursued.” She cast her eyes over his sharp cheekbones and up to his focused eyes. When he met her gaze, she glanced away. Her cheeks flamed at his attention.
“He must not have. I’ve never seen anything of this magnitude for the rescue of one Affiliate, but with all the First Class deaths lately…”
He cringed, as he surely must have thought about Zorian, his brother and another member of the High Order. He had died earlier this year on his way to Cyrene’s Presenting, and Eren had taken it hard. Rhea was certain it was part of the reason he had agreed to search for Cyrene.
“We have to keep searching after all the loss.”
“It’s a necessity,” she said, gently placing her hand over his.
His eyes shot up to hers.
She quickly retrieved her hand. “So long as they don’t get a ship out of Aurum.”
“She would be impossible to track,” he agreed. After a pause, he reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder. “I won’t let that happen to her.”
She shifted in her seat and wished away the warmth touching her cheeks. “Or Maelia?”
His face fell, and he stepped away. Creator, why do I keep doing this? She could have just let it be. Every time she thought she saw affection between them, she would wedge the block in.
“Yes, Maelia, too, of course.”
“So, Aurum then,” she added softly.
“Rhea, I—”
The door crashed inward, and Rhea jumped up. Eren reached for his sword and threw himself in front of her. In walked King Edric. Rhea immediately felt foolish for being so terrified and dropped into a respectable curtsy. Eren bowed low next to her.
“Rise,” he said curtly.
When she glanced up at the King, she noticed that he was a bundle of tension. His shoulders were high, his face set in a stern scowl, and his hands clenched into fists at his sides. Captain Merrick walked in after him.
“I’ve news that the kidnappers recaptured High Order Ahlvie and left the city with Cyrene in tow. They were pursued, but the guards lost them after they took a ferryboat from the docks on the Huyek River,” the King growled.
Rhea put her hand to her mouth. They had gotten away. She tried not to look relieved in front of the King and Eren, who knew her so well.
“What of Maelia?” Eren asked.
“Safe,” the King said. “Prince Kael managed to do one thing right in all of this.”
He unclenched and clenched his fists. He was at the boiling point, ready to explode at any moment. She would not want to be the one on that end of the tether.
Eren visibly relaxed at the news. He had been worried. Guilt ate at her.
“My idiot brother has decided to go on to the capital to try to sniff out the kidnapper. He believes that is their destination and paid no heed to how it would appear to ride into the capital city with a battalion of the Royal Guard. Even though our sister is there, she cannot stop war if it comes to her doorstep. She was always a weak child, and I suspect nothing less. The fact that she could stave King Iolair off from retaliation for our forces in their country for this long is a welcome surprise.”
“What would you have me work on, Your Majesty?” Eren asked dutifully.
Captain Merrick stepped forward. “His Majesty feels as if this mission is coming to a close for you.” His sharp eyes took one glance at Rhea, and then he added, “For you both.”
“A close?” Eren asked in surprise. “They haven’t even reached Aurum. We still have hope,” he pleaded with the King, a man he considered his friend.
Rhea could already see the King was lost. He felt something for Cyrene. Her absence and the chase of trying to rescue her had turned to an obsession. Everyone always loved Cyrene, but this…to make the King fall victim to her, both amazed and terrified her.
King Edric turned from Eren, as if to walk out, but then added at the door, “Listen to Captain Merrick. He is a good man. He has your new assignments.”
“Edric,” Eren protested.
“What more would you have your King do?” Captain Merrick asked, stepping in his path. “Byern is vulnerable with a sizable number of our guards on foreign soil. The possibility of war is imminent. Sending any more to retrieve the Affiliate while Crown Prince Kael, second in line for the Dremylon throne, is in the country would be sending him to his death.”
King Edric rested his hand on the doorframe before he spoke again, “If Kael cannot bring her back from Aurum with the guards already in the field, I will consider it a lost cause. A number to add to the death toll.”
And, with that, he walked out, leaving them alone with Captain Merrick, who looked much too satisfied for such an ominous exit.
“High Order Eren, you will return from procession to the capital city to resume your work henceforth.”
Eren didn’t flinch, but Rhea could see his irritation in the set of his jaw. “Thank you, Captain.”
Rhea wanted to reach out and comfort Eren. He was to leave to go back to Byern, and she might never see him again. She should have known that it was too good to be true to be in his company all this time. He was First Class, returning to Byern, and she was a Second, forever to remain in Albion where Master Barca’s home was. It had always been an impossibility.
“Rhea Gramm,” Captain Merrick said, drawing her attention.
“Yes, sir,” she said timidly.
“Master Barca has agreed to accompany the court back to Byern for the Eos holiday festivities. You a
re to travel with him and report to court on his progress.”
Rhea’s eyes bulged. “Master Barca is…moving?”
“He was persuaded to take up a new residence during the holiday season and while we have a military threat at our backs.”
She assumed persuaded meant that they were physically removing him from his house because she never saw the man leaving otherwise. He was a recluse, brilliantly mad, and a bit superstitious.
“Do you know what progress he has made with militarizing his Bursts?” Captain Merrick asked suspiciously.
The damn Bursts. Master Barca spent more time on his fireworks for his own amusement than on using them to build a military device, but she wasn’t about to tell the Captain that. If he wanted it military ready, then he was going to need someone other than a genius scientist to engineer it.
“It’s going quite well. Almost ready to be fully tested,” she lied.
“Good. See that it is,” he said. Then, he turned on his heel and walked out of the war room.
“I guess I’m going back to Byern,” Rhea said, turning to Eren.
Despite everything that had happened, the smile on his face seemed to right everything in the world. She was to go home. Eren would be there as well. She prayed to the Creator for Cyrene’s safety and secretly for Maelia not to return.
The door crashed inward with a force that rattled the hinges. Consort Daufina jumped backward, uncharacteristically terrified. She landed on the cushioned divan in front of her wooden bed. The room was dimly lit, and a part of her held still to wonder who would disturb her.
But when Edric stormed into her bedchamber, she relaxed.
“What an entrance,” she said.
“Don’t,” he snapped. “Not now, Daufina.”
He slammed the door with vigor and strode toward her. Edric’s blue eyes were storm clouds. He looked stiff and tense and irritated beyond belief. No, furious. If she didn’t know him so well, she wouldn’t have seen the fury buried under it all.
Before he had arrived, unannounced, she had been in the process of undressing for bed. She was still in her silk shift and reached instinctually for a dressing gown to cover herself before the King. Not that Edric hadn’t seen her in less before, but…well, things were different now. They were not together like that, nor had they been for a long time. She was an advisor, his best friend, and confidant, not a lover. She took the pink gown from the end of the bed, slipped it on, and began to tie it into place.
“Leave it off,” he said forcefully.
Her eyes rose to meet his. She was sure that they mirrored the shock in her expression. “Excuse me?”
“I’m your king. You’ll do as I say.”
She narrowed her eyes but let the dress fall from her shoulders into a pool on the floor. She was still completely covered in her white shift, but she felt naked in that moment, exposed in a way she hadn’t felt around Edric in a long time. He held the power, but he treated her like a partner. He must be irritated indeed to command her.
She dropped a regal curtsy and downcast her eyes. If he wanted to be above her, then she would hold to his station.
“As you command, Your Majesty.”
“Rise, Daufina,” he growled. “I’ve no time for it.”
“Of course, Highness.”
He cleared the distance between them, took her by the shoulders, and firmly planted a kiss on her rosy lips. She stood, frozen in plain shock for a moment, before reminding herself that this was the King of Byern, and she relaxed into his hold.
He stopped abruptly, only seconds after starting, and stared down into her eyes, searching. She had no clue as to what he was searching for.
“It’s not there,” he said dismally.
“What’s not there, Highness?” She was a little woozy and was glad that he was holding her up. She wasn’t sure he’d ever kissed her like that before. Perhaps if he had, she would have fallen in love with the man and not the crown after all.
“The energy. The current. The passion. That blasted…zap that tethers me to her,” he said miserably.
Cyrene. He was talking about Cyrene.
She wasn’t sure why she deflated, but it felt like a blow. He’d kissed her to see if he’d feel something…anything for someone else.
Daufina’s gaze hardened, and she straightened up. She was not some wanton woman he could just throw his fancies at. She was near his equal and had risen to it by her intelligence, not birth. She was the highest-ranked woman in the land, and she would never again fall prey to the King’s whims.
“What is troubling you, Edric?” she said, dropping the formality now that she knew where this was all leading.
“You know. Of course you know.”
“The entire kingdom knows by now.”
He turned away from her, staring at her empty bed. “I’m calling it off.”
“The search?”
“Yes. Kael has gone on to the capital city, and if he cannot bring her home, then she is lost to me.” He sounded bitter, like a broken man.
“You love her.” It was not a question.
“Yes.”
“You should go see your wife.”
Edric whipped around to face her. He looked aghast at the suggestion. “How do you think that would possibly fix anything?”
“It would fix one thing.”
“No. It would not fix that either. She has miscarried three times now, Daufina. How many more before we realize that she is unfit?”
“And what will you do if she is?” Daufina asked. “Would you turn her aside and remarry? Could you?”
Edric ground his teeth. Only with Daufina would he allow so much loss of control. “Merrick already believes that I should.”
“Merrick,” she snarled.
She hated that man. Usurping her authority, looking down on women, shadowing the King like a watchdog. He was dangerous, and the King didn’t even see it.
He ignored her distaste. “I don’t know,” he finally said. “My father’s dying wish was for an heir. If I can’t get one with Kaliana, then what? I let the Dremylons die out after nearly two thousand years of rule? I allow Kael’s children—Creator help us all—inherit the throne? If it comes down to it and it’s the only way, I would have to.”
Daufina reached out and placed her hand on Edric’s shoulder. “Then, make certain that it is not the only way. You have not been to her quarters since Cyrene left…since before that.”
“How can I when I am so in love with someone else?”
“Tell me,” she said, reaching out and bringing his chin to face her, “do you love her more than your country? Would you give it all up for her?”
What she saw in his eyes scared her witless. Because she knew…deep down, the answer could be yes, if only Cyrene asked.
“Don’t even think it,” she breathed. “Make your country whole again.”
Edric nodded, resigned to his task, and left her chambers.
She swallowed hard in his absence. What kind of spell had Cyrene Strohm cast that could corrupt him so?
A few hours later, the boat docked on the outskirts of a large estate that Cyrene could just barely make out over the horizon. A dirt path disappeared into a thicket of woods, and it all appeared so calm and serene from the water.
Once the boat was tied down, the crew lowered the gangway and began hoisting the horses from below deck back onto solid ground. Orden paid the Captain a fat sum for his worries, and their group disembarked shortly after. Then, the captain and his crew untied the boat and were careening back down the Huyek River.
“Gildan then?” Ahlvie asked.
Orden’s gaze rose to the property on the hill and then frowned. “Yes. We’ll head northeast until we reach the trail that leads into town. A day-and-a-half ride if we set out now. Who will take the horses?”
Ceis’f spoke up, “Avoca and I will scout ahead. We are familiar with the woods and twice as fast.”
Avoca pursed her lips but didn’t disagree.
&n
bsp; “No,” Cyrene said. “Ceis’f, you will go with Orden. He already knows this land and is an excellent scout. Avoca will stay with Ahlvie and me with the horses.” She turned her attention away from Ceis’f before he had a chance to disagree. “Is there anything else we need to know?”
Orden sent her an amused look but didn’t comment on her taking charge. “Just stay away from the property. That house belongs to Lord Barkeley, and he doesn’t take kindly to strangers, so step lightly.”
With that, Orden and Ceis’f gathered small packs from the supplies provided in Eldora and set off. Ceis’f glanced back once at their party, but he left albeit reluctantly. Avoca gave Cyrene a curt nod. Whether for getting Ceis’f to go or for taking charge once more, she wasn’t sure.
The rest of them finished tending to the horses and then cut a wide path around the plantation home. If this Lord was half as bad as Orden had made him seem, she didn’t want to have a run-in with him.
The three of them set an easy pace, and by the time the sun was setting low on the horizon, they had put the Lord’s manor behind them. Soon, they caught up with Orden and Ceis’f, who had prepared a fire in a clearing. They sat on opposite sides of the fire without speaking or looking at each other. It must have been a long afternoon if even Orden was testy.
After setting up a rotating watch schedule, Avoca let the men cook a small dinner with what they had caught during the day and then insisted she and Cyrene had work to do. She forced Cyrene to hand over the Book of the Doma and dragged her off into the woods. After a short trek, Avoca found what she had been looking for—a rivulet that barely trickled water.
Avoca turned to face Cyrene and contemplatively stared at her before speaking, “You have not touched your powers since we were bound. Why?”
Cyrene should have known this was coming. Of course, Avoca would notice that she hadn’t used her magic. There was so much to discuss between them, but the magic was the most obvious. Cyrene wavered on what to say and then final blurted out, “I…I can’t.”
“What do you mean, you can’t? I watched you kill all those Indres.”
