by M. Lynn
She could still see the look in her cousin’s eyes when he plunged the knife into Thom’s neck. He hadn’t looked scared, barely even shocked. The fire had lit his excited face in an eerie glow.
She closed her eyes. He’d looked like his father.
A shiver raced down her spine despite the warmth of the water. Breathing out slowly, she dipped down to rinse her hair.
He hadn’t hesitated. Not like when she had Marcus on his knees.
The king of Dreach-Sciene’s forgiving eyes would haunt her for as long as she lived.
And her allegiance to her uncle, her obedience, would be the noose around her throat for just as long.
She was stuck. Trapped.
There was one person who was trapped with her. Someone she’d been neglecting of late.
Rising to her feet, she let the water run from her body and squeezed her hair as the chill of the room hit her. Stepping from the tub, she reached for her underclothes and pulled them on her still damp body before shrugging on a simple shift dress.
Her hair hung limp on her shoulders, soaking the material of the dress, but she paid it no mind as she hurried into the hall and around the corner to her mother’s rooms. The king liked to keep his sister as far from his wing as possible.
Being a seer meant seeing a lot of things others didn’t want to know about. Lorelai rarely discussed her own visions. She’d learned a long time ago that it was better that way. Her mother didn’t have the mental capability to hold back.
And her visions were always honest and mostly dark.
She didn’t twist them to give Calis what he wanted to hear like Lorelai sometimes had to do.
After issuing three heavy knocks on her mother’s door, Lorelai waited, listening intently. No sound came from inside the room so she tried again.
Nothing. She tried the door, and it opened easily.
“Mother,” she called, stepping into the space.
Emptiness greeted her.
Her mother was always there. She didn’t leave her rooms unless Lorelai accompanied her. Where would she have gone?
A young man appeared, his eyes widening when he saw her.
“Kor.” Lorelai approached him because he hadn’t moved. Her mother’s servant pressed his lips together as if willing himself not to speak as his eyes scanned her sopping hair and simple dress.
She didn’t look like herself, but she didn’t care.
“Where is my mother, Kor?” She fixed him with a cold stare.
He bit his lip, his eyes darting around the room frantically. “She… she told me not to tell you.”
A scowl settled on Lorelai’s face. “Boy, if you don’t tell me where she is, I’ll take you to my uncle.”
He swallowed noisily. “Mistress Bearne went into the village.”
“Dammit.” Lorelai reeled back and turned on her heel, not bothering to ask why. She had to get to her mother before something happened to her. She ran back toward her room and threw her cloak over her shoulders as she twisted her hair under a cap and set out again, this time for the stables.
A messenger slid down from his horse outside and before the stable lad could take the reins, Lorelai snatched them. “I need to borrow your horse.”
Recognizing her immediately, he didn’t argue. Instead, the messenger gave her a boost into the saddle. As soon as she was situated, she dug her heels into the horse’s flanks and thundered through the palace gates.
Her surroundings blended together as she nudged the horse onto the path to the village, avoiding the ruts made by traveling carts and wagons.
Her mind worked in overdrive, imagining every possible scenario, every misfortune that could fall upon a woman who was more than a few pieces short of a bale of hay.
A woman who no longer knew how to use earth magic. Whose visions haunted her day and night.
A woman who wasn’t strong enough to handle the life of a seer.
Lorelai’s one goal in life was always to avoid her mother’s fate. Too many seers found their minds scrambled until they didn’t know what was real anymore.
She lifted her rear in the air and hunched forward, snapping her reins. The village came into view and she didn’t know what she’d find there.
The path turned to cobblestone as she entered the village streets and passed storefront after storefront. Places she’d loved exploring as a kid. Now, it only instilled fear. Her mother could be anywhere.
She turned the corner and pulled up on the reins as a large crowd moved toward the center of town. Foreboding filled her chest.
A voice rang out, echoing off buildings, and she recognized it immediately. Someone was using magic to amplify her mother’s voice. The crowd parted to make space for her horse and whispering hissed in the air around her as she was recognized. But she focused on the woman who stood with two men on a makeshift stage.
“I have seen it,” she said. “The future.”
Her mother had discarded her plain dress for an extravagant silk robe. It had been a present from Lorelai, but she’d never seen the woman wear it.
Her hair curled neatly down her back as if she’d taken great care with it. It was a far cry from the usual nest that sat atop her head.
Lorelai had never seen her mother look so beautiful. And it scared her. She had to figure out what was going on.
As she neared, she recognized one of the men with her mother as her friend from the tavern but the other was a mystery.
“We are heading down a dark path, my friends,” her mother said. “My vision was of our kingdom burning. Of death. Of ruin.”
Her mother’s eyes found her and Lorelai dismounted to stand at the edge of the stage.
“Dreach-Dhoun is going to lose this war,” she said. “And it’s because we deserve to. We have done unspeakable things. Our king will lead us to destruction.”
As her words sunk in, shouting erupted through the alleyways.
“It’s the prince!” someone shouted as they ran in every direction. “The army is here.”
“Run,” someone else screamed. “No one is safe.”
Lorelai jumped onto the stage and gripped her mother’s arm to pull her down. She had to get her out of there unseen by her uncle.
“Mother, what were you thinking?”
Her mother ripped her arm free. “I won’t go back there.”
“You know what he’ll do to you.”
She raised her chin. “Yes.”
Lorelai looked for the men who’d stood with her mother, but they were nowhere to be found. There was no one to help her.
Even if there had been, it was too late.
Davi buckled his sword belt and slid a knife into the sheath around his leg. He was prepared.
It was his first mission for his father. A messenger had arrived that same hour to tell them of unrest in the village. Rebel activity.
It was his chance to prove himself.
He would bring them to justice.
His horse was waiting for him, as anxious to be out of the palace as he was. He didn’t have any magic stored up in his body, but he had the feeling he wouldn’t be needing magic for this one.
Using magic against the king’s men was a capital offense. No villager would dare attempt it.
He mounted up and joined the soldiers who would accompany him. He told his father it was overkill. They didn’t need to send the entire guard to deal with one instance of unrest in a single village, but his father hadn’t listened.
Davi turned to face them. “Once inside the village, you will hold back. I will take a few select men with me to investigate. We don’t want to overrun the place if we don’t have to. If you’re needed, I’ll send a runner to you.” He shifted in his saddle. “Move out.”
They sounded like an army racing across the plains, pounding the earth into submission, and maybe they were. Did two hundred men constitute an army? Were they invading their own villages now?
Pushing all indecision from his mind, he let out a yell. “For the king!
”
The sentiment was echoed behind him.
They slowed as they crested the hill overlooking the village. Davi nodded to the four men he’d selected and together, they continued into the village.
The streets were deserted. Davi met the eyes of the man on his right, confirming the air of apprehension surrounding them.
“Where is everyone?” he asked.
No one answered him.
There was a noise up ahead and at first he thought he was imagining it, but the closer he moved, the louder it became. It sounded like… a crowd.
Before rounding the corner, he held up a hand to the other men and craned his neck to peer around the buildings into the town square.
His breath stuck in his throat. Every person who lived in the village must be there. And up on stage was a woman he hadn’t seen since first coming to the palace, but he knew her all the same.
Lorelai’s mother.
His aunt.
And there was her daughter moving through the crowd on horseback.
They’d missed the first part of her speech but the ending chilled him.
“Dreach-Dhoun is going to lose this war, and it’s because we deserve to. We have done unspeakable things. Our king will lead us to destruction.”
Davi rubbed a hand across his face and stared at each of his men in turn. They were missing one. “Where’s Jeffers?”
“He went back to bring the troops. There’s no way we can take on this many rebels at once.”
Davi cursed. “That’s the entire village. We can’t arrest them all.”
He had to think fast. Soon, they’d be overrun with Dreach-Dhoun’s deadliest soldiers. He heard them before they arrive and then a villager spotted him and screamed. He couldn’t make out their words, but the crowd started running in every direction.
He looked toward the platform again but he’d lost Lorelai and her mother.
He cursed again and kicked at a man who tried to drag him from his saddle.
Pulling his sword free, he motioned for his men to follow him. They had to find Lorelai. A few brave villagers tried to get in their way but they were quickly cut down. Davi didn’t see any faces. He didn’t notice the accusing eyes or fear that sat heavy in the air as his force bore down on the unsuspecting village, spreading out like a swarm of bees destroying everything in their path.
Battle instinct took over, and all Davi knew was his objective. Get his cousin out of there, no matter how many people were hurt in the process. He’d lost any control he had over the army the minute they entered the village.
Maybe he’d never really had control.
He sliced his way through the crowd, looking for that white-blond hair before realizing she’d been wearing a cap.
Villagers threw themselves through doorways to avoid being trampled or cut to ribbons. They cowered under tables, mothers cradling their children and fathers keeping them hidden.
Remorse bloomed in Davi’s gut, but he shut it down.
They were rebels. All of them. They’d listened to his aunt’s traitorous talk.
How was he supposed to wrap his head around that? His aunt was a traitor. He wouldn’t be able to save her. But Lorelai. She could be saved.
“Your Highness,” someone barked behind him.
When Davi turned his horse, something cracked inside of him. Two guards held Lorelai and her mother.
“We got the traitors,” the man said.
Davi jumped down onto the street that now ran with blood. He leaned in close to Lorelai. “Why were you here, cousin?”
There was pain in his voice that he did his best to hide. If Lorelai was a traitor too, it’d be like a knife to the heart.
“I had to save my mother.” Lorelai looked down at her hands. Hands that were stained with blood, Davi noticed.
“She killed two king’s men, my prince.” The explanation came from a woman behind him.
Davi closed his eyes.
He’d been wrong. He couldn’t save any of them.
He turned his back on his cousin to speak with the woman who was cleaning her blade on her pant leg. “We’re done here. This village needs to be put back in order. Select ten of the army’s most powerful magic wielders. Take them into the glen to draw power from the earth and then return to wipe away what has happened here.”
The woman nodded and took off to obey her orders.
Davi faced his cousin once again. The look she sent his way nearly broke him.
“You can’t erase this, Davi. No amount of magic can bring back the people your men have killed here today.”
He shook his head. “Before today, they were your men too.”
“They’re supposed to be Dreach-Dhoun’s men. The ones who protect us. Not the ones who make us bleed.”
The king crouched down to look into the wild eyes of the woman who knelt on the very platform she’d spoken from only hours before.
Hushed murmurs wound through the crowd. The army had gone into each house, each storefront, to force the cowering villagers back into the town square. All talk of rebellion was gone, leaving only a heavy despair in the air. Too many were dead.
Davi steeled his eyes as he scanned the horizon.
“Sister,” his father cooed. He lifted her face to meet his, but any lucidity she might have previously displayed seemed to have fled her mind. She didn’t know what was happening.
“You should know better than to betray me, sister.”
Her bottom lip quivered and Davi averted his eyes, finding Lorelai instead. Two guards held her by the side of the platform. She refused to meet Davi’s eyes.
A sick feeling washed over him. She’d never forgive him for leading the army against the village. For reporting everything to his father.
He was the prince. He shouldn’t have to apologize to anyone.
Two others knelt on the platform. Rebel leaders. He’d met the first one before in the tavern. But the second was an older man who looked as though he’d seen his fair share of hard years.
Davi didn’t know what to focus on. His father who was still speaking lowly to his aunt? The rebels, traitors to the crown? Should he watch Lorelai as every bit of love left her eyes? Or maybe the crowd and their scared, accusing stares.
The king stood and Davi made his decision. His father should have his focus, his loyalty. He’d do anything to be the son Calis Bearne wanted. The son he’d lost and found again.
His father’s voice boomed out, cracking the stillness like a battering ram. “These are your kingdom’s betrayers.” He pointed to his sister. “This woman speaks nothing but lies. She lost the sight many years ago.”
He was lying. She hadn’t lost the sight, only the sanity to decipher it.
“These men,” he pointed to the other rebels. “Have led you astray long enough.”
He raised a hand into the air and twisted his wrist in one quick movement. The two men fell forward, their bodies thudding into the wooden platform beneath them.
The crowd gasped. Someone cried out. But no one moved. Fear was power and in that moment, the king held every ounce of their fear in the palm of his hand.
None of their magic could touch him. Combined it wouldn’t even be enough.
Not for the first time, Davi was glad to be on that man’s side in the battles to come.
No air moved through the courtyard. No birds flew overhead. The sun beat down upon them mercilessly as they waited. And waited.
Would he do it? Would he execute his own blood?
Not even Davi knew the answer to that.
Lorelai’s sobs were the only sound to reach Davi’s ear. “Please,” she cried. “Mother.”
Her mother lifted her eyes as if seeing her daughter for the first time and a smile softened her face. Sanity returned to her eyes. “I saw this day.”
Davi swallowed roughly as Lorelai gasped. “You knew this would happen?”
The older woman nodded and closed her eyes as she spread her hands out before her. “I am ready.”
>
Davi studied his father as if willing him to realize he didn’t have to do this. He’d say it was a lesson to his people. No one was safe from his wrath. But it didn’t have to be that way. He didn’t have to be… evil. Calis Bearne could be a good man.
For the first time since returning home, Davi saw remorse in his father’s eyes. Hesitation in his movements.
Davi closed his eyes, unable to watch. When the thump of a body hitting wood sounded in his ears, he opened them. His aunt’s eyes were wide as if still in this world. But she wasn’t. She was gone.
“No!” Lorelai screamed, fighting against her guards. “Bring her back. Bring her back to me.”
With the last words, she slumped against one of her guards, every ounce of energy leaving her as she sobbed.
The guards dragged her away. Davi should have gone after her. He watched them retreat before turning back to his father. Why didn’t he go after her?
The crowd was allowed to disperse, and the bodies were taken away for burial. Traitors weren’t buried on the palace grounds even if they were members of the royal family.
The king stood motionless until he brought a hand up to rub his tired eyes. His breath shook as he pushed it past his lips. “I had no choice, son.”
Davi didn’t believe that, but his father needed him to be on his side. “I know.” He gripped his father’s shoulder and squeezed.
His father put his hand over Davi’s. “This doesn’t end here.”
“I know that too.”
“I have enemies, even in my own kingdom.”
“You have friends too.” As he spoke, a horseman appeared in the square and his father’s face relaxed.
The king stepped away from his son as if their moment never happened and jumped down from the platform to greet the new arrival.
“Duke!”
The portly man dismounted and bowed. “My king.”
“I am glad you’ve returned. You must meet my son.”
Davi didn’t like the way the man scanned him from head to toe with narrowed eyes. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, your Highness.” He inclined his head.
Davi tried to recall meeting the man and an image of a young woman with the same dark tones to her skin appeared in his memory. Had she been a friend or foe in his captivity?
