Threat

by Drae Box

  Threat

  Drae Box

  Rodaki Entertainment

  First published in Great Britain in 2016 by Rodaki Entertainment.

  This edition: 2019 Two Giftens Edition, published 2019.

  Copyright 2019 by Drae Box.

  All rights reserved.

  All characters, events and locations in this publication are fictional. Any resemblance to living or dead people, real places or events, is purely coincidental.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without similar condition including this condition being imposed upon the subsequent buyer.

  The Common Kingdoms Series

  The Royal Gift

  Threat (2019 edition release: 24.9.19)

  Shotput of Power (8.10.19)

  Broken Crown (5.11.19)

  Daggerless (3.12.19)

  Lookout for Future Releases

  Forged in Magic

  World of Seno: Moonshade

  Scarab’s Ink (working title)

  Wardless (working title)

  Get exclusive updates by joining Drae’s email list.

  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

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Enjoyed This Book?

  Join Drae!

  Preview Shotput of Power

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter One

  Raneth

  Pausing at the edge of Little Wood, Royal Official Raneth Bayre peered through the trees. Dust sparkled as it floated in shafts of sunlight crashing through the canopy, and lighting the beaten path. He couldn’t hear the birds singing, which was odd. The Giften Kingdom was used to the second heatwave that came in late autumn but it did sometimes kill off a portion of the smaller birds. But I should still hear something. Maybe he’s in there and they’ve already flown off or are keeping still. I’ll just have to be careful. Raneth slipped his left hand onto the grip of his sword, feeling its reassuring presence. He eased it a smidge from its sheath, ensuring it would draw without issue if he was ambushed by the criminal he was chasing. With quiet footsteps, the young law enforcer prowled into the cool shade of the trees. Jules was moving east, he reminded himself, looking away from the unofficial path and to its edge. Freshly dropped leaves topped the dry soil, leaving no trace of anyone that had left the path to continue towards the northeastern settlements. A wood pigeon launched itself into the leaves above. Raneth sucked in a sharp inhale. Easy, just a bird.

  He continued, taking interest in a small splattering of plants growing between the trees further up. Hot weather often obscured some of the usual markers he used to track criminals between settlements, but he had had some success in the past finding proof of movement here. Raneth crouched and gently ran a hand over the small branches of the plants’ extended leaves, looking for signs of recent breakages but found none. He swept his gaze around the small woods. It never took long to get from one side of the other if you were going along the path. He’s at least two or three hours ahead of me. That detour to the palace didn’t help matters. Raneth straightened as he repositioned the rucksack on his back. But I needed the food rations. It couldn’t be helped. Maybe he’s heading to Aldora’s village.

  Thinking of Aldora, Raneth smiled. I should go and check in with her. At the very least I should be checking that Jules hasn’t detoured to her village. Maybe he’s not going true east but doing so through the settlements or changing direction entirely. If he’s aiming for the Giften-Newer Border, coming out of the village’s east gate would put him on a direct path to the Giften-Newer Boundary Wall’s main gates. Soldiers there wouldn’t let him pass without identification though... With a frown, Raneth followed what little remained of the path through the trees and emerged from the woods. Ahead of him, the heat rippled the air above Aldora’s village, the muffled clanging, banging and stonemasonry clattery now less muffled by the trees. Wouldn’t be too bad using it as a chance to see her either. Maybe I can spend the night on her sofa. Raneth looked up towards the sky, guessing the evening hour despite the sun’s defiance.

  The grassland between the trees and the village grew in every direction Raneth looked, with weeds and wild flowers scattered within it. His criminal was nowhere in sight. Feeling safe for the moment, Raneth inspected the village as he drew nearer. The outer defense wall was mostly complete but he spotted the silhouette of a few men standing on top of one side of the wall, looking at something he couldn’t see as one of them gesticulated. Past the outer wall, the building work continued, almost a year in now. The outline of both men and women on rooftops, battering new beams or tiles into place broke up the otherwise smooth roofscape. Maybe they should have a watchtower. Just in case. Raneth secured his sword in its sheath as he prowled towards the western gates of the village, but turned and looked back as the soft thump of hooves caught his attention.

  A horse charged through Little Wood, using the same path as he had, and it was picking up speed. A soft blue glow emanating from behind the horse’s head caught Raneth’s eye, but he lost the glow as the horse and its rider emerged from the trees and bore towards him. The purple uniform of a royal messenger. Raneth stepped out of the horse’s running path, watching it and the rider closely as tight clumps of earth were flung up behind the horse. They slowed as they neared Raneth and the messenger gasped in a breath as they stopped alongside him, her blond hair tied in a long plait that curled down her neck and secured to itself at her collarbones. She looked down at Raneth and smiled.

  “99RB2922?” she asked.

  Raneth glanced at the silver bracelet she wore over the deep purple of her blazer’s sleeve. Small lines curled in and away from the centre of her wrist, where the bracelet held a clear metal circle upon its otherwise intricately carved patterned body. A blue triangular light hovered just above the circle plate, pointing at Raneth. He nodded at the messenger relay bracelet. “Yes, that’s me.”

  The messenger glanced down at her inherited bracelet then wiped a hand over the floating blue triangle. The magic in the bracelet snuffled out. “Of course you are.” She didn’t bother dismounting. “I have an order from His Majesty. Hold on…” She slipped a hand into a saddlebag behind her left leg and pulled free a small box-shaped folder. Her bracelet flashed a soft blue light against a matching plate of silver on the folder. She then opened it, revealing inner compartments “Here you are.” She pulled out a sheet of paper and read it silently. “King Cray has recalled you back to the palace immediately.”

  Raneth turned away from the messenger, looking towards the village and home of one of his newest friends. One that he felt was growing deeper into his heart with each smile she gave him. He toyed with the positioning of his sword before he looked at the messenger. His stomach rolled at the idea of Aldora Leoma encountering Jules Rivermud; Jule’s family’s was known for leaving the dead in their wake, and although Jules had yet to be put on trial, the dead civilians found since Raneth had been assigned to him left little room for doubt in his mind
. “Can it wait an hour?” he asked. I could say he’s definitely in there. Aldora’s village is considered vulnerable right now. The messenger would have to let me go or risk another royal screw-up for Cray. He looked towards the village. Aldora wouldn’t like me lying. Cray wouldn’t recall me if whatever this is, isn’t more dangerous than a Rivermud on the run. “One of my murderers may be heading into the village. They were heading east but there’s no sign they went through Little Wood in that direction, meaning they’ve either come to the village on their way to wherever they think they can go to escape me, or I’ve lost their trail between Brave Wood and the palace. Either way, I’d like to at least warn the Dagger Bearer that a murderer’s in the area.”

  The messenger reached into her folder and withdrew a small file. She flipped through it. “Cray thought you’d say that... Akako, Rivermud or Omorose?”

  “Rivermud. The one with the blood-gift.”

  Raneth watched as the royal messenger flicked through the file, before stopping on a page and smiling. “Hold on,” she uttered before she slipped the file back into her box-shaped container and withdrew another file. She reached under her blazer and shirt, lifting free a mass of circle plates hanging from a chain at her neck. She rested them in a palm as she started to pick through them. “Ah, here she is.” She held one of the circles so Raneth could read the inscription before pressing the circle plate to her bracelet. “I’ve been given a file for the Dagger Bearer and the village leader regarding your assigned murderers. I’ll give them the briefing file for Rivermud and they can watch over the village a little more closely whilst you help Cray. I’d recommend you get going, royal official. Cray was impatient whilst I updated my files.”

  Raneth glanced back at the village once more. Almost got to see you, Aldora.

  “Wait,” uttered Raneth. “Can… Did Cray add the field notes I handed in a little while ago? For Rivermud? For the Dagger Bearer’s briefing file?”

  The messenger flicked through the file, then nodded. “Copies, by the looks of it.”

  “Can I write a quick note for her on the back of a page?”

  The messenger frowned for a moment, before she shrugged. “Why not?” she said. “Far as I know, there’s no rule against it.” She gave Raneth the file, which he tucked under his arm.

  He slipped his other hand into the knee pocket of his trousers, withdrawing a small metal tin. He flipped the lid off and then withdrew a pencil. He flicked through the briefing file for Aldora until he came across the field notes he’d handed in. He wrote a quick warning on the back of the first page, then handed the file back to the messenger. “Thanks,” he said. He turned towards Little Wood and strode towards the royal palace on the other side.

  A short while later, Raneth came into view of the white building that served as the home of Giften’s three human royals, and the two representatives of the kingdom’s talking cats. King Cray stood outside, waiting, and there was a second royal official already on a horse. What now? Cray held two horses’ reins — his own, a large white stallion, and the black stallion with a white hoof that was Raneth’s. “Cray?” Raneth took the offered rein as Cray held it out to him. He rubbed a hand against the velvety nose of his horse as it greeted him with a snicker. “Hi, Blacky.”

  “Raneth, thank you for coming back.”

  “I was told it was expected of me,” said Raneth.

  “It was,” said the king, his brown eyes carefully observing Raneth as they always did whenever he saw his royal official. “Rider was meant to come with me and Lorne to the Common Kingdoms Alliance Conference but he’s been injured on his way here. I needed another of your rank to come in his place. You’re closest.”

  Rider? Raneth looked towards the upper windows of the palace, at one of the windows of the royal ward, the domain of Royal Doctor Quinton. “Is he—”

  “He’ll be fine,” assured Cray, “but his right leg is broken in two places. He dragged himself back the last mile. He arrived here not long after you left. I would have recalled you sooner but the messenger needed to update her files.”

  Inspecting the grass around them, Raneth spotted no signs of Rider’s ordeal. Maybe he came from behind the palace. He could just as easily have been coming from Icoque or somewhere else. “How did he get hurt?”

  “A criminal he’s chasing.” Cray ran a hand through his black hair. “Mount up, Raneth. Philander’s wife gave birth to twins. He wants us to be on time.”

  “But you gave me three murderers to hunt down and arrest.”

  “Don’t lie,” warned Cray although a gentle smile accompanied his words. “Only two of them are running. Omorose doesn’t know we know what he did yet, and I only assigned him to you earlier today.”

  I don’t have time for this. If Jules is in Aldora’s village, he could cause problems there that she’s not trained to deal with yet. Raneth rubbed the bridge of Blacky’s nose before he climbed into the saddle. “Is there no way—”

  “To visit Aldora and check she can deal with your assigned criminals? No. Not until we get back from the Kingdoms Conference.”

  Stupid Common Kingdoms Alliance Treaty. Raneth frowned at Cray.

  “Don’t give me that look, Raneth. That’s the one you do right before you grumble.”

  “I don’t grumble, I just don’t like it, sir,” replied Raneth. “I know Aldora’s seventeen now but—”

  “But nothing, Raneth. You became a royal official earlier than normal, and Aldora’s gaining similar responsibility to the Three Ks earlier than normal just like you did. You excelled. Let her.”

  He’s not going to let me get out of this. Fine. I’ll do as ordered. Try and make us go fast and then home again none the worse for wear.

  “I’ll take point,” offered Raneth, easing his horse forwards. “Where are we going, King Cray?”

  Cray and Lorne eased their horses behind Raneth’s, trotting side by side. “Regina insisted it take place at The Yelling Beast. She heard about it when she was reading about you and Aldora in the newspapers last year.”

  Green City. That’s not too far from here, especially if we run the horses hard. Raneth gently tapped his horse’s flanks, increasing to a slow canter. He guided Blacky away from the beaten path to Little Wood as he had been trained to do when escorting somebody — you never took them through the woods when it was just as quick and twice as safe to travel alongside it. Green City’s part of The Cluster, he thought, thinking of the palace, Aldora’s village, Wisner City and Green City. All were close to one another and allowed for travel between them to take no more than a day. The rest of the kingdom’s settlements were further spaced apart.

  At his speed, Raneth came upon the edge of Little Wood in short time. He slowed and twisted in the saddle, and the saddle creaked as he looked for Cray and Lorne. The two were visible against the backdrop of the palace’s white stones and rode with a relaxed ease, hardly riding faster than a human walk. Halting his own progress, Raneth looked up at the sky. We’re due for a little bit of moon but not much, so visibility is going to be an issue soon. He scratched at the black stubble across his jaw as he turned his gaze onto his horse’s ears. He watched the soft ears twitching to listen to their surroundings. Listening to the woods but then why wouldn’t he? Raneth inspected the treeline, squinting as he tried to make out any shapes that didn’t look like they belonged, but the coming night’s claws had wormed their way through the trees, claiming what little light remained there. It just looked like foliage and more trees. Nothing to worry about there. He checked on Cray’s and Lorne’s progress. They were still coming and still looked relaxed in their saddles so Raneth trotted his horse forwards. To their right sat grassland unclaimed by any of the settlements, kept in check only by the comings and goings of men and women travelling to the royal palace, or crossing from the northwest of Giften to the northeast. Cray’s supposed to put in a road the length of the kingdom here eventually. When he agrees to an importation border tax with Philander that’ll allow for Southern Kingdo
m technology to become commonplace here. I wonder how long it’ll take for everyone to choose cars over carriages. Ahead of Raneth, the kingdom lay out a carpet of grass matching that to their right, criss-crossed with the beaten stalks of grass by travellers. With the autumn weather and the heatwave they always seemed to get just before winter, Raneth knew that the grass would stop being a nuisance for a while but for the moment, he checked it carefully for any hints of where a person could lay in wait. Nobody wants to attack Cray though. All that sort of thing was aimed at his dad. Content there was nothing to alarm his suspicions, Raneth returned to looking ahead and encouraged his horse to increase the gap between him and the king.

  Blacky turned his head slightly, catching Raneth’s attention. He’s checking out the treeline. The royal official did likewise. “What is it?” he whispered as he rubbed Blacky’s shoulder. Despite the safe distance between them and the trees, Blacky shied away from them, shaking his head up and down before snorting. The thudding of Lorne’s and Cray’s horses sped up until the chinking of the metal joints of their saddlery announced they were drawing close.

  “Why do you keep stopping?” asked Cray.

  “My horse is spooking.” Raneth gently pulled on the reins, trying to encourage Blacky to return to his previous spot, slightly nearer to the trees, but the horse refused and pawed at the ground instead. “Something’s in Little Wood.”