‘I think I’ve had enough,’ I murmured.
‘Of course, sire.’
Before we turned to go, I asked my final question – the last question I would ask about the races. ‘Why do they call them the Siren Nights?’
Winn scratched his arm, thinking the answer through. ‘When you’re on the ropes, a strange thing happens to the mind, sire. The perils of the race are more than we can see from the side. As you swing further out towards the sea, the call gets stronger. There’s something about the cave that whispers in your head to let go of those ropes, to plunge into the water, a kind of siren call that makes your bones ache. Nobody knows where it comes from; some say there really are sirens in these waters. In any case, the true test of the race is not how well you can swing from the ropes, but the strength of a soul in denying the call.’
If that was what it took, I’d be dead within seconds.
Finn
I could feel the thump thump of all their heartbeats. The excited rush of their pulses. I could hear the wash and crash of the sea, edging its way towards us, beckoning for our souls. It set me alight, all of it. This was living.
I couldn’t bear to think of sunrise, when it would be over. But I was good at not thinking about things.
‘Don’t,’ Jonah murmured in my ear, and I looked down to see that in my hands were three small pebbles, levitating in lazy circles. I snatched them into a fist and shrugged, unwilling to be lectured.
And then I felt it. I’m not sure how I felt it, exactly. Or what I felt. But my eyes snapped up to see the hulking figure standing in the mouth of the cave, silhouetted by moonlight. I watched him watch me. I couldn’t see his face or his eyes, but I could feel his regard.
‘What in Gods’ names is he doing here?’ Jonah asked softly.
Penn swung up onto our boulder, singing loudly. ‘The northern beasts will come for our blood …’
‘Shhh,’ I murmured. It was occurring to me how much fun I could have with this. Nobody else had spotted him yet. They were all too focused on the racers.
As the girls finished the course, I pulled my brother to the ground and dragged him to the first rope. An excited surge of murmurs erupted at the realisation that Jonah and I were going to race.
‘What’s this about?’ my brother asked me.
I shrugged again, flashing him a smile. ‘An experiment.’
His eyes turned green with concern, but I was already jumping up to get a firm hold of my rope. Cheers exploded as we took off.
My blood started to pound, rushing in my ears. The sea wanted to take me in its mouth and swallow me whole. I ignored it for the moment, swinging my body and launching myself into the air, stretching as far as I could to catch the rope waiting before me. I was beating Jonah – he was fast, but he wasn’t as fast as me.
It was the burn that got most. Your hands were set alight by the ropes. But I barely felt it. I felt something different entirely.
As I got to the end, swinging across to return along the line closest to where the Pirenti Prince stood, I paused a moment, finding his eyes in the darkness. And as our gazes met, I took a very deep breath and pretended to fall from my rope.
My body plunged into the churning water with a painful crash. The key was not trying to fight the tide. Instead I let myself sink to the sandy bed below, and then I let the wild waves drag me back towards the rocks.
The water was plunging beneath and into a small cavity, bursting up through a hole at the back of the cave. I allowed the tide to wash me through this small gap, bracing myself to be cracked against the rocks. Then, as my air was running out with a painful urgency, I reached out with slippery, trembling fingers to haul myself from the hole before the next wave hit.
Gasping air, I scrambled up onto my boulder. Everyone was crowded around the water, shouting worriedly about what they should do.
I put my fingers in my mouth and let out a cracking whistle. The crowd jerked in surprise, turning to see me, and there was a relieved rush of laughter, coupled with some cheers.
Jonah, eyes scarlet with fury, pushed through them. ‘What were you thinking?’
I shrugged, searching for the prince. I couldn’t see him.
‘I feel like throttling you.’
‘I was only playing.’ I craned my neck, looking through the faces and bodies, but none were tall enough to be him.
‘He went in after you, Inney,’ Jonah snapped.
My heart lurched, eyes jerking to my brother.
No.
All the air left my lungs and the ground went out from under me. Time slowed to a stop, and I stood frozen within an awareness of what would happen to the world if the Prince of Pirenti were to die in Kaya.
And an awareness, too, of what would happen to me. To the way I got through the days.
My feet were moving before my mind had a chance to catch up. I was down from the rocks and flinging myself into the water. My brother’s shout echoed into the violent depths as I struck out. It was more difficult now, fighting against the waves. A fool‘s mission, this one, but I knew this cave and this tide as well as anyone could. And I could sense him being carried out and around the mouth, and if I didn’t reach him in time, his body would be smashed against the rocks.
After a few minutes I made it past the swell and into slightly calmer waters. ‘Thorne!’ I shouted, and saw the dark shape move in the distance. I pressed myself towards him, reaching his side just as a wave swept us forward.
Grabbing his shirtsleeve, I wrenched him sideways, using the momentum of the swell to take us into the opening of a smaller cave. I felt his body scrape across sharp rocks before we were dropped painfully onto the stone embankment.
I let my eyes fall shut a moment, catching my breath. His groan echoed softly in the small space. Dragging myself up, I saw that his left arm had been scraped raw.
‘Are you well, lady?’
‘I’m fine. You’re the idiot who jumped into an ocean cave!’
‘You fell –’
‘It was a trick! You shouldn’t have followed me!’ I felt unaccountably angry.
In the dark his blue eyes grew cold. ‘A trick.’
‘A joke. A bit of fun.’ I swallowed, trying to rid myself of the quick temper. He was completely silent, and no longer looking at me. After a moment I shrugged, letting out a helpless laugh. ‘I suppose it’ll make a good story.’
Thorne’s expression was blank.
‘Oh, come on. It’s funny, really. Unwind a little.’
He stood, towering over me. His waterlogged body moved slowly to the edge of the rock. ‘How will we get back?’
‘We’ll have to wait for low tide.’
‘And how long will that be?’
‘Couple of hours.’
His expression seemed to say that I was the last person he wanted to be trapped alone in a cave with.
‘I’m Finn,’ I announced, extending a hand.
He hesitated, then gave a soft sigh, as though giving in to whatever reluctance he had. ‘I thank you for saving me, lady – it is a debt I will repay. My name is Thorne of Araan.’
The brute from the north had impeccable manners, it seemed. How funny.
But he didn’t reach for my hand. There was that. A snake of disappointment curled around me; I’d wanted the touch of his skin to discover the answer to what lay inside him.
‘I know. You are also the first Prince of Pirenti.’
‘You were at the announcement.’
‘I was.’
‘I saw you there.’
‘And I saw you.’
We eyed each other, and I contemplated all the truths I had, working out which would be more entertaining to divulge. In the end, it was easy. I knew exactly how to rattle him.
‘I’d know you from a thousand miles away, Prince Thorne,’ I murmured. ‘I’d know the feel of you even with my eyes closed.’
His eyes narrowed.
‘I’d know the feel of any Pirenti man with my eyes closed. It’s in
my blood.’
He drew a breath, comprehension darkening his gaze somehow. Then he said, ‘You’re a warder.’
And I smiled.
Thorne
For thousands of years Pirenti and Kaya had known one truth. No one hated each other like the berserkers and the warders did. Dark and bottomless was the desire to kill each other, an immeasurable need, a kind of overwhelming truth at the heart of who we were. And no matter how many treaties were drawn up, no matter how many years of peace we enjoyed, there would never be an end to the hatred between a berserker and a warder.
Here she stood, my Wild Girl with the yellow hair and the yellow eyes, with the slyest of all smiles at her lips and the darkest kind of soul magic humming beneath her skin. It was amazing that I hadn’t recognised it earlier.
My beast exploded to his feet, rattling at the cage with a howl of blood lust. He wanted to destroy her, devouring her piece by piece.
I strode to the other side of the cave, trying to calm my trembling hands. I couldn’t make the mistake of touching her – I was sure that would open the cage.
‘Do you know what they whisper about you in the city, Thorne?’
I closed my eyes.
‘They call you a spy, come to take our secrets home with you.’
‘The Queen of my nation is Kayan. Don’t you think she could find her own secrets, if she wanted them?’
I heard her give a breath of laughter. ‘I didn’t say they were smart whispers.’
I had forgotten about laughter until this day, until meeting her.
I slammed my fist into rock, pain slicing up my arm and into my shoulder. I breathed through it, finding my centre within it. This was my body. My pain. It did not belong to him.
My lungs slowed, pulse calming. When I felt ready I faced her, squaring my shoulders. ‘I am no spy.’
Finn sighed. ‘Pity. It would have been more interesting if you were.’ She was wandering the walls, trailing her fingertips over the smooth and rough edges of rock. ‘I’m not really a warder, you know.’
My eyebrows arched.
‘Not technically. They looked into my soul and decided it was unworthy. Apparently I have irresponsible tendencies and reckless desires. They say I’m uncontrollable, and could never be permitted rein of my own power.’ She smiled again, but this time it was cold. ‘So now I have all this energy under my surface and nothing to do with it.’
A part of me couldn’t help but agree with the warders for wanting to control her, but the other, more secret part of me couldn’t fathom how anyone would want to contain such a magnificent creature.
‘My brother trains with them. He has calm, an ocean of it.’ Her smile slipped sideways into something real, the first sign of softness I had glimpsed in her.
I wondered why she was telling me this. It occurred to me, looking at her now, that she was bored. And not in the slightest bit frightened of me, which was why the beast was so fixated on her. If she ever found out I was a berserker, I didn’t know what she’d do. But I didn’t like the thought of being someone’s entertainment.
I cleared my throat. ‘My companion said the Siren Nights aren’t just about climbing, but in denying the call of the sea.’
She tilted her head to watch me.
‘He said you win these nights whenever you compete.’
Still she waited.
I cracked the knuckles in my hand ‘How do you deny the call?’
Finn smiled. ‘You think I’d give away my best secret to a man I just met?’
I ducked my head, embarrassed for having asked.
‘Let’s see how well trained you are.’ She looked sideways at me. ‘Are you going to admit why you’re really here in Kaya? Or are you going to obey aunty and uncle?’
I met her gaze and didn’t blink. ‘I’m going to obey aunty and uncle.’
She laughed, eyes turning a beautiful lilac that made them seem less like they should belong to a cat. ‘Good boy. I’ll have it out of you eventually.’
Falco
On my balcony where no one could see me, I practised. I practised all kinds of things – swordplay, archery, knife throwing. I practised dance steps and mathematics. I studied maps and charts, history books and literature from both Kaya and Pirenti. I practised my accent, practised making my voice sound simpering or drunken. Practised cruelty and disinterest, practised feigning desire.
Some of it I practised using, and some of it I practised hiding.
All so that I would be the complete picture of a man recognisable to the Sparrow as an easy target; so that I would be Emperor Feckless.
When I was done with my own training I walked down to the armoury to be given my daily lesson. Petir, my bodyguard and trainer, offered me a sword that had been designed for a weaker arm than mine.
I took it and we began the tedious task we repeated daily. I had to hand it to him – he’d never given up, even though it seemed impossible I’d ever improve.
‘Hold it firmer, Your Majesty,’ Petir ordered for the thousandth time.
I would have quite enjoyed telling him that his own grip was too tight. That he often stepped too wide to his left to compensate for a childhood wound that had never healed properly, and subsequently left his right side unguarded every few moves. I would have quite enjoyed telling him that if he ever came up against a decent opponent, he’d be made quick work of.
But I didn’t, of course. I fumbled my sword and let it drop to the ground, taking a slash to my right shoulder.
Quillane arrived in time to witness this last embarrassment and I saw the flash of shame in her eyes. It found a hole in my guts, that shame – a very old wound that I tried not to acknowledge too often.
‘Darling,’ I called. ‘Your beauty distracted me.’
‘Everything distracts you.’ Her dark hair swayed as she gestured for me to follow. ‘Come. They are waiting.’
I felt the heat of the sun first, and then came the sound of a sea of people all whispering and murmuring below us.
The silk of Quillane’s dress rustled as she lifted a hand, and I heard the crowd fall silent in wait.
I wished I could see their faces. I wished to see all of them, all the faces of the people who followed me without question, even when I was a fool and an embarrassment. I wanted to look into their eyes and somehow thank them for the loyalty, wanting to beg them just to wait a little longer, until Sparrows no longer plagued us, while at the same time wanting to chastise them for not demanding more of their Emperor.
My Empress said, ‘People of Kaya. The truth has at last been revealed to us.’
Finn
Surprisingly, when we finally made it back to the city, our disappearance wasn’t the first thing on Jonah or Penn’s lips. Instead, it was word from the Emperor and Empress: in a week’s time, there would be a proclamation made about the bond.
My bones felt frozen, all the sound in the world fading to a dull roar.
Through it I heard my brother add, ‘Anyone who wants to hear it is invited to the holy city of warders.’
This was it. I had to get to Sancia.
And that was when I saw Thorne’s face. He looked almost as determined as I felt.
Chapter 4
Quillane
Falco, Emperor of Kaya, light of my life, apple of my eye, most beautiful man in the realm, was drunk. Again.
I wanted to throttle him.
‘I’m not!’ he argued. ‘I was drunk last night.’
‘So now you smell of death and sex,’ I snapped. ‘What a wonderful impression you will make.’
His eyebrows arched woozily. ‘Death and sex? What do such things smell of?’
I gritted my teeth and turned away from him.
‘Come on,’ he laughed. ‘The warders think so little of me already, I doubt they’ll care that I’m hung over.’
‘Again.’
We sat in a small litter, its walls covered in dark drapes so that no one might spot us. The rise and fall of the footsteps carrying us
was making him queasy, by the look of his greenish skin. I didn’t know why I was arguing with him today, of all days. Falco’s need to charge blindly through life and destroy everything in his wake was something that came from a dark place, a particular night many years ago. I didn’t fight it; such a fight would be like trying to cup a tidal wave in my hand. He wanted oblivion, and I didn’t have space in my heart to try and show him that there were other things to want.
Today, though. Today I had a measure of my own restlessness, and the tidal wave I faced was not Falco’s grief, but my own fear of the inevitable. I needed him by my side for this, but he only ever lagged behind.
We were led, blindfolded, into the warder compound on the top of the cliff. When secured safely in the uppermost chamber, Falco’s guard Petir undid the cloths and we were able to see again. He, like the other servants in the palace, was allowed to look upon us because he was already bonded and posed no danger of bonding to us.
I took a deep breath of the sea air, moving to the edge of the marble slab we stood atop. No walls guarded the drop, no glass shielded against the screaming winds up this high. A sea eagle screeched loudly and flashed right by my head, making me forget, just for a moment, what a debacle my life had become.
A sound came from behind us, and I turned to see that Lutius and Brathe had arrived. They both sank into a deep bow. Lutius, as head warder, was permitted to rise first, and then Brathe, our army general, followed suit.
‘Greetings,’ I said, moving in to give them both a kiss on each cheek. ‘It’s been too long.’
‘Your Majesty, it has,’ Brathe replied, his eyes softening as they did (I’d been told) only with me.
‘Did you get more bald?’ Falco asked, blinking at the glare from the general’s skull. Brathe simply shook the Emperor’s hand.
‘There are things to discuss,’ Lutius said curtly, cutting straight to the matter at heart, as always. With a wave of his hand, stools and a table rose smoothly out of the stone floor and we sat, surrounded by sea and sky.
‘The prince,’ Lutius prompted.
Thorne (Random Romance) Page 4