For now, all was favorable. The party traveled in the right direction, and while they remained on constant guard, there had been no skirmishes along the way. Ciro’s Own was keeping their distance until called.
Ciro’s Own. One day Phelan would have his own army, and they would answer only to him. That would be his reward for delivering the woman, pure and untouched, to the Emperor of Columbyana. Phelan’s Own, Phelan’s Legion, Phelan’s Army. There was time still to decide what they might be called.
No one among them knew him as Phelan. He’d hidden his true name, as well as his true nature, for many years. Soon he would reveal himself and take his reward.
Ciro’s bride was a fool if she thought a few clumsily uttered curse words would touch the brightness of her soul.
***
When she saw the farmhouse in the distance, Rayne’s heart dropped. It had been several days since they’d headed down the mountain, and she’d known this time would come, but still... she wasn’t ready. Her mouth went dry and her heart began to pound. Thinking of taking on a job for strangers where she might work for her keep had seemed like a fine idea from a distance, but looking at the small dirty farmhouse a touch of reality intruded. It would be hard work, and even if the people there appeared to be kind on meeting the travelers, who knew what they would be like after Lyr and his men rode away?
She thought of her mother’s jewels, keepsakes which would do her no good in a place like this. She needed to be deposited in a town, preferably a large town where she could sell her valuables and rent or buy a small house or a decent room and think about how she might hide until the fight with Ciro was over.
Lyr saw the farmhouse and stopped on the narrow roadway to study it more intently. He turned to Swaine. “See if they are willing to sell us food. I’m mightily tired of dried meat.”
Swaine nodded and headed in that direction. At Lyr’s order, Tiller followed.
Segyn sidled up beside his commander. “M’lord, will we be leaving the girl here?”
Rayne held her breath, but not for very long, thanks to Lyr’s curt and immediate response. “No. I don’t like the look of this place. It’s too remote. Why would decent folks settle here? We’ll find a more proper situation further down the road.”
Segyn nodded, silently agreeing with Lyr, and Rayne’s heartbeat soon resumed a normal rhythm.
While waiting for the others to return, Lyr dismounted. He walked directly to her and offered his arms. “You might want to stretch your legs while we wait.”
“Thank you.” She accepted his help, and was glad to feel her boots hit the hard ground. Too many long days of riding were not agreeing with her, but she didn’t dare to complain. She lowered her voice. “I thank you also for not leaving me here.”
Lyr didn’t look directly at her, which was odd since he usually had no qualms about staring her down. “I can’t be certain it’s a safe place. I did give you my word.”
“Yes, you did.”
“We should probably move closer to civilization before settling you with a proper keeper. Don’t you agree?”
“Yes. Yes, I do.”
While she knew Lyr Hern to be a capable fighter, she hadn’t always felt that he had her best interests at heart. Not at all. For the first time since she’d met him, she sensed a real change in his attitude. He did care for her well-being. He would not abandon her.
The man who had rescued her truly was a champion.
Rayne pushed down the little rush of something that made her feel almost giddy. It would be foolish to become attached to a man whose only wish was to deposit her in a place where she’d be out of danger. It was noble of him, but he would likely have the same care for any other man or woman in his charge.
Even though she’d been shielded from much of life’s harsh realities, she was no fool. She knew why Ciro had looked at her the way he sometimes did, and why he grabbed her with clumsy hands that attempted to touch her where no man should. A pawing of her breasts, a hand thrust among her skirts and between her thighs. She always moved quickly when serving his tea, so those unpleasant touches did not last too long. Over the years other of her father’s visitors had often looked at her with leering glances that turned her stomach, most particular since she’d turned fifteen. At first she’d merely thought them odd men, but after speaking with a few of the maids and catching the cook and the gardener in the pantry, she knew exactly what was on their minds.
She’d complained to her father once when an elder visitor had attempted to grab her, but her father had told her that she should be flattered, that their guest showed her attentions only because she was beautiful. How could a man be so protective in some ways, and so uncaring in others? How could he suggest that she be flattered?
During that particular man’s visit, Rayne had not passed a single night in her own bed. She’d hidden each night in infrequently used guest rooms or with the servants, and she’d known, by the way the man glared at her over breakfast, that he had discovered she’d not been in her own bed.
Lyr Hern did not leer, nor did he grab. She almost wished that he would, but then of course, he would not be the man she was coming to admire.
He was very handsome, not many years older than she, and oh, he was physically striking. Not only handsome, but well built and graceful and strong. He was not at all like those men who had stared at her as if they were starving and she was a meat pie, and if he ever thought to grab at her in an inappropriate way, he wouldn’t paw roughly, she imagined, but would be possessed of gentleness and kindness. His touch would be skilled and caring. If Lyr were a gardener and she were a cook...
Rayne closed her eyes tightly, but that did nothing to chase away the image in her mind or the odd clenching in her lower belly.
“Are you all right?” he asked, sounding concerned.
“Yes,” she said primly. “I’m fine.”
“Why are your eyes closed?”
“I’m tired.” It was a silly explanation, but the only one she had.
“You need to get to sleep sooner after we stop at night,” he said, sounding relieved that exhaustion was her only complaint.
“I will try,” she promised.
Lyr moved away. A moment later she heard him speak to Segyn, and she opened her eyes slowly. She’d been trying so hard to tarnish her soul with cursing when she wasn’t at all good at it, and suddenly lust touched her, unbidden. Was it lust that she felt? Or was it simply gratitude?
It didn’t really matter. The only man she’d ever been attracted to in that special way had absolutely no interest in her as a woman. To Lyr Hern, she was an obligation, a package to be delivered and deposited and forgotten. A man like him, with his fine looks and his important position, probably had many women at home, women who would know what they were doing if he did grab or leer. No, he had no use for a woman like her.
Well, damn.
***
They were days away from the palace, and days more still from Merin and his army, when Keelia suffered a startling vision of Ciro in the palace their party had left behind. She was overwhelmed with sadness, and filled with horror. She had not met Prince Ciro before the demon had taken him, so she didn’t know if he had always been bad or if he was as much a victim in this war as any other soldier who fell. It didn’t matter. Whatever the prince had been before, he was now an enemy like no other, and only his destruction could bring peace.
Joryn and Sian were busy setting up camp, while Ariana tended horses and Keelia got ready to prepare their simple supper. The meat was freshly caught, the vegetables purchased in a small town they’d passed through that afternoon. The fire had been built by Joryn with a flick of his fingers. As queen, she had not been called upon to cook, but of late she’d been forced to develop many new skills.
She didn’t want to tell Ariana what she knew, not yet. Her cousin was emotionally attached to the emperor; she had gone to great lengths to save the older man from the sickness the Isen Demon had given him. Even though Keelia
had warned Ariana that nothing she did could save Arik in the end, she would be distraught. There would be enough pain in the days to come. This pain could wait.
A moment later, Keelia glanced up to see her cousin standing over her, a frown on Ariana’s pretty face. “What’s wrong?”
Keelia sighed. “I forget sometimes that your empathic abilities were heightened along with your gift for healing.” She forced a smile. “A forgetful seer. How very unfortunate.”
“Don’t try to make light or change the subject. Queen or not, you can’t lie to me.”
“I don’t lie.”
“No, but you do conceal on occasion.”
Keelia set the makings for their supper aside and faced her cousin. Yes, she was queen. Queen of the Anwyn, a psychic like no other, a shape-shifter not yet accomplished in her new skills, and a soldier in this blasted war just as Ariana was a soldier. “Fine. If you will not allow me to spare you, then I will tell you all the truth you seek.” She reached out and touched her cousin’s arm, her caress kinder than the tone of her words. “Prince Ciro is in the palace. Arik did not take your warning to heart and...”
Ariana’s face fell. “He’s dead, isn’t he.”
“Not yet.” That was a pity for the emperor, who would be better off if he had died quickly.
Ariana turned about sharply. “We’re going back,” she said. “If Emperor Arik is still alive, we can save him. We can...”
Keelia caught her cousin from behind and turned her about. “We cannot save him. No one can. If we turn back, your efforts will be wasted. We must move forward.”
Ariana did not cry. She had seen too much horror, too much sadness, to sob for one more death. Still, tears glistened in her eyes. “He was always kind to me.”
“Emperor Arik was a good man.”
“I can’t bear the thought of Ciro in his place.”
“That was meant to be. How long he remains there is not yet known. That’s why we must move forward.”
Ariana’s fears as a soldier were replaced by her fears as a wife, and Keelia saw those fears long before Ariana spoke of them. “Before we left, Arik signed the papers naming Sian as his illegitimate son and his chosen successor. By rights, when Arik dies, Sian will be emperor.”
“He will.” She and Joryn had been two of a few trusted witnesses to that document.
“If Ciro finds those papers...”
“When,” Keelia interrupted in a sharp voice. “When he finds the papers.”
Ariana’s face went deathly pale. “He will send his cursed soulless soldiers after Sian, won’t he?”
“Yes,” Keelia whispered.
“When?”
Some information came to Keelia with such ease, she did not even need to reach for it. She simply knew, as surely as she knew the sky was blue and Joryn’s eyes were green.
But other knowledge did not come to her so easily. It came like a puzzle, incomplete and difficult to piece together.
She closed her eyes and thought of Ciro, Emperor Arik, and that paper naming Sian Sayre Chamblyn as his son and successor. She saw, in her mind, the way Arik’s hand had shaken as he’d signed that paper. She saw where he’d hidden it, after all the witnesses had departed.
“Three days,” she whispered.
“Three days!” Ariana snapped. “That’s not—”
“Three days after Arik dies, Emperor Ciro will find the hidden document that threatens his right to sit on the throne.” Keelia opened her eyes and looked squarely at her cousin, so Ariana would have no doubts as to the seriousness of what she saw. “When that happens, he will send everything he has after your husband.”
Chapter Five
Since they’d ridden away from the farmhouse, Rayne had been looking at him oddly. No, not oddly, exactly. He knew that moony expression; it was simply unexpected from her.
It wasn’t as though Lyr didn’t enjoy the company of beautiful women, as any other man would, but he divided the segments of his lives very neatly and he did not allow them to mingle in a way which would make his life messy and complicated. As Prince of Swords, he had access to women whose duty and skill was to give and take pleasure. There was a time and place for those women. It had been mentioned more than once that when the time came for him to marry, he might wed one of the king’s five daughters. The princesses were fine women, but they were not of the same type as the women with whom Lyr sometimes passed a night—or a day or two.
When he was in the midst of a mission, he did not think of either type of woman, neither concubines nor princesses, and he had never before been entrusted with a mission of such importance. There was no pleasure in war, no fine moments of respite, not when his mind and heart must be focused only on victory. To allow his mind or any other part of his body to wander might mean defeat, and they could not afford to lose this war.
The glances Rayne had begun to cast his way reminded him of the princesses and of the concubines. It was impossible that she might be like both, and yet he could not help but wonder...
No, he could not wonder. She was likely trying to seduce him with those looks, as she had seduced Til and Swaine with her silly lessons in cursing. Lessons she had apparently given up. Both of the soldiers had finally told her that she did not curse well and should probably abandon the attempt.
Maybe she was suffering from an abundance of gratitude, and had twisted that gratitude into something it was not. He had never been so desperate as to take advantage of a woman who did not completely understand what she was getting into, and gratitude? It was a poor reason for that inviting glance she was casting his way.
It did not matter where her thoughts had taken her, he could not allow himself to become entangled with Rayne, daughter of a dead magician, beloved to a monster, future mother to a dark fiend if he was not able to protect her from her fate. Since he might be called upon to take her life, it would be best to ignore those meaningful glances.
The journey had been uneventful thus far, and Lyr was getting restless. The back of his neck itched, as did his spine, and he felt tension all through his body, from the short hair on the top of his head to the tips of his toes. Had there been time, he would’ve stopped and expended energy in sparring with the men, but they moved endlessly forward without time for any of life’s pleasures, large or small.
Rayne was apparently becoming more accustomed to sleeping on the ground. For the past two nights she’d nodded off quickly and remained asleep until one of the men awakened her to resume the journey. She wasn’t getting enough rest—none of them were—but she never complained. Not to him, at least. He was not a part of the conversations she had with his men. Cursing lessons aside, Til and Swaine remained smitten with her.
If her death became necessary, would they protect her? Would they choose to fight against him if he had no other choice but to kill?
At the moment Til and Swaine were sleeping. Segyn patrolled the perimeter of camp regularly, and so did Lyr. In an hour or so they would be relieved by the others. Even though all had been peaceful thus far, they could not let their guard down.
Certain that the perimeter was secure, Segyn joined Lyr at a distance from those who slept. The older man, the scarred warrior, had been at Lyr’s side for so many years he wasn’t sure he could remember when Segyn hadn’t been around. As a teacher, a warrior, and in recent years a friend, Segyn had always been a part of Lyr’s life.
His voice lowered, Segyn said, “She is not for you, boy.”
No one else would dare to address the Prince of Swords as boy, but Segyn often did—when no one else was around to hear. Lyr did not take offense. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Segyn snorted. “I am not blind nor an idiot, and no one knows you the way I do, except maybe your family, and even then—”
“Yes, yes, you know things even they do not,” Lyr responded impatiently. Segyn had accompanied him when he’d first drunk too much whiskey, and he’d stood in the hallway when Lyr had lain with his first woman. Tho
ugh his father was often open in discussing such matters, it was Segyn who was willing to discuss specifics, who was willing to answer the questions Lyr didn’t dare ask a parent.
“The world is full of pretty girls,” Segyn whispered. “This one would be more trouble than most.”
“I understand that well, and I have no intention of serving as anything other than an escort.”
Again, Segyn snorted. “She keeps making eyes at you and you have begun to look like you’re about to explode.”
“I’m perfectly in control,” Lyr insisted. The older man’s response was not unexpected, and Lyr added, “If you snort at me again, I’ll drop you in rank and put Swaine in your place for the remainder of the journey.”
“You will not,” Segyn said with confidence, but he did not snort again.
The night was very quiet. Til snored a bit, and on occasion a small critter scurried in the forest beyond their camp, but for the moment the silence was heavy.
“I mean no disrespect, m’lord,” Segyn said seriously, “but you don’t know what kind of trouble a woman like that one can bring you.”
“I have no intention—”
“Let me finish, just in case your mind wanders in an unfortunate direction in days to come.”
He nodded crisply, giving his permission.
“You are a fine leader. You’re a gifted swordsman and I’ve never known one more dedicated to his people and his destiny, but as a man... as a man you’re not quite done.”
Lyr studied Segyn’s rough profile by the light of a low-burning fire. “I am not a loaf of bread.”
“Are you not? Are we all not such? The dough is your basic composition, the gifts from your parents, whether those gifts be magical or as simple as the color of your eyes and the size of your feet. As years go by, your mind and body are molded. Kneaded. Shaped. You rise, perhaps, and then you bake for a long while until you’re done.”
“Is this some sort of kitchen philosophy?”
“I had an affair with a cook once. A kitchen helper, more rightly. It lasted several years. I was not much older than you when it began.” He cut his eyes to Lyr with censure. “While the love lasted it was wonderful, but in the end it turned quite ugly. You could say I was burned. You, m’lord, have never been burned. You haven’t even been toasted, if truth be told. Women adore you, no man can best you sword to sword, your family loves you, and you have many physical gifts—strength, beauty, a steady hand. You have never known the heartache of betrayal, the agony of loss, the sting of rejection. Perhaps you never will. Perhaps your life has been blessed and you will never know any of those pains, but if you never know loss, then you will never be done.”
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