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The other soldier gave me a quick glance before he turned his attention to Aros. “The king thanks you for your cooperation.” In one swift movement too fast for my heavy eyes to follow, the soldier stabbed a knife into the side of Aros’ neck. “Stupid Raven scum.”
Aros swung a hand to the hilt protruding from his neck, stumbled back a step, then fell and crashed onto the boat’s seat. A cough of blood gushed from his mouth, staining those lips that curled upward into a smile crimson. Almost as if he’d known. And perhaps he had, finding solace in the knowledge that, tonight, he would illuminate the sky with his fated mate.
I watched him bleed out in that boat while the soldier climbed the rigging with me. Kept my eyes on it until the fog swallowed it whole, and the soldier hoisted me over the gunwale and onto deck.
A groan wrenched from my lungs as I hit the ground.
“We took care of the Raven, Your Highness,” the soldier beside me said.
Blinking my heavy eyes, I looked up until my gaze caught on a metal cuirass. The eyes of the wolf tooled into it stared back at me. To each side, golden clasps attached a heavy red cloak that swayed in the breeze. Strapped to the chest, silver daggers lined in a sort of broad leather belt.
“And so we meet at last, Galantia of no house.”
The man stared down at me from a face that robbed his features of all handsomeness: nose too elongated, the lower part stretched much too long, and then there was his slight underbite.
Righteous fear cooled the blood in my veins. “Prince Domren.”
“I left Ammarett a prince and will return a king, or so a message has recently informed me,” he said. “Put her under deck with the rats. If she shifts, whip her until she can shift no more.”
ChapterForty-Two
Malyr
Present Day, Valtaris
As expected, Asker was already pacing the thread off the blood-red carpet in the throne room, but I couldn’t bring myself to hurry. Not after a night of too much wine, even though half of it had spilled during our graceless stumbling around the fire. A night to be forever remembered, to be certain, shared with the two people I loved the most.
“My prince,” Asker said the moment he spotted me, bowed, hurried over, and pushed a book into my hands. “This is the current ledger that lists all the expenses for tomorrow’s coronation ceremony.”
I stopped beside the throne, flipping through the pages in the back on a long exhale. It was a good thing that Deepmarsh Castle had been stacked to the ceilings with riches. This event would cost me, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. This was more than just a coronation; it was the resurrection of House Khysal, the Ravens I ought to protect, and the kingdom which we called home.
“What of the tenancies from Tidestone?” Yet another annexed stronghold that owed us taxes, now that it was under Raven control. “It should fill the coffers and hold us over until our attack on Ammarett.”
“Lord Taradur is still re-assigning plots, taking into account those of us who chose to settle there instead of around Valtaris.”
“Any animosity between the humans and those Ravens who are making themselves a new home there?” I’d assigned enough guards to ensure peace in and around Valtaris, but Ravens and humankind hadn’t exactly been known for co-existing well these last couple of years. Pains of change ought to be expected, but not tolerated. “Wars between two kingdoms are bad, but wars between the people of one kingdom are worse.”
“I spoke to Lady Cecilia last night after she arrived for the coronation, and she assured me that there have been no such reports. I did receive word from a scout just earlier about the farms west of Valtaris, saying that—”
“Of course there had to be trouble.” I let myself slump onto my throne, head sinking into my palm. “Please tell me there were no murders.”
“There was no such thing.” Asker shook his head as he grinned into his freshly trimmed beard. “The scout reported that the Raven farmers who settled on their new plots struggled to prepare the soil for seeding, blighted as the grounds were for a decade. It was the human farmers who came to their help and taught them how to handle the soil, having years of experience farming near the shadows.”
I lifted my head, tilting my gaze at Asker, as if I needed to physically change my perspective to keep up with this upside down world I suddenly found myself in.Did you hear that, Mother? Humans raising nestlings as their own and working alongside Ravens.
“In return,” Asker continued, “our people helped the humans with the seeding, using their ravens to plant the grains deep and well the way we have always done it.”
Beside me, Sebian chuckled. “Didn’t see that coming, Malyr, did you? Guess that’s the toll of the princes and the titled stock: being oblivious to the fact that farmers don’t give a rat’s ass about the quarrels of the powerful, so long as they got food in their bellies.”
I scoffed, and perhaps a little too hard, because something scratched in my lungs, making me rub at my chest through my shadowcloth robes. “What about the other Raven children?”
“We found two more who have been orphaned, one boy and one girl,” Asker said. “Both wish to remain with their human adoptive—”
Pain shot through my chest and straight into my shoulder, and I grabbed the armrest of the throne, bracing against the sudden sway in my upper body, lest I would fall forward and hit the floor.Goddess, what was this?
Asker grabbed my shoulder and pushed me against the backrest. “What is it? Are you ill? Should I call for a healer?”
Shaking my head, I rose more in instinct than choice, holding one of the carved wings for balance. The pain faded as quickly as it had appeared, leaving nothing behind but a strange sort of… dullness beneath my sternum.
