Blood Storm: The Second Book of Lharmell (17 page)

Leap wriggled against me and I urged him to be still. It was a long, long way down.

An hour after dawn, I spotted the coast. We flew several miles inland to what we hoped was uninhabited forest, and began a slow, circling descent. As
soon as my bird’s talons thudded against the leaf litter, I slithered to the ground. My legs were numb with tension. I heard Rodden touch down a few seconds later, and wordlessly we led our exhausted brants to a nearby stream and let them drink their fill. I washed my face and hands and then sat back on my heels, watching Leap. He stood gingerly on a wet rock and lapped up water with a pink tongue.

Rodden strung his crossbow with stiff fingers. ‘Meat for the birds,’ he muttered.

I strung my bow as well. Griffin and Leap disappeared among the greenery on a hunt of their own.

On the edge of an emerald clearing, Rodden and I picked off three rabbits and a duck. We fed them in gory pieces to our famished brants. I’d had enough of blood and guts to last me at least a week so ate some of the bread Oilif had packed for us instead.

‘Travelling by brant,’ I said, mouth full, sitting on my cloak, ‘might be cold and exhausting and terrifying, but it’s the only way to see the world. No vomiting. No mad sailors.’

‘Just the attention of any harmings that might see us fly over.’

‘I’ll take the harmings over the mad sailors any day. We can handle harmings.’

Rodden lay down on the mossy ground, his eyes
already closing. ‘We’ll travel by darkness tonight and should reach the palace at Amentia at dawn.’

I was filled with excitement and terror at the prospect. I was glad to see my home again, but fearful at the same time. ‘If you leave me there,’ I warned Rodden, ‘I will hunt you down and feed you to my brant.’ My threat was met with silence as he was already asleep.

From the sky I could see the drastic change in my homeland. The rivers resembled thick lengths of rope. They were swelled with mountain melt and meandered across the countryside. The roads were still in an awful state, but even at this early hour they hummed with traffic.

It was heading into autumn and by now the landscape should have been dulled by frosts. But the forests and pastures were verdant. Amentia had thawed.

I was excited to see the change. Had Rodden and I done this? I hadn’t quite believed my mother when she’d written of the temperate weather, but now I was seeing it with my own eyes. Was this the first indication that things were turning in our favour?

The castle was perched on high ground east of Prestoral, our capital, which was roughly the size of Jefsgord. We skirted the city, flying high above the neat houses, banked, and made for the castle. Among the ash and aspen I saw the Amentine banner flying above the battlements, a golden griffin on a rich red background. My heart swelled with pride. I was home.

Manoeuvring to land in the tiny courtyard was tricky. I went first while Rodden circled above. The castle walls rushed up to meet me and the brant’s talons clicked loudly on stone. Griffin was jolted awake. Leap looked this way and that, as if unable to believe where he was, and then scampered straight to the kitchens.

I jumped to the ground.

From a stairwell, a serving girl carrying a pail was staring at me, struck dumb. ‘’Oo are you?’ she asked.

At the sound of her voice, my brant swivelled and pinned the girl with its glittering black eyes. It opened its enormous black beak and hissed. She screamed, dropped the pail, and dashed inside the castle, her cries trailing after her up the stairs. Milk pooled white over the flagstones.

I sighed, and searched the sky for Rodden.

‘What the heavens.’

I turned. Renata strode through the main arch, encased in russet silk. Her red hair flamed and her eyes blazed. She took in the brant, my dishevelled figure, and she folded her arms. ‘Oh,
Zeraphina
,’ she said, managing to fill that one phrase with an avalanche of derision and disappointment.

The sky darkened above us. Rodden’s brant, wings stretched to their full five-metre span, talons extended, was poised to land.

Renata screamed, her lungs seemingly twice the capacity of the kitchen girl’s. Griffin, my brant, and I all winced. The bird landed, Rodden slid off, and Renata’s screams died in her throat.

‘
You
,’ she accused. ‘So it is true.’ She glared at both of us. ‘I did pray that letter was your idea of a joke. Just what has been going on?’

Rodden, face impassive, clicked his heels smartly and bowed. ‘Your Majesty.’

Renata’s desire to lose her temper warred with her need for composure. Propriety won out. She drew herself up to her full height. ‘Thank you for bringing my daughter back to me, Lothskorn, whatever state she might be in. See my steward for anything you may require for your return journey.’

Her meaning was clear: Rodden was to get out of her sight as soon as possible.

She turned to me. ‘
Up
stairs.’ She marched inside.

I kept my grasp on the brant’s reins and looked at Rodden, white-hot anger burning inside me. ‘How dare she dismiss you in such a way? You’re the king’s man and you deserve respect, especially here in Amentia. She has a lot to be thankful to you for. Lilith’s marriage, for a start. And you were the one to follow me to Lharmell when I was taken there.’

‘It is the reception I expected.’ Rodden began to unsaddle his brant. ‘Now, where do you suppose we’ll put our birds?’

‘We’ll leave them right here,’ I said. ‘Right where she can see them. Besides, they’ll terrify the horses if we try to stable them.’

Sensation prickled down my spine. I whirled around. A man with half-lidded eyes was leaning against a stone archway, watching us. He looked first at Rodden, then at me, cocking one eyebrow as he assessed our appearance. He was dressed in black, and his smartly pinned-up cloak was lined with dark red velvet. A sword was slung at his left hip – he was a noble then. I recognised his broad face as he smiled; an amused, faintly disgusted expression. Prince Folsum.

‘Hello, sweeting,’ he said.

My hands fell from the saddle buckle that I’d
been worrying at. There was dread in the pit of my stomach. I didn’t like that he was here, not one bit.

‘I should run you through with my sword, Lothskorn. What the deuce have you been doing to my bride?’

Folsum’s face was impassive, but I caught the menace in his tone.

Anger flared in my breast. ‘You have no right to claim me so.’

The lidded eyes flashed. ‘But my dear, I do. I have the consent of both the Queen of Amentia and the King of Pergamia.’

‘You are forgetting my own right, my lord. The right to refuse you.’

Folsum laughed. He cast a look at Rodden and the amusement died on his face. ‘Aren’t you forgetting something, Lothskorn?’

Rodden’s jaw clenched with anger. He straightened and made to bow.

I clutched his arm. ‘Don’t you dare bow to him.’

Rodden pulled away and gave Folsum a cursory bow. ‘Your Highness,’ he growled.

‘That’s better. We can’t have you forgetting your place. Now, run along.’ Folsum made a shooing motion with his fingers.

Rodden stared long and hard at Folsum. The prince fingered the gloves in his pocket as if he’d like nothing more than to slap Rodden for insolence.

Rodden turned on his heel, and I just caught his muttered, ‘I’ll be with the servants.’

‘Far too much pride in that one,’ Folsum said. ‘He’s been given free rein in Pergamia. It would never happen in Ansengaad. We know our place in Ansengaad. Or we’re made to find it, damned quickly.’ He looked hard at me.

‘Rodden Lothskorn has done more for all of Brivora in six months than you could ever hope to achieve in a lifetime.’

Folsum ignored me, his eyes on our brants. ‘Incredible creatures. I’ve read about them in esoteric travel journals. I thought them to be fictitious, or at the very least extinct.’ He stepped towards them across the flags. The brants watched him, black eyes flashing. We might have only recently stolen them from the harmings and pushed them to their limits of exhaustion, but both birds could detect my loathing of this man, and they’d decided they didn’t like him either.

I slipped their tethers free while Folsum’s eyes were elsewhere.

‘Beautiful,’ he murmured, his eyes running over
the brants’ wickedly curved beaks. ‘Imagine the possibilities for war.’ He reached for one and its hackles rose in warning. Folsum was either too stupid or too arrogant to heed it, and the moment his hand brushed the bird’s feathers it lashed out, snapping at Folsum’s shoulder with its beak. The leather of his jacket was sliced open. Folsum flung himself back, gasping, as the two birds advanced on him. They towered over him, wings raised, necks elongated. A low, steady hiss emanated from their open beaks.

‘Call them off!’ he yelled. He was backed against the courtyard walls. I directed the brants to herd him back out through the archway, urging them not to hurt him but to hiss as much as they liked. Finally, he turned and ran. The brants closed their beaks and returned to me.

I raked my fingers through my hair and tried not to cry out in frustration. I should never have listened to Rodden. It had been a huge mistake to come home.

THIRTEEN

T
here was a steaming bath in my room when I finally climbed the stairs into the keep. When Renata turned from stoking the fire her face was an angry red.

‘Undress her,’ she snapped at the maid. It was another girl I didn’t recognise. There had been changes to the castle while I’d been gone. New tapestries and furniture. New servants. The place hummed with life, and with money. Renata herself was dressed head to toe in new attire, and she’d grown plump.

I bade the girl to stop. ‘Thank you, but you may go.’

Renata looked on, arms folded, as I stripped off the rough Jarbin attire.

‘Must you watch?’ I asked.

‘Indeed I must,’ she insisted. She glanced at my stomach as I pulled off my shirt. ‘You don’t show. Not yet, at any rate.’

I frowned in confusion, and then flushed as I understood her meaning. ‘
Mother
. I’m not with child. Rodden never touched me.’

She sniffed. ‘We’ll see. You’re nothing but skin and bones so we shall know soon enough.’ She began rolling her sleeves up. ‘Gallivanting all over the world without a chaperone, and with a man such as he. What was Lilith thinking letting you go?’

‘Lilith didn’t
let
me do anything. It was my decision.’

She pointed at the tub with an imperious finger. ‘Scrub.’

I stepped into the tub and the hot water enveloped me. ‘Being a harming does not make Rodden depraved or wicked. After all, I’m –’

A basin of hot water was tipped over my head, making me gasp. I sat in sullen silence while she worked my hair into a lather.

After several more basins of water had been tipped over me without warning, and Renata was working oil through my hopelessly tangled hair, I asked, ‘What’s
he
doing here?’

‘He, if you are referring to Prince Folsum, is here because I invited him. He’s an extremely suitable match for you. Not only will he be king of Ansengaad one day, but he’s willing to overlook your recent indiscretions. As well as . . . other things.’

I stiffened. ‘Other things? What other things.’

Renata was silent.

‘He thinks I’m a bastard, doesn’t he?’

Renata tugged her fingers viciously through my hair. ‘Watch your tongue.’

‘Ow! Mother, how could you let him think such a thing, about both of us?’

‘What else can I let him think? There are no portraits of you father anywhere but everyone knows he was fair as can be. And your eyes. How else am I to explain you?’

‘The world has gone mad. Why not the truth? Why is everyone so afraid of the truth? There are monsters in the north!’ I began to holler at the top of my lungs. ‘There are monsters in –’

Another basin of water was dumped over my head and I came up spluttering. ‘Stop
doing
that.’

‘Keep your voice down. Do you wish to lose your head? A harming daughter,’ Renata moaned, ‘and her sister wedded to the future king of Pergamia. We shall all be burned at the stake.’ She grabbed
a scrubbing brush and began attacking my skin. ‘You must marry, Zeraphina, and it must be soon. I haven’t forgotten your birthday. You’re seventeen now. It’s time you did your duty, just like Lilith has.’

‘Happy birthday to me,’ I muttered, pushed this way and that as Renata scrubbed at me.

‘Ansengaad is far to the south, and I think that’s for the best. Far away from Lhar–’ She caught herself. ‘That place. And from Pergamia. It’s too dangerous for you to ever go northwards again. I’ve told Folsum you must stay in the south and he has assured me he will see that my wishes are carried out.’

‘How could you do such a thing? Am I to be a prisoner in Ansengaad, my husband my jailer? Am I never to see my sister again?’ But it wasn’t the thought of my sister that made my throat ache with despair. If I was never to go north, I would never see Rodden again. Not even across the high table at Xallentaria.

‘She may come to you,’ Renata said. ‘And you may visit me here after you have provided your husband with an heir. Until then you must stay away for your own good.’

I watched through blurred eyes as she began scrubbing the dirt from under my fingernails. A prisoner
who must bear her foul husband sons. Between the two of us, what sort of monstrous children would we have?

Renata saw my anguish. ‘And of course, there’s the other reason why it’s best you stay away from the north.’

‘Nothing happened, mother,’ I insisted, my voice thick. ‘He never touched me.’

‘Maybe not. But you wanted him to.’

‘You don’t know that.’

‘I saw how you were mooning over him when you returned from Lhar– that place. Doubtless he saw it too. If you’re speaking the truth, and he hasn’t touched you, Lothskorn may have some honour after all.’

Tears spilled over my cheeks. ‘He’s the best person I’ve ever known.’

Renata sighed. ‘Do stop blubbering. We all have crushes when we’re young, and we grow out of them. Now, out of the tub.’

She wrapped me in towels, sat me in a chair and began clipping my ragged nails and rubbing lotion into my roughened hands and feet. I let her, too limp from exhaustion and heartache to do anything else.

‘I may have married a landless fourth son,’ she said, ‘but he was still a prince and I had the means
for us both. You have nothing entailed on you and that man is a commoner. A foreign one to boot.’

‘He’s not a commoner, he’s the Honourable Rodden Lothskorn, King Askar’s right-hand man.’

‘A commoner with a fancy title is still a commoner. Who are his parents?’

‘His parents are dead.’ I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. ‘Mother, where have you put him? Not with the servants, I trust.’

‘Of course with the servants. You surely don’t expect me to put him in one of the state rooms?’

I was aghast. ‘Mother! He is treated with respect in Pergamia. He sits at the high table with the king. The nobles of Brivora are introduced to him alongside the king and queen’s own children!’

‘Not in my palace.’ But I saw her face redden as she realised her mistake.

‘Move him.’

‘To the room next to yours, I suppose.’

I gritted my teeth. ‘I don’t care which room. Get him out of the servants’ quarters. Now. You will show him the respect he deserves or King Askar will know why.’

Renata wiped lotion from her fingers with a towel and glared at me. ‘In my presence not five minutes and you behave as if you were the queen of all
Brivora.’ She slapped the cloth down and strode to the door. ‘The sooner you’re married the better.’

Dinner was another argument. Renata insisted I wear a corset with my gown though I detested them. ‘What is wrong with my Pergamian dresses? You said yourself I am skin and bones. What do I need with a corset?’

‘They favour the corseted style in Ansengaad,’ Renata said, holding the horrid thing out. ‘Stop snorting like a bull and put it on.’

I tore the corset from her grasp and fitted it around my torso. If my stay in Amentia was going to be at all bearable I was going to have to choose my battles. Corset yes, wedding no.

When eventually we stepped into the dining hall only Prince Folsum rose to greet us. Rodden wasn’t there.

I turned to Renata. ‘Where is he?’

Renata smiled at the prince and hissed out of the corner of her mouth, ‘
Sit
.
Down
.’

I crossed my arms. ‘King Askar will not be pleased if you dishonour him.’

With barely concealed rage, Renata ordered a footman to fetch Rodden and set another place.

Folsum seated both the queen and then me with a great flourish, elbowing another footman out of the way to do so.

‘Thank you,’ I said stiffly.

‘The pleasure is mine, my dear bride.’ His smile was so obsequious I felt ill.

‘Don’t count your chickens, my lord.’

He laughed. ‘Such quaint, rustic expressions you have picked up, Zeraphina. Have you been keeping rough company?’

I ignored him. The door opened, but instead of Rodden, the first footman stood there, hesitating.

‘Well?’ Renata said. ‘What is it?’

‘Your Majesty,’ he said, speaking as if he could not quite believe the words coming out of his mouth, ‘Lothskorn sends his compliments, but he has already eaten.’

I clenched my hands in my lap. Not a day in the palace and he was abandoning me.

‘Oh, has he?’ Relief and annoyance warred on her face.

‘And a good thing, too,’ said Folsum. ‘Is it customary in this palace to dine with the unscrupulous?’

‘The unscrupulous?’ I said. ‘A fine thing it is, my lord, to remind the queen of her adultery at the dinner table. You shall spoil her appetite.’

Renata glared at me, and I returned her angry gaze measure for measure. I did not enjoy pretending I was a bastard.

We sat through four courses without speaking. I’d lost my appetite and didn’t even make the pretence of picking at my food after the second course.

Folsum noticed. ‘Are you unwell, princess? I hope you are not experiencing any nausea.’

If I were Griffin, my hackles would have risen. I was not a bastard and I was
not
pregnant. If Folsum thought so little of me, why was he even here?

He put down his knife and fork and rested his fists on the table. His chin jutted with authority. ‘Before we are married,’ he said, ‘I insist the princess undergo an examination by a surgeon of my choosing.’

My face burned.

‘If she is not found to be intact I will petition the Crown Chamber at Xallentaria and Lothskorn will be executed.’

Outrage flared in my breast. ‘King Askar would do no such thing!’ I looked to Renata for confirmation. ‘Mother, what is this Crown Chamber?’

‘It is the court for those who are above the common law, because they are nobles or the king’s favourites. The king has little influence in the chamber. My lord,’ she said, turning to the prince. ‘I can vouch
for her myself, or we can wait several months and see –’

Folsum cut her off without even looking at her. ‘I have written letters of consent to this marriage from both King Askar, as your father-in-law by marriage, and Queen Renata. They state my right to the assurance that any offspring of our union be our own. Anyone found to have sullied these writs and threatened the sanctity of the Ansengaad blood-line will be deemed guilty of treason, and executed.’

It made me sick to think I would be inspected in such a humiliating way. Folsum would probably insist on being in the room. ‘Any examination would be useless,’ I said. ‘I’ve been riding horses, and surely you know what that can do to maidens.’

‘Interesting that you leap straight to defence rather than refutation, princess. I don’t see what difference horseriding will have made. You will have been riding side-saddle, of course.’

‘You think I travelled halfway round the world riding side-saddle?’ I scoffed.

‘It doesn’t matter what I think. It’s for the chamber to decide.’

‘The chamber doesn’t decide how I’ve been riding horses.’

‘The chamber understands the ways of nobles, and
noble maidens ride side-saddle only. Therefore how can anyone, even the king himself, have seen you riding any other way? It is a logical impossibility.’

‘That is the stupidest thing I ever heard.’ My mind raced. I knew how things could get carried away at Xallentaria. Askar would never execute Rodden of his own accord, but under pressure from the court . . . The court had power. All Folsum needed to do was stage some public performance, playing the part of the wronged suitor, and he would have their entire support. Under pressure from both the court and the Crown Chamber, Askar would have no choice.

Folsum, seeing the look of horror on my face, picked up his knife and fork and began eating again with relish.

First thing the next morning I sent a maid to Rodden’s rooms with a summons to meet me in the library. No longer the dusty, shut-up place it had been when I’d left Amentia, it was now clean, ordered and quiet. The shutters had been opened and sunshine slanted through the tall windows. I sat in a high-backed chair, my heels bouncing with
impatience on the footstool. I had lain awake half the night agonising over what was to be done. If we returned to Xallentaria, Folsum would follow and Rodden would be arrested. If we ran, the Lharmellins would find us eventually.