Stormcaster (Shattered Realms #3)(120)

“You haven’t even heard my plan yet,” Barrowhill said. “I promise, it’s a good one. Kill me, and you’ll never hear it. Anyway, they’ve already set sail by now.”

“Southgate, then,” Karn said, with a brisk nod. “That’s the only port close enough. It might be that we can—”

Hal began to laugh, which seemed totally wrong, but once he started, he couldn’t stop. They all looked at him as if he’d gone mad.

“Forgive me,” he said, swiping at his eyes. “It’s just so refreshing to see Lieutenant Karn swigging the same bitter medicine he dishes out.”

“Captain Matelon,” Barrowhill said. “I know you have no reason to trust me, and many reasons not to, but I hope you’ll believe me when I say that the families will be perfectly safe—from the northerners, anyway. I’ve heard from my sources that you’ve been a guest in the north. Were you well treated?”

“Yes,” Hal said cautiously, wondering why a smuggler would know that.

“And you also had some experience with the empress? You were in Chalk Cliffs when it was attacked?”

“Yes.”

“As soon as you came home, you tried to convince your father to let you take an army north to aid them against the empress.”

“Who told you that?”

Barrowhill pulled out an apple and took a bite. “I talk to everyone,” she said, chewing. “I have a plan that will give you an army sooner rather than later. But you might not like some parts of it.”

“I cannot wait to hear it,” Karn said, rolling his eyes.

Barrowhill went down on one knee, spreading her arms wide. “Matelon,” she said. “How would you like to be king?”





49


TIES THAT BIND


Leaving his mother under the care of Ty Gryphon and Magret Gray, Ash met with Sasha Talbot and Captain Byrne in the sitting room of the queen’s chambers.

Talbot was visibly nervous, but determined and seemingly well prepared.

“Hear me out,” she said. “As you know, Captain Byrne, I’ve been researching queens and their bound captains in the temple library. I’ve asked you some questions, too. From what I’ve seen and read and heard, having a bound captain now would make Lyss safer, and I’m for anything that would do that.”

She stopped, as if waiting for questions or arguments, but Byrne only nodded. “Go on,” he said.

Once started, it turned into a landslide of words. “I may be getting above myself, but I’ve spent the last three years of my life by Lyss’s side, and I—I don’t think there’s anyone more devoted to her. I know her as well as anyone, and if I could trade my life for hers right now I would do it.

“I know the captain of the Gray Wolves has always been a Byrne, at least for a thousand years, and you might think I shouldn’t be angling for the job, but I have to speak my mind. Simon’s gone, and I’m here.

“Long story short, I’m asking to be named Princess Alyssa’s bound captain. Now, rather than later.” She stood there, then, her fist on her heart, back straight, jaw clenched, as if waiting to be turned down.

Byrne didn’t turn her down. He’d gazed at her, his eyes narrowed, rubbing his chin. Then he glanced at Ash and simply said, “Let’s talk about it in private, Corporal Talbot. I want you to know what you’d be signing on for.”

They must have come to an understanding, because, just two days later, Ash was called to participate in a binding ceremony.

The ceremony took place in the small temple within the queen’s rooftop garden, accessible by secret stairs from the queen’s bedchamber, and by others from the family wing of the palace.

When moonlight flooded through the glass, the handful of celebrants cast long shadows on the stone floor. But Hanalea breathed, as the saying went. The wind from the Spirit Mountains rattled the walls and drove shards of cloud across the night sky, obscuring, and then revealing, the eagle moon.

Ash wore his father’s robes, the Waterlow ravens over top. Sasha Talbot was barefoot, dressed in a loose, roughspun dedicate’s robe. She shifted from foot to foot, as if eager to see it done and over with. The naval commander Hadley DeVilliers wore a dress—something Ash had seen her do maybe once or twice in his life.

It was the first time Queen Raisa had left her rooms since the day she was poisoned. Magret Gray and Titus Gryphon had carried her in on a litter and set her down in a chair. She was wrapped in upland furs, covered in clan-made blankets, her pale face wearing a fierce expression that said, Still a wolf.

Participants could be distinguished from witnesses by their degree of nervousness. Hadley was as fearless as anyone Ash knew, but she stood, hands clenched, mumbling words under her breath, practicing. Speaker Jemson and Captain Byrne stood to either side of a small table bearing the regalia, which included a stone basin, a knife, a crystal bottle, and a silver goblet.

Ash shivered. Lately, it seemed that his life was one blood ritual after another.

“Welcome,” Speaker Jemson said, hauling Ash back to the present. “I apologize for the hour, but it was important that we do this without alerting any enemies of the Line. Tonight, we will celebrate not one but two milestones. Hopefully that will make it worth disturbing your sleep.” He paused, but nobody laughed; so he went on.