An Oath Of The Kings (Book 4) (27 page)

Kiernan leaned back on the palms of her hands and tipped her face to the rays of the late afternoon sun. She couldn’t remember ever feeling this content before. This happy.
What a difference a few weeks make.
Children played in the growing grass all around her. Women set out blankets and food. Men and boys ran along the dirt road that cut through the center of town kicking a leather ball back and forth in some game she had never seen before.

“This is all your doing, you know,” Cael said from beside her.

“Hardly,” she said, quickly dismissing his claim. “Change like this can only be achieved through the efforts of many.”

“I’m not talking about the dry land!” He waved a hand around. “Look at these people. Look at their faces. They’re joyful! They have hope!
You
did that.”

Yes, but only until the Duke returns.
She wasn’t naïve. She would suffer for the changes she helped to bring about here in Lewstin.
I can live with that as long as I’m the only one.

Cael gently pushed her back onto their blanket and caressed her face, his lips inches from hers. “I love you, Larkin Malley.”

“Cael, I…”

“I know you can’t say the same yet, but you will.” His winked at her. “I’m really quite irresistible if you’d just look hard enough.”

Kiernan framed his face and ran her thumbs beneath his eyes. “I am looking.”

“What do you see?”

“A good man. The best I know.” Before he could respond and before she had time to question her decision, she pulled his head down to hers and kissed him. A deep kiss that held delicious promise for them both.

Kiernan’s body clenched at the growl that crawled from Cael’s throat, but she pushed him off her at the giggles coming from the women on the blanket next to them. He flopped onto his back and covered his eyes. “I wish we could live like this forever.”

Something in the way he whispered the words touched Kiernan’s heart. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to give Cael Trathen all that he wished for. All of
her
. “Me, too.”

A bugle call sounded from the top of the wall and Kiernan bolted upright in fright. “What was that?”

Cael lifted his arm and she noticed that all color had drained from his face. “The Duke has returned.”

****

Rayan Morningstar rode through the wooden gates of Lewstin a thunderhead of fury. Having to flee Nysa like a frightened child was bad enough, but to come home and find out that his people had disobeyed his rules? Picnics? Games? What nonsense is this?

The bugle sounded his arrival and the townsfolk stopped dead in their tracks, their mouths open wide in fear.

“What is the meaning of this?” he asked of the guard that rushed over to take his horse.

“It…it’s the end of the workday, my Lord Duke,” he answered as though that should have been enough.

“Why is the ground dry?”

“A trench was created to divert the mine water to the river.”

“I figured that, you idiot. Who is responsible?”

The guard looked nervously over his shoulder. “Everyone.”

No. The townsfolk may have participated, but Rayan knew instantly who was the instigator behind this rebellious behavior. It was that green-eyed woman that Cael Trathen brought…

Wait.

Rayan recalled the last conversation he had heard between the King of Dwarves and Beck Atlan.

Where is your green-eyed Princess, Beck? Tell me she is safe.

She traveled south, Rogan. That’s all I know.

Rayan scanned the town and found her sitting on a blanket with Cael. Oh, yes. That aristocratic lift of her chin. That proud, straight back.
It’s her, all right.
At the moment, her eyes held a fair amount of unease, but it could not overshadow the defiance that lived there.
How did I not see it before?
Of course, he never expected Kiernan Atlan to arrive in Lewstin disguised as a scullery maid, but he still should have put everything together.

His blood boiled in his veins.

How much did she know? Had she come here to thwart his mother’s plan? The plan his father put into place years ago when he sent Zavier after Gemini Starr’s body? Well, if she came here looking to stir up trouble, she bloody well found it!

Rayan kicked his mount into a gallop and tore up the hill to the mines, his personal guard following close behind. At the top, he dismounted and picked up a shovel that had been left on the ground. He walked over to the trench and looked down in disgust at the fast-moving water. “Help me destroy this!” he yelled at his Falcons. They did as he asked and it didn’t take long to undo what Kiernan Atlan had started.

The townsfolk who chased after him appeared at the top of the hill and stared in horror.

The water was already pooling in front of the mines once again and trickling back down the hill toward the town.

Kiernan Atlan pushed through the crowd, stormed up to him and tried to take the shovel from his hands. “What are you doing? Stop this!” she ordered as though this was her town and not his.

With a snarl, he backhanded her across the mouth. She fell to one knee, but got right back up and punched him in the jaw. He hissed in shock and put a hand to his face. No one had ever struck him before. Ever.

For a stunned moment, he didn’t know what to do. Then, he whirled toward the guards. “I want this woman locked up! Now!”

Cael Trathen rushed over and grabbed his arm. “Please, no! She didn’t mean it, my Lord Duke! She just put so much effort into digging this trench.” He hesitated. “We all did.”

Rayan yanked his arm free. “Get off me and start working! All of you! I want this trench filled in. Every last inch of it.”

He swung up onto his horse and raced back down the hill along with the water that was now soaking the road once again.

Kiernan bloody Atlan! I don’t know what brought you here to Lewstin, but I do know one thing. You will not be leaving alive.

****

Kiernan tried to wrestle her nerves into control as two Falcons on either side of her led her to the town square. The townsfolk followed behind—most were silent, but a few brave souls demanded her release.

She steeled herself to be tied to the same whipping post where Cael had been lashed when they first arrived to town, but the guards directed her across the sandy pit to a row of wooden cages that she had never noticed before. At just four feet high, she wouldn’t be able to stand upright once inside, and a moment of panic gripped her and sent her heart hammering to break free of her chest.

“I’m sorry, Mistress Malley,” one of the Falcons whispered to her. “I’ve got to follow orders, you know.”

She nodded. “I…I do know. It’s all right.”

After he opened the door, she swallowed heavily and crawled in.

The guards shouted to disperse the crowd. It took a fair amount of shoving and cursing, but finally the women and children were ushered into the barracks and the men sent back to their lonely homes.

Where is the Duke?
she wondered.
Will he come for me soon?
She spent hours in fearful dread of the moment he would appear to punish her, but he did not come. The night deepened with her alone and freezing in the corner of her cage, with the cold wind cutting right through the thin dress she wore. Her jaw ached from her teeth chattering uncontrollably. Pain in her legs alternated between excruciating cramps and tingling numbness. She rolled into a tight ball to try and keep warm and played games inside her mind to keep from succumbing to sleep. She was afraid if she did, she would never wake. To make matters worse, the stomach illness she’d contracted caused her to suffer with nausea through most of the night.

When dawn finally came, she felt glad just to be alive.

She sat up wondering where Cael could be and prayed that he was safe. She hoped the Duke would not take out his anger with her on him or any of the others. They had been so happy—some for the first time in their lives—and the Duke crushed them for it. Why would he destroy their joy?
To keep them immersed in fear, that’s why. To maintain his control over them.

“Did you have a pleasant night?”

It was only through the grace of the Highworld that she managed to stifle the scream that opened her throat.

The Duke leaned insolently against a tree outside of her cage.

She didn’t answer him as she buried her shaking hands in her lap.

He looked over his shoulder. “Bring him over.”

Two guards dragged Cael close and dropped him to the ground. His face was bruised and bloodied.

She scrambled to her knees and grabbed the wooden slats of her prison, sympathy welling inside of her at the sight of him. “What did you do?”

The Duke shrugged. “I wanted to see how much he knew, but apparently he doesn’t know anything.”

“About what?” she spat.

“About you?”

“Me?”

“Tell Cael who you really are, Mistress Malley.”

Kiernan’s stomach fell and she felt like she might retch again.

“Tell him!”

Cael lifted his chin to peer at her through eyes swollen shut. “What is he talking about, Larkin?”

“Tell him!” the Duke barked again.

Kiernan swallowed. If she had been honest with Cael long ago, he might have forgiven her. But, she hadn’t, and in this moment all of the words that sprang to mind sounded empty and deceitful. “My name is not Larkin Malley, Cael, but I can explain.”

Cael’s puffy eyes tried to widen. “You lied to me, didn’t you? I had my suspicions at first, but you convinced me to take your word for it.”

“Yes, I did, but if you will—”

“Tell him!”

Kiernan suspected that with her next admission, her life as Larkin Malley and in Lewstin would be over, and she would forever mourn the simple life and the friendships she made here. Her loving relationship with Cael and Tilly most of all.
Will I ever get the chance to explain? Will he ever understand? Will any of them?
She took a deep breath. “I’m Kiernan Everard.”

“Kiernan Everard?” He questioned the name as though it were a dirty word. “Princess Kiernan?”

“Yes.”

“But, how? Why?”

“It’s a long story, Cael, and one I should have told you from the start.”

Tears welled in the slits of his eyes. “How could you do this to me? I’ve fallen in love with you. Tilly loves you.”

She refused to let it end like this. She reached for his hands through the bars of her cage. “Don’t let this come between us, Cael. Please. I’m begging you.”

“Between us?” he roared.

“We can build a life here! Just give me a chance.”

“Oh, your
husband
is very much between us!”

Kiernan hissed and fell back against the cage wall with a hand to her mouth.

Cael’s tear-stained face loomed as he crawled closer. “Are you going to pretend that you don’t have a husband?”

“If I do…I didn’t know. There was an assassin…and…my memories are all muddled.” She had never felt so alone in her life. “Cael, help me!”

“Help you? I never want to see you again! Go back to Nysa and have your laugh at the fool oreshifter you duped in Lewstin!”

“No! Cael! Please, listen to me!”

Cael staggered to his feet, turned his back on her and walked away.

Kiernan sat there, stunned, unmoving. Dead inside.

“Get her out,” the Duke ordered his guards.

These were not the compassionate guards of before, but two Falcons she had never seen before. They were not gentle as they reached in and dragged her limp body from the cage. Her listless feet dragged behind through the new mud, and that…
that
…made her want to cry more than anything else.

“Where are you taking her?” she heard someone ask and glanced over her shoulder. Several townsfolk stood along the road armed with whatever they could find that would serve as a weapon. Brooms, sticks, rakes. A skillet or two.

As much as Kiernan feared for their safety, fierce pride welled inside of her that they were finally taking a stand.

“Leave her be!” another shouted and it sounded suspiciously like the matron, Marian.

The sounds of violent fighting broke out, but Kiernan couldn’t see what was happening as she was hauled toward the palisade and whisked out through the gates. She knew that there would be no further help for her now.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Where no one will hear your screams,” the Duke answered with a chuckle.

She growled and slammed a mindshifted thought at him, but it went nowhere, her magic disappearing on the wind.

The Duke led the way on a path through the heavy woods. Morning mist hugged the ground, chilling Kiernan’s skin to the bone. She made a vain attempt to struggle against her captors, but it had little effect. They walked for a very long time, away from any living beings, before the Duke finally stopped in a small clearing. Kiernan looked around. Remnants of blood and women’s clothing covered the ground. Four stakes set in a square had been hammered into the dirt. Loose rope curled at their bases.