The Griffin's Flight

After all the months that had passed, he’d hoped that the nightmares would have left him by now, but they hadn’t. If anything, they were getting worse.

Murderer,
the inner voice whispered.

Arren closed his eyes and tried not to think. In spite of his exhaustion, though, he couldn’t sleep. He never slept well any more. It was partly the dreams, but it was also the fear. It troubled him every time he lay down to rest: the fear that somehow, this time, he wouldn’t wake up.

Murderer
.

Once again the memory of Lord Rannagon’s dead body rose up in his mind.
The boy has lost his mind. Murderer
.

Arren curled up, wrapping his arms around his knees and hugging them to his chest.
No,
he thought.
No. They wanted me dead even before I was a murderer
.

“I couldn’t help it,” Arren whispered. “I couldn’t help it.”

Every Northerner has a madness inside him. One day it will come through in you
.

“No,” Arren whispered again.

The boy has lost his mind
.

He rolled over onto his other side, covering his ears with his hands, trying to blot it out. But the accusations were in his memory, not in the world around him, and they could not be escaped.

Murderer
.

Ace Books by K. J. Taylor

The Fallen Moon

THE DARK GRIFFIN
THE GRIFFIN’S FLIGHT
THE GRIFFIN’S WAR

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)

Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)

Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India

Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)

Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

THE GRIFFIN’S FLIGHT

An Ace Book / published by arrangement with the author

PRINTING HISTORY
HarperCollins Australia mass-market edition / February 2010
Ace mass-market edition / February 2011

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

eISBN : 978-1-101-47696-3

ACE
Ace Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ACE and the “A” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

http://us.penguingroup.com

For my grandmother.

You listened to my heartbeat and gave me
your name, and I know you loved me,
even though we never met.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to everyone at Griffins_Eyrie for never losing faith and for being just generally awesome. Thanks to my parents for not using birth control, and my sister for telling me the truth even when I don’t want to hear it. Thanks are also due to Stephanie for not sending me another rejection letter, and to Vanessa for making a neat list of all my screwups like every good editor should. And, once again, thanks to Janice Jones ([email protected]) for knowing more Welsh than I do.

Author’s Note

Once again, the language of the Northerners is Welsh, and “dd” is pronounced “th.”

Hence “Arenadd” is “Arrenath,” “Saeddryn” is “Saythrin,” and “Arddryn” is “Arthrin.”