King’s Wrath

She felt deeply weary. ‘I admit that is a seductive promise.’

He began walking again. ‘There,’ he said, as she clambered up beside him.

Her gaze narrowed as she focused on the buildings in the distance, nestling among an almost perfect crescent of rocky outcrops. ‘It’s beautiful.’

‘The mountains in the background are called Lo’s Teeth.’

‘They look daunting.’

‘They are. I’ve never been further north than this region. But people called the Davarigons do live in the mountains.’

She shook her head in wonder. ‘Mountain dwellers?’ She shook her head again. ‘I can’t —’

‘I know, Evie. I really do understand how hard this is. Please don’t cry.’

She bit her trembling lip. ‘I’m sorry. This is all so impossible to calculate.’

‘Don’t calculate. Analyse none of it. Nothing will make sense. If you can accept that it’s not worth wasting the energy trying to understand but instead just try to blend in as best you can, I promise you that you will adapt.’

‘Yes, but what if I don’t want to?’ she snapped.

Corbel sighed silently but she saw his frustration. ‘Evie, I don’t want to keep saying this because it sounds as though I’m the villain here, but you have no choice. I can’t say it any plainer. Your pathway was mapped out a long time ago. Your father chose it. He also chose mine, to protect you until you could return to the land of your birth.’

She nodded, swallowed a soft sob of her own frustration and confusion. His voice was so tender. She had never questioned his friendship or his honesty. Evie lifted her chin and made a silent promise that she would trust Corbel de Vis until this nightmare ended. She had to believe it would, even though this place he called Denova certainly looked and felt real enough.

Evie sniffed. ‘So what is this place you’re taking me towards?’

The anxiety in her friend’s eyes lessened and she saw a sense of relief relax his expression. He had obviously thought she was going to crack. Grinning crookedly, he said, ‘A convent. There you will have your bath and I hope there is where you will find some answers. A word of warning,’ he cautioned. ‘If we’re going to blend in, we both need to leave our most recent lives behind. Forget the hospital, Evie, forget everything you know. In order for you to survive, I need you to trust me and do your utmost to avoid all mention of what has gone before for you. Today is the first day of your life.’

‘To survive? That sounds scary.’

He nodded. ‘We should be scared. There are people who wish you dead.’

She looked at him, aghast. ‘And still you brought me here?’

Corbel looked back at her sadly. ‘I take some comfort that you’re at least acknowledging that you are here. But I don’t know how to answer your question. I had no choice. I am the son of Regor de Vis and my duty is to the Crown of Penraven, and to the Valisars.’

‘And what about me?’

He gave a sad smile. ‘I’m fulfilling my duty, Evie. You are a Valisar.’

‘So I’m just a duty now. A chore to be done?’ She watched his eyes flash with pain but for once she felt no guilt; her confusion demanded more answers.

‘Don’t ever think that,’ he hurried to say. ‘I have loved youas … ’He appeared flummoxed. ‘I care about you as if you were the most precious thing in the world.’

She nodded, hating to see her favourite person looking so tongue-tied. Reg had never been anything but a rock in her life. If she were honest she couldn’t imagine her life without him in it. ‘I love you too,’ she said without hesitation, surprised when he glanced at her with strange sorrow.

‘You say it so easily,’ he replied, looking away.

‘Because I mean it. I only hesitate if I’m telling a lie.’

‘I know,’ he said softly. Clearing his throat, he continued more curtly, ‘If I’m going to keep you safe, you must listen to what I say and follow my lead in all things. There is no technology here. None at all. But there is magic, as you’ve discovered for yourself. I know it all sounds like a confusing dream but I stress again, this is your new reality. You must … ’

‘Acclimatise?’

‘Yes, but don’t use words like that again.’

Evie sighed. ‘Reg … I’m tired of arguing with you. All right, I’ll try to speak “plain Denovian".’

He found a smile. ‘It’s in your soul. Hunt it down. You know how to do this.’

She looked at the impressive stone building as they slowed on their approach and shook her head.

Just as she fell into step alongside Reg, vowing to try very hard to acclimatise as her friend needed, three men rounded the bend in the path they had been following.

‘Aye, aye, what have we here?’ the eldest of the trio asked.

‘Morning,’ Corbel said, surprising Evie at how cheerful he could sound. ‘All well with you?’

‘Now it is,’ the youngest said. He had a black tooth at the front of his mouth and a smile that suggested he was a few strides short of a span.

Evie felt a tremor of alarm.

Corbel sensed the danger immediately. Years of training in his youth alongside his father and then two decades on the streets of a city in the other world had taught him plenty about people. And he’d learned that one could tell a great deal about a man long before he spoke. And Corbel was reading only the most dangerous of language from the silent newcomer whose gaze had yet to alight on him; so far his eyes were only for Evie.

‘Morning,’ Corbel repeated, deliberately slowing, loading his tone with lightness and cheer but all the while using the time to gauge what he was up against.

The black-toothed one was gormless enough not to trouble Corbel. The elder one who spoke first looked wiry and strong but he was small, with a limp, and carried only a dagger at his belt. It was the middle fellow who troubled Corbel the most. Silent, powerfully built and clearly with mischief on his mind, he wore a sword on his hip and moved like a fighter.

Evie had paused, he noticed, presumably sensing the man’s interest. He stepped slightly ahead of her to shield her.

‘Tasty lady,’ said Blacktooth, leering around him at Evie before grinning stupidly at his companions.

Corbel raised a hand. ‘We want no trouble here.’

‘Forgive our Clem, he has no manners at all,’ the dangerous one said.

The man’s voice was mellow, almost silky, but Corbel wasn’t fooled. ‘We don’t want trouble either.’

‘None from her, anyway,’ Clem said and now the older man grinned.

‘This is a lonely track for travellers,’ the dangerous man continued.

‘Yes it is,’ Corbel admitted. ‘But we are taking the shortest route to the convent.’ He shrugged, noting as he did so that theman’s hand was resting easily on the pommel of his sword. ‘How about yourselves?’

‘On our way to Francham.’

‘Francham? You have a long walk ahead,’ Corbel remarked, taking note that it wasn’t the old man’s leg that was injured; it was his hips, if he wasn’t mistaken. ‘No horses?’