Page 10 of Burn Bright
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BANG. BANG. BANG. A fist hammered on the door to my home, dust shuddering from the heavyboards.
I almost dropped my wooden spoon in the pot of porridge I wasstirring.
"Open up in the name of theking!"
Hussar.
I’d recognize that malicious bellowanywhere.
Averill caught my eye as she rolled from our bed, pausing to shut the door to the room we shared. I could sense father stirring in his own room, and crossed swiftly to the door before they could wake him further. His color had been better last night, and Eloya assured me he'd eaten well yesterday, but he needed therest.
Jerking the door open, I laid eyes upon the huntmaster in his stern leathers, and the prince and his Hound. The huntmaster paused with his hand lifted to beat the dooragain.
"We heard you the first time," I said, through gritted teeth. "What may I do foryou?"
The huntmaster stepped forward and there was no help for it. I had to get out of the way or be trampled. "We're looking for your father. We need a tracker to enter the woods, and I hear he's the man for thejob."
A shiver of unease went through me. A sense of foreboding. Ordestiny, as the weird woman in the forest might have called it. "Well, he'sunavailable."
Prince Evaron tugged off his gloves as he entered our small cottage, and I could almost sense him glancing around, trying to keep his thoughts off his face. At his heels stalked the wolvren, and he seemed more wolf than man this morning, a hungry look in hiseyes.
I grabbed a handful of last night's dishes from the table and dumped them in the small tin basin we used to wash up with. "You'll have to find someoneelse."
"He's the only hunter in these parts according to village talk. The other died—some sort of accident, I believe." Prince Evaron had the grace to soften his words with a smile, but the look in his eyes wasunflinching.
Curse BennettHapslow.
"And you said yourself your father is the best hunter in these parts," the prince continued. "We’ll need the best for ourmission."
Curse my stupid, fat mouth too. "He's notwell."
"There's good coin init."
They weren't listening to me. "Coin won’t keep my father’s belly full if he’s dead," I snapped. "Nor will it be of much comfort to me and my two sisters. My father is unwell, and a hunt like this would killhim."
"Are you denying the word of your king?" Hussar asked with a sneer, tugging his gloves off, one finger at atime.
"As far as I’m aware, King Euric is alive." I looked between them all, nodding my head toward the prince. "Technically, his highness here isn’t sitting on the throneyet."
Hussar unrolled a scroll he’d plucked from his belt, scrolling down it to the pertinent part. 'I, King Euric, charge my eldest son, Evaron, with the quest of finding the firebird that lurks in Gravenwold forest, and bringing me its heart. I decree that all my subjects must render aid in my son's quest, or it shall be considered treason..." Hussar rolled the scroll upagain.
"Technically," he said, managing to leer at me a little, "if your father refuses to see us then we’re within our rights to clap him inchains."
The blood drained out of myface.
"Hussar," Prince Evaron said, gentling him with a frown and a small wave. "We’re here to ask for help. Not to threaten thelocals."
"You’re going to track the firebird. Why?" Idemanded.
No good could come ofthis.
"The king’s health is failing," the prince explained. "All of the court physicians have said he won’t last until next summer. He’s charged me with capturing the firebird that lurks in these woods and bringing back its heart. If he consumes the heart, the head physician said, then he’ll be healed. The firebird is a creature of immortality andreincarnation."
"You’re going to kill the firebird? Nobody’s even truly seen it," I lied. There was no need to show them the feather. "Gravenwold’s a dangerous place. You could be riding to your deaths for noreason."
The prince sighed. "I have totry."
