Page 78 of The Huntsman's Heart
I curse. If I kill her now, the guard will be blamed, but I may not get another opportunity like this. Frozen with indecision, I wait behind the door.
Perhaps I can create a distraction. I close my eyes and concentrate, but every time I try to send my mind out, I’m snapped back to the queen’s chamber when a movement or sigh from her draws my attention. Hatred for her drips from my flesh and my knife longs for her blood.
“If I am asleep, wake me when Sir Alaric returns,” says the queen to her maid, when the woman returns. “He is expected back tonight.”
She called him, but as far as I know he is safely restrained under the watchful eye of my gargoyles. That should be impossible.
Unless he has betrayed me. But I trust him too much to entertain that thought for long.
Once I have his heart in my possession I will not need to trust any longer. I will know he’s mine. For some reason that sits uncomfortably like a corset with a bone loose and jabbing into my ribs.
I can think of no way to create a distraction that will not result in another death. Innocent lives will be lost if I am to take what I want tonight. I should have thought of this. What I need is to kill her in a way that looks natural or challenge her in the open. But that has too many complicated implications. The people think I’m dead. Better if it stays that way.
I shudder at the memory of her true reflection. It was one thing learning she is as old as Alaric, quite another to see the reality of what that looks like.
Yet even her true image isn’t as ugly as her soul. Too many people have already suffered for this queen. I do not mean to add to that number if I can help it. I must wait for her to leave the solar. Luckily I can outwait her. And perhaps that’s all I need to do. Would she die without the magic Alaric has been casting to keep her youthful?
If I can keep him from her long enough.
Alaric
The sickening tug inside the cavity of my chest makes me lurch forward a step before I right myself. Raban looks around, brows knit in concern. “Are you alright?”
I shrug it off. “It is nothing.” Then immediately I wonder why I was not honest with him.
As we walk on, gaining on Thornvale with every step, the compulsion becomes a faint draw like a rope around my middle. Since I am going in the right direction to answer Melantha’s call, I feel nothing more than this. If I stop, though, or deviate from the course, I would find each step increasingly more difficult until I find taking the next impossible.
Experience has taught me not to fight it.
My companions still chat amongst themselves, wondering at having been able to walk and talk during daylight hours. The sun has already set and the woods have dropped back into dark, but for them this is life-changing.
“That must be why Évandre always wakes last, but sleeps first,” Corvin says.
“That makes no sense. What does that have to do with it?”
“No, I think he’s right. Because the light touches me first while you are both still in shadow. Then at dusk, as it sinks lower, you are in shadow again while the last rays fall on me.”
Their words wash over me while I dwell on the rising threat. What has she called me for? Does this mean she has found Guin? Or is this something less sinister? If I try to avoid her will I reveal my hand too soon?
Raban nudges me. “Something is troubling you.”
My first instinct is to brush him off again, but that is an old habit. A reaction made natural through practice rather than something that will serve me with him. I clear my throat. “I did not mean to alarm you, but the queen has called me. I am trying to work out what her motive might be.”
Corvin has clearly overheard. He and Évandre fall silent and he glances over at me. “To use you for her nefarious purposes, of course.”
I scowl at him, and he falls silent.
“Do you still think it best to go on?’ asks Évandre quietly.
I consider. “What if she has Guin? We cannot abandon her. It would be better to arrive during the night, though, so the three of you can disable me if necessary. We are not far. If I was not so worried about Tharrok we could go faster, but as it is, he risks going lame if I push him harder.”
“We will fly on ahead and search for her,” says Corvin. “If there is no trace of her between here and the town walls, we will circle back.”
“No,” I say. “Keep going and watch for me at the east tower; the top window is the queen’s solar. I will hurry there as fast as I can.”
I wait so long at the gate the restless tugging inside me almost compels me to climb the walls and leave Tharrok outside. I holler up at the guards, who seem completely absent for what feels like an age, when finally a head pops over the top of the wall. “Who goes there?” The voice is young—scared.
Who is this boy who has been allowed to watch the gate so late at night? “Where are the guards?”
