Page 106 of A Kingdom of Lies
No matter how he delivered his desperate speech, not a single set of eyes was taken off of Duncan, not as he struggled against death itself.
“Ro–Robin!” Duncan screamed, voice trembling. He swallowed back his shout then shattered the world with my name – as clear as day – as it tore out of his throat for a second time. “Robin!”
Blood filled my mouth as I bit down on my tongue. I’d never wished so hard for anything other than to speak. To tell him I was here. To make him understand that he wasn’t alone. Duncan faced his death like any other would, fearful like a child looking into the dark unknown, crying out with harsh, sharp breaths. Then it all stopped. Not because Aldrick commanded so, but because there was no more pain to scream about.
I watched everything unfold, my heartbeat thundering like the hooves of a stampeding horde in my ears.
Duncan uncurled, panting heavily. He stood tall, chin raised as he faced the crowd. The room let out a collective gasp at something I couldn’t see. From beneath the shadows of Aldrick’s hood he released a bubbling, manic laugh that itched at my soul. The air seemed to shift, thickening as it crackled with a wave of unseen energy. I looked down to the tickle across my arms, watching the hairs standing on end.
“It has worked!” Aldrick cried, voice almost muffled by the dense and crackling air. “See how the balance can shift. And in Duwar’s name we will cleanse the land and prepare it for the arrival of a better future. Together.”
Duncan turned slowly to look at me. A glow of stark blue light emanated from him. His eyes were overcome by the bright radiance that also spread across his arms and hands, which he held before him as though he feared their proximity, lines of sharp, splitting light which fizzed and popped.Lightning. As though he was a goliath, reaching into thunder clouds and tearing the power from the sky himself. Duncan’s skin was covered in jagged, snaking lines that moved with such speed they didn’t stay in one place for long. His chest showed no sign of a wound, only the blood that dried before my eyes.
I longed to speak. To say something to Duncan as I recognised the fear that creased his handsome, glowing face. He looked from me, to his hands, and back again as though he could not make sense of the power that radiated from him.
A single tear dripped down my cheek. I felt my skin shiver, my body shaking with the tension that built within me. Still, Aldrick didn’t release me from my imprisonment.
The crowd’s awe held them in silence. I could’ve heard a pin drop upon the floor with ease. All I could do was focus on the heavy breathing of Duncan as he stood there bathed in power that shouldneverhave belonged to him.
Then Duncan turned away from me, face hardening, eyes narrowing, as he focused all his attention on Aldrick. My heart leapt in my chest, stomach jolting as though I rode upon the back of Gyah in her Eldrae form.
“Settle down, General Rackley,” Aldrick spoke sternly. “The rush of power will pass. Give your body, soul and mind a moment to adjust–”
Duncan faltered, expression pinching as though he fought something internally. Then he continued, taking a shaking step forward. Aldrick backed away, cloak shuffling around his awkward feet. The crowd began to shout, and all I could do wasthinkmy encouragement.
Kill him, Duncan. Do it.I hopedthat Aldrick was still in my head, listening to my dark thoughts as I willed Duncan to act.
“Guards,” Aldrick cried, and the clink of metal replied, as armoured men and women ran towards Aldrick. I could see they held an iron cuff identical to the one strangling my throat.
They hesitated as they drew closer to Duncan. His crackling power intensified and spread, singeing the ground where it touched; smoke hissed like reaching snakes around his feet.
“Tell me their names,” Duncan growled as he closed in on the Hand.
“Stand down.”
“Give me their fucking names!”
Despite Duncan’s request being somewhat vague, I knew he asked after his parents’ murderers, and I wondered if Aldrick’s hesitation was a sign that he knew that too.
The crowd was riled up, some pushing past the lines of Kingsmen as they tried to clamber onto the stage and provide aid to the Hand.
The air split with a thundering clap, blending with Duncan’s demanding shout. “Tell me!”
I began to feel movement in my limbs, a prickling of needles as the feeling returned from my feet upwards, spreading out across my spine into every part of me. Aldrick’s presence retreated slowly from my mind as he fought to get Duncan under his control. Elinor gasped at my side, sucking in a breath as though she had held it this entire time. She too was released.
Then the human king cried, voice croaky as though it hadn’t been used for years. “Sei–seize him!”
It was hard to tell if he spoke of Duncan, but the shaking finger he attempted to raise pointed straight towards Aldrick. But the king was ignored in the chaos, his voice no longer important to those who filled the room. Not that he had any power here anymore. The Hunters were here for the Hand and the promise of Duwar, not the king and queen who were merely brought before them for show.
Everything happened so quickly. It was almost a shock when I heard the distant, scratching scream from beyond the chamber room. I put it down to someone fighting in the chamber below the podium until I heard it again.
“Duncan…” I whispered, my voice finally my own again.
“What is that?” Elinor spoke over me, leaning forward with a grimace as she looked to the dark sky beyond the open doors and stained-glass windows. “Do you see it? There – outside – in the sky…”
I tore my eyes from Duncan and Aldrick as another screech reached me, this time louder than before. Beyond the chamber room and filling the sky were large, winged beasts.
Gryvern.
