Zandora hissed. “We must go.” She pointed to one of the horses. “That one has gone lame during our patrol. Caught his hoof on a root. He is skittish and we need him fixed before we can proceed.”
“I can heal him,” Chun said. He wasn’t afraid of horses, and he was glad for this moment to prove himself. He climbed down and made his way carefully to the mare. Its rider dismounted and held the reins tightly while Chun calmed the animal and ran his hands deftly down its muscled legs. Within minutes, it was healed. The horse stomped its foot and whinnied. The Zandalee woman gave him a nod.
“You will come to our tribe’s land and tell me everything you know.”
“Thank you.” Chun shared smiles with his family before mounting his horse and following, filled with a zing of energy and gratitude.
Duke Gulfton’s family had owned the southernmost piece of Lochlanach waterlands for countless generations, bordering Kalor. He’d always been fair to the villagers who resided on his lands, collecting not a copper more in taxes than was necessary. He’d been loyal to King Charles and his father before him, just as Duke Gulfton’s father had been to the kings of old. He’d lived a prosperous life of respect. He never thought he’d see the day when his soul would slip into the slimy depths of the sea.
His joints creaked from traveling as he walked the sprawling overgrown lawn from his grand home to their sturdy docks. His land and everything about it was too quiet. Too empty. His home, like everywhere else in Lochlanach, had become a hopeless place with no security. A place that hardly felt like a home any longer.
Normally the duke would ask his grandson to ready the boat for him, but he hadn’t seen the boy in nearly two months. His eyes watered at the thought. Duke Gulfton’s aching legs took much longer to walk the long dock of his property than they used to. When he got to the end, he struggled to lower his boat, using all his might to crank the tight wheel until his vessel was in the water.
He climbed aboard, grasping the rail to keep from falling, and cursing all the while. Once aboard he set the sail, taking breaks to breathe.One last time, he told himself. Finally, the sails were set and he was headed south to the part of the shore where Lochlanach met Kalor. He steered the vessel until hecame to the place with the statue on the shore that signaled the border. And then he turned another crank to lower the anchor.
Duke Gulfton stared toward the milky statue that he knew to be a giant sea gull carved from stone, but his old eyes could no longer make out the details. In the time of King Charles’s father, it had been given to King Kalieno of Kalor as a sign of peace.
So much for that offering. Duke Gulfton laughed drily until it became a cough that racked his entire thin frame and made him ache all over.
Moments later a much grander vessel of dark wood showed itself around the corner of land, heading directly toward him. The duke stared, his heart full of hatred. The boat slowed as it neared, and sidled up next to his, allowing dark-skinned shirtless men to tie the vessels together. Then a man stepped aboard and strode toward the duke. His hair was smooth and straight to his elbows. He wore a bright green tunic buttoned up the side, and came to stand before Duke Gulfton with his hands comfortably clasped behind his back.
“My men saw your signal of smoke from your chimney. What news have you, old sir?”
Duke Gulfton wanted nothing more than to bash this man’s head with his cane. Instead he gritted his teeth and practically snarled.
“The princess has returned. She is at the castle now. She is opening the royal lands tomorrow and allowing Lashed towork their magic on anyone in need. They’re pulling all the troops from towns and focusing them on royal lands and the Kalorian border. That is all I know.”
The royal Kalorian lifted an eyebrow. “Indeed?”
“Aye, indeed,” the duke said gruffly. “You said once she returned that would be my last message. I’ve done my part. Now release my grandson back to me.” He held his staff tightly and gave it a single bang on the wooden deck at his feet. He’d watched as these fiends killed his son and daughter-in-law two months ago in his own home. And then they’d taken his grandson.
“You have done well, good sir. The boy shall certainly be released. Just as soon as you perform one final task.”
Duke Gulfton was stifled by the words. He wanted to crumple. “You said this was my last task!”
“Ah, but things have changed,” the Kalorian said calmly.
The duke lifted his cane, pointed it at the man’s chest, and said through gritted teeth, “I will do nothing more until I see my grandson again!”
The Kalorian shed his calmness as his eyes brimmed with annoyance. He called something in Kalorian over his shoulder. On the dark vessel, a Kalorian tribesman brought out a twelve-year-old lad, hands bound and mouth gagged. The boy’s eyes bulged when he saw Duke Gulfton and he bent, crying and reaching for him.
Duke Gulfton lifted a hand across the expanse. His grandson! For the past month he’d begun to wonder if it was all aruse. If they’d really killed the lad and he’d been a traitor for nothing. Seeing him now filled Duke Gulfton with a sweet waterfall of relief. The boy was all he had.
“All right,” he said weakly. “Let me have him, please. I’ll do whatever you want.”
The Kalorian man chuckled and flicked his wrist toward the tribesman. He said something and the man disappeared belowdecks with the boy again. Duke Gulfton cried out.
“You shall have him soon enough. Now listen closely.”
Chapter
27
With each day that passed without the king and queen being found, Wyneth felt her cousin’s anxiety rising. The tension and stress within the castle was stifling.
“Where are you going?” Lord Alvi called from behind Wyneth as she donned her warm cloak again. She nearly told him she was only going for a walk, but considering the current circumstances there was no room for deception between any of them.
She spoke quietly. “Aerity and Harrison took one of Rozaria’s baby beasts when they escaped—”
