Quintana of Charyn

that fractured lake. A Serker lad on his Serker horse.

And as the world behind them caved in, Froi wrote his bond. The one to live by. The one that would keep him on Beast as they raced to a place where the earth beneath their feet was solid. He wrote his bond with a name. And then another and another and another. Of every person he loved and would be condemned to never see again if he let go. He didn’t know how long it took, but the list was long and it kept him warm and clinging to life.

And later, in his half-conscious state, he felt hands grab him and drag him from the horse, but he needed to burrow, he needed to keep warm, and he heard the sobs and his clothes were ripped from him and he was numb again and Tariq was there once more and so was the Reginita’s voice telling him to stay away.

She’s not here, Froi! She needs you there.

He thought he heard Arjuro’s voice. ‘Keep him warm, his body is letting go,’ and then Froi felt the heat as they held onto him tight, until he drifted off to a sleep where he could find her, where he could hold her in his arms and feel the roundness of her belly between them.

‘We’ll be his cocoon,’ she said, her voice always cold, but her words flaming with the heat of emotion, ‘and he’ll never doubt he was loved, regardless of everything.’

Chapter 24

Finnikin spent the day with Isaboe and Jasmina visiting the Flatlands. There had been much change these past months with Beatriss’s people moving to Fenton and the Priest-king opening a shrinehouse in her old village of Sennington. Who would have believed contentment could come to the area after so much upheaval?

‘August and Abian are meeting us in Sennington for supper with blessed Barakah,’ Isaboe said to Beatriss. ‘Why don’t you join us?’

Beatriss’s smile was bittersweet.

‘Trevanion’s home tonight and Vestie does love our nights together, so perhaps another time.’

Finnikin could see his father from the window. ‘There are a lot of hardworking lads out there, Beatriss,’ he said, watching Perri and Trevanion working with the Fenton lot in the fields. The younger lads were full of vigour.

Beatriss peered over his shoulder. ‘Well, the fact is that the lads do work hard, but not as much as when Trevanion’s home. Then every young man seems to break their back for his attention. As though he’s recruiting for the Guard.’

‘And how is life with my father?’ he teased.

‘What I’ve seen of him?’ she said, returning to fuss over Isaboe with currant cake. Everyone in the Flatlands felt a great need to feed his wife today. For the baby, they’d whispered to him.

‘Your father instructs the Guard and they do what he says,’ Beatriss said. ‘He instructs Vestie and she wants an explanation of the why and the why not. They love each other dearly, but he’s not used to having to explain his instructions.’

Finnikin laughed. ‘My father was never good at the why and the why not.’

‘And how is Vestie faring?’ Isaboe asked. Finnikin could see Beatriss’s daughter carrying Jasmina on her back around the fields, always staying close to Trevanion.

Beatriss grimaced. ‘I can’t lie. She asks at every single opportunity if she can go to Lucian’s mountain and down that valley. I asked her the other day if it was Tesadora she missed and she said …’

Beatriss hesitated.

‘What?’ Isaboe asked.

‘She said, “I miss them both. I miss her and I miss my friend, Kintana.”’

Soon after, Trevanion entered the kitchen with Vestie and Jasmina to find some string to mark out the rose garden he had promised to plant with the little girls, in remembrance of Lord Selric’s daughters who once lived there.

‘I thought you were on leave, Trevanion,’ Isaboe said. ‘You’re supposed to rest.’

‘There’s too much work to be done,’ he said, reaching over Beatriss’s shoulder for a slice of cake. ‘Some wives buy trinkets and cloth. Mine buys a village.’

Beatriss laughed. She looked tired from the responsibility, but happy, and Finnikin knew that she would enjoy a reprieve these next few days with Trevanion home. By the entrance, Perri hovered. He was more agitated since they had arrived back from Charyn. No, perhaps not agitated, but withdrawn. Today he was Jasmina’s guard and he watched her like a hawk. Fenton was a beehive of activity with villagers coming and going and the guard was at times overly cautious.

Beatriss’s bailiff came to the door soon after and she disappeared for a while to sort out an issue with one of the cottagers, while Trevanion took the two little girls with him to plant the rose garden.

‘Come and sit, Perri,’ Isaboe said when it was just the three of them left in the room. She had a strange relationship with Trevanion’s second-in-charge. In those months they were all together in exile, Perri had doubted her the most, but once she had proven her worth, he was steadfast in his allegiance to her. She had once told Finnikin that no guard made her feel safer. But perhaps the situation between Tesadora and Isaboe had altered things between them both.

‘You want to speak to me,’ she said. It was a statement rather than a question.

‘What makes you think that, Your Majesty?’ Perri asked quietly.

‘You hover whenever you want to speak to me and then you wait until everyone is gone and you speak. Even if it’s about the weather. Or your concern about Jasmina’s safety. Or about an idea you have to include the Forest Dwellers in the Flatland villages’ harvest time.’

Perri didn’t respond.

‘Am I not right?’ she asked.

There was a ghost of a smile on Perri’s face. ‘You’re always right, my queen.’

‘See there,’ Isaboe said, looking at Finnikin and pointing at Perri. ‘There is a clever, clever man.’

Perri sat down, but still didn’t speak until finally Finnikin stood, knowing there would be no talk today in his presence.

‘I’ll see what my father’s doing,’ he said with a sigh.

‘No. Stay, Finn,’ Perri said.

Finnikin was glad to, and he caught the quick flash of concern in Isaboe’s eyes.

Perri swallowed hard. ‘I feel as if I’m breaking a confidence here, but she never quite confided in me, so perhaps it’s my truth I speak of today as well.’

Finnikin somehow knew Perri was speaking of Tesadora.

‘We were enemies all our young lives … Tesadora and I,’ Perri said, ‘and then when we reached fifteen … well, you can imagine. We still hated each other and hardly ever exchanged a word, but I’d know where to find her in the forest and she’d know what I was there for.’ He shook his head. ‘It was madness, and regardless of what we got up to out there among that bracken, we were both filled with hate for each other and everyone else in this kingdom. Until the day I came across Trevanion. You were newly born, Finn, and your father had lost your mother, Bartolina. And he put all his trust in me.’ Perri looked away. ‘Me.’ He shook his head. ‘You both do it now with the little Princess and sometimes I want to warn you that there’s something base inside of me. How could you trust me with that precious creature?’

‘You never need ask that, Perri,’ Isaboe said, reaching out to take his hand. He moved it away. Perri wasn’t much for touching and emotions.

‘Were you still with Tesadora when my father made Trevanion captain?’ Isaboe asked.

Perri nodded. ‘We were aged twenty at the time. I lived in the barracks with the rest of the Guard, and when I was on leave, I’d ride out to the forest and share her bed. It was nothing more than that, I’d tell myself. Tesadora would say it as well. “Don’t read more into this than what it is.” Through Trevanion and my place in the Guard, I’d been introduced to respectable women, but I was always drawn back to her. We’d do cruel things to each other, but she reminded me of your father, Finn. She knew exactly what I was, but still saw some good. I began to see my worth through both their eyes.’