was dimly lit behind him. Dawn light filtered through the tall balcony doors.

'The Fate is a great source of power, a channel for Affinity. It calls to me. Ah, there…' Tyro whispered. 'Now, I'll wake its sleeping owner. I…' he stiffened. His face twisted in a grimace of shock, then pain.

Without another word, he toppled sideways across Piro's knees. Her foenix gave an indignant cry and darted aside.

At the touch of Tyro's flesh on hers, a powerful force swamped Piro and she felt herself being sucked under.

'Piro?' Isolt lunged across the carpet.

Dimly, Piro felt Isolt catch her shoulders, shake her, call her… to no avail.

Smack. A palm collided with her cheek, then another and another. Shock and pain made her eyes fill with tears.

As suddenly as it had begun, it was over. Tyro rolled off her lap onto the floor. Face down, he struggled to push himself up, arms trembling. The wyvern watched them all, tail lashing from side to side like a vexed cat.

'Are you two all right?' Isolt whispered. 'What happened, Piro?'

Piro looked to Tyro, who pushed his hair from his face with a shaking hand.

'It was an enemy Power-worker. He nearly had me.' Tyro raised shocked black eyes to them. 'You two saved me, distracted him long enough for me to gather my defences.'

'But you were looking for Fyn,' Isolt protested.

'Does that mean he's been captured by a renegade Power-worker?' Piro demanded.

'I found the Fate. I didn't find your brother.'

'Fyn's dead?' Isolt went pale.

'No. At least, I don't know.' Tyro confessed. 'The Fate has fallen under the power of an enemy.'

'Fyn wouldn't give it up without a fight. It belonged to the abbey,' Piro insisted. 'Something has happened to him, maybe to both my brothers.'

'I fear so,' Tyro agreed.

'We must wake the mage and tell him,' Isolt decided, coming to her feet.

Piro and Tyro exchanged looks.

'I'll tell him,' Tyro offered. 'He hates being woken. No need for you two to catch the sharp edge of his tongue.'

'It wouldn't worry me,' Isolt said.

Piro stood and slid her arm through Isolt's. 'I think we should let Tyro tell him. Let the mage deal with the enemy Power-worker.'

Isolt saw the sense of this. 'Come, Loyalty. Breakfast.' She turned to Tyro. 'But if there is any news you must send for us.'

He nodded and gave Piro a grateful look.

Fyn woke to the soft padding of heavy feet. A terrible sense of dread swamped him. He smelled wyverns and heard their harsh breath as they exhaled. They stalked him.

He could see nothing, but he felt the stone under his hands and knees. Crawling along, he came to a wall and stood up. By the feel of it, he was in the caverns under the abbey. His hand grazed the embossed wyvern symbol and he fingered its shape. Follow the wyvern to get out, the abbot had said. He had to escape the wyverns. Terror rose up in him, threatening to choke him.

Think!

How had he become lost down here? Where were the others?

Every time he tried to focus and find the answers, he came up against a kind of mental bruise that made him wince and gasp.

What was going on?

The soft padding of wyvern feet on the stone and their acrid smell came to him. No time to think. He must run.

Follow the wyvern to escape the wyvern. If he kept that fixed in his mind he would be safe. Fyn ran.

And kept running.

Byren woke to find himself tied across a horse's saddle. His head ached. With each lurch of the horse's back his gorge threatened to rise. He couldn't breathe through his nose and suspected it was broken.

Men on horseback rode around him, visible in the light of the setting sun. He recalled waking more than once, tied across this horse's back. Each time he'd woken they'd knocked him senseless.

Now, judging by his upside-down glimpse of the world, they were nearing the top of the steep switch-back road that led to Rolenhold.

He bit back a groan as it all came back to him.

He'd been captured. He'd failed Fyn and Orrade. Soon he would face his traitorous cousin, Cobalt, and execution.

At least Florin was safe. He hoped she was safe.

Merofynians cheered as the returning warriors entered the castle courtyard. Someone jumped down and reached under the horse, cutting the rope that held him in place. They shoved him and he slid backwards off the horse, staggering, arms still tied at the wrist. His knees almost gave way. But he found his feet and looked up, blinking blood from his eyes.

Behind the cheering Merofynians, he saw the silent, sad faces of his father's people, watching from vantage points around the courtyard. They'd put their hopes in him. He'd failed them and now they were a subjugated people, slaves in their own land.

Lord Leon shoved Byren between his shoulder blades, driving him ahead of them into the stronghold, through King Rolen's great hall and up the stairs to the trophy chamber.

Here, his cousin waited across the other side of the war table, which had been shifted from its original room. He wore royal Rolencian red in the Ostronite style — nipped waist, lace at the collar and wrists. One sleeve hung loose and his long hair was threaded with red garnets, so that it gleamed in a shaft of setting sun that streamed through the oriel window.

Behind him, to one side, stood a Mulcibar monk, perhaps the very one who had sent the fire to consume Narrowneck and the warlord of Leogryf Spar.

Once, Byren had been blind to Affinity, but now he could sense power exuding from the monk's skin, so he had to be a mystic. Avoiding the monk's unnerving black gaze, Byren vowed to give Cobalt no satisfaction. He wouldn't plead for his life.

'A present for you, King Cobalt,' Lord Leon said. 'The pretender, Byren Kingson.'

So he was a pretender now? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

Cobalt looked him up and down. 'Not so fine now, are you, cousin Byren?' A cruel smile lit his handsome face. 'Looks like I've won this game of Duelling Kingdoms!'

As Byren stood, hands bound in front of him, he did not regret trying to avenge his parents and brother's murders. But he did regret failing the men who had followed him. At least Piro still lived and she knew Cobalt for the treacherous liar he was. Which reminded him…

'The game's not over until the king takes a queen,' Byren said. 'Piro will never marry you. My mother cut off your arm. Piro will cut off your — '

'I'll cut out your tongue!' Cobalt lunged across the war table, grabbing Byren's vest, pulling him off balance and jerking him forwards so that their faces were only a hand's breadth apart. 'I'll cut off your balls and see how cocky you are then! Won't that make your lover weep?'

Byren's stomach lurched. Death he could face, disfigurement and torture he dreaded.

Mulcibar's mystic touched Cobalt's shoulder. It was enough to make Cobalt release Byren with a shove, so that he fell backwards, into Lord Leon's arms.

'How is Orrade, by the way?' Cobalt asked. 'Did you know he spied for me, reporting on your every move?'

'I know that's a lie.' Just as Byren knew denying Orrade was his lover would achieve nothing. 'And I know the people of Rolencia will never accept you as their rightful king, not as long as Piro could be their queen.'

'Speaking of queens…' Cobalt sneered. 'You'll never get the chance to claim Isolt. Palatyne has plans for her. And,' he glanced to the mystic, 'as much as I'd like to spike your head over the main gate of Rolenhold, Palatyne

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