Derwyn swallowed hard, then raised his arm and cried out in a loud and steady voice, “Long live Emperor Roele!”
There was a moment’s hesitation and then the cry was taken up by the troops of both sides. “Long live Emperor Roele! Roele! Roele!
Roele!”
“Thank the gods,” said Aedan, wearily. “It is over at last. It is finished, Sylvanna.”
But as he turned toward her, she wasn’t there. He glanced all around him, frantically, but he could see no sign of her nor Gylvain. Nor of any of the other elves. It was as if they had melted away into …
“The air,” he murmured, as the wind blew north across the plain.
Booh in THE qORCboN
**chapter one**
Seaharrow was a dismal place in winter, cold and damp and drafty from the fierce winds and storms that constantly blew in off the sea, and Laera hated it. During the summer, the weather was more tolerable, even pleasant, and the society much improved, since the annual Summer Court at Seaharrow was resumed. However, with each summer the old and bitter memories returned in force, along with boiling frustration and resentment, as her brother, Michael, once again arrived at Seaharrow with Aedan Dosiere.
She had come full circle. This was where it had all started. It was the ultimate ignominy that she should wind up here. There wasn’t a place she could go within the castle that did not remind her of a secret tryst with Aedan. The hanging tapestry in the corridor, with the small niche behind it where she and Aedan had coupled passionately; the garden in the courtyard, where they had often met at night; the tower parapet where they had their first encounter; the stables … and the final insult, her own chambers, which had once been Aedan’s when he came to Seaharrow for Summer Court.
Her husband had insisted that she take that room, and nothing she could say would sway him. He must have known. Somehow, he must have learned her secret, though she could not imagine how. The bed she slept in every night was the very bed in which she’d lain with Aedan all those times. It was insufferable. Maddening. But at the same time, it fed her hatred and resentment and firmed her resolve to get revenge.
At first, she couldn’t understand why Derwyn had not denounced her.
When she learned of Michael’s victory over Arwyn, her first emotion had been bitter disappointment, for it meant her plans for Aedan and her own advancement had been thwarted. She cared nothing that Arwyn had been slain, but when she learned Derwyn had survived, panic seized her.
Except for Callador, who had disappeared after news of Arwyn’s defeat had reached Boeruine, Derwyn was the only one who knew of her betrayal.
When she found out Michael had spared him and Derwyn had declared his allegiance to the emperor, she was certain she was undone. Surely Derwyn would denounce her. She had almost fled right then.
But the years and her experience had taught her to be calculating, and after her initial bout of fear, she
had forced herself to settle down and think things through.
There was nothing to stop Derwyn from denouncing her to Michael, except he had no proof. It would have been his word against hers, and despite the fact that she and Michael were not close-they barely even spoke save for those times when formality demanded it-she was still his sister and a princess of Anuire. Derwyn’s position was too precarious for him to risk making such an accusation. He had nothing to gain from it and a great deal to lose. And even if Michael believed him-and there was a possibility he would-he would still not thank him for putting him in the difficult position of having to execute his sister or, at the very least, send her into exile. Her disgrace would be the emperor’s disgrace, as well. It would indelibly tarnish the honor and the reputation of the royal house.
However, there was a chance Derwyn might not have realized that. She barely even knew him, so she had no real way to estimate his character or intellect.
It was possible that in an attempt to ingratiate himself with Michael, he might reveal her betrayal, thinking he was doing the emperor a great service. Or else he might do it to strike back at Michael for having killed his father. There had been no way to know for sure what he would do, but the more Laera thought about it, the more certain she felt that the situation, while it certainly posed potential danger for her, was not nearly as disastrous as it had seemed at first.
Derwyn would either denounce her or would not.
If he did not, then all was well. But if he did, it would still be his word against hers, and the accusation would seem meanspirited and spiteful. And
even if Michael did believe it, it would be to his disadvantage to act upon it. After due consideration, Laera had decided that while there was considerable risk in her position, the odds were still in her favor, so she would brazen it out. But she had not been prepared for what developed. Derwyn had surprised her.
In a ceremony on the parade ground of Anuire, where not only all the people of the city, but both armies had gathered, Michael had formally announced an end to the long civil war. The regions Arwyn had controlled would once more be taken back into the empire, and those who had taken up arms against him, so long as they swore allegiance to the empire, would not be penalized. The goblins of Thurazor, however, would suffer the wrath of Imperial Anuire at some point in the near future, which Michael did not specify.
