The Shadow's heir

much room on his shoulders, and she had to sit pressed up against Arenadd’s back, with very little room to move. Being this close to him made her feel as if she was intruding on him in some way. And despite his thick robe she could feel how painfully thin he was underneath it, and that didn’t do much to make her feel better.

Well, he invited me to sit here, so he doesn’t mind, she told herself.

She still felt embarrassed.

They were in the air for a long time, and making conversation was more or less impossible. Laela occupied herself with looking at the view and watching the other griffins when they came into view, but holding on took more effort than she’d expected. It was tiring, too.

They had been flying long enough for her to start worrying that she was going to fall off, when Skandar abruptly came down to land. He touched down in a large open field, and did it with enough of a thump that Laela fell off him, hitting the ground in a painful and humiliating heap.

A moment later, Arenadd had appeared and was hauling her to her feet. “Are you all right?”

Laela rubbed her numb legs. “Legs’ve gone t’sleep.”

“Yes, that happens on long flights. Walk around a bit; that should wake them up again.”

She looked around at the field, where the other griffins were landing, too. “Where is this?”

Arenadd stretched. “Somewhere in Lady Hafwyn’s lands, if I’m any judge.”

“The Governor of Warwick,” Laela recalled. “Why have we landed here? This just looks like farmland t’me.”

“So the griffins can rest, of course,” said Arenadd. Behind him, Skandar had lain down and was idly grooming his wings. “They’re not built to fly long distances, especially with a load on their back. We’ll set out again when they’re ready.”

At that moment, Oeka landed lightly on the grass beside her human. She nudged Laela’s hand roughly, and chirped. Laela rubbed the griffin’s head with her knuckles. Oeka pushed back briefly and then looked away, observing the other griffins.

“How long’ll it take us to get to the coast?” Laela asked.

“Hm? Oh, not long. A day or so at most. We’ll stop at Warwick tonight. So, are you excited about seeing the sea?”

Laela nodded and grinned. “It’s the part I’m lookin’ forward to the most.”

“There’s Amoran still to come,” Arenadd pointed out.

“Yeah, I’ve decided to get excited about that once I’m done with the sea,” said Laela. “If that’s all right.”

Arenadd chuckled. “Planning your own levels of excitement ahead of time-now that’s good organisation.”

They spent most of the rest of the day like that-flying, resting, and then flying again, following the River Snow. That evening, they reached Warwick, a big, walled city built by the river and surrounded by thick, fortified walls-a relic of wars older than the one that had made him King, Arenadd said. At Warwick they were greeted by Lady Hafwyn-an old, silver-haired griffiner who Arenadd said was a veteran of the Dark Wars and one of the first to join his cause.

“Technically, I joined her cause,” he added over dinner. “Hafwyn was one of the rebels who survived the uprising led by Saeddryn’s mother, Arddryn senior, and hid in the mountains with her. They’d been there for years, waiting for their opportunity to fight again.”

“An’ then you came along,” Laela supplemented.

Arenadd nodded. “Skandar and I, and Skade. Fugitives from Southern justice. We were hoping to hide in the mountains, and we found someone had already done it.”

Laela looked up, immediately interested. “What had yeh done, that you were runnin’ away from?”

Arenadd picked up his cup. “I committed murder,” he said, quite calmly.

She faltered at that. “Why. .? I mean, who was it?”

“Man called Lord Rannagon Raegonson,” said Arenadd, still casual. “He was one of the leaders who put down Arddryn’s rebellion.” He paused. “He was the first man I ever killed. I slit his throat with a broken sword.”

Laela withdrew from him very slightly while he spoke. It’s too easy, she thought grimly. She watched him as he ate, pausing briefly to exchange a few words with the man on his other side. So normal. Too easy, to forget what he is. What he’s done. He acts. . he doesn’t act like a murderer.

Laela paused at that. How’s a murderer supposed to act, anyway? her inner voice wondered.

“So, yeh found Arddryn in the mountains,” she prompted.

Arenadd turned his attention back to her. “Yes, and she told me she’d been waiting for me. Another Taranisaii-her younger brother’s grandson, come back out of the South to find her. Or so she thought.”

Laela had heard of the famous Arddryn Taranisaii by now, from various people back in Malvern. “What was she like?”

“Very old,” said Arenadd. “But she was as tough as her daughter. She had a missing eye, and a horrible scar across her face. Courtesy of Lord Rannagon’s sword,” he added. “Of course, the fact that I had killed him made the rebels like me very, very much. Isn’t that right, Hafwyn?”

“Eh?” the elderly Northerner looked up from her food.

“I was just telling my young apprentice here how pleased you and your friends were when you found out what I did to Lord Rannagon,” said Arenadd, raising his voice.

Hafwyn grinned, showing numerous missing teeth. “So we were!” she said. “None of us’d forgotten that old bastard. How could we, seein’ what he did to Arddryn’s face every day?”

Several others there had been listening, and now one of them raised his cup. “To Lord Rannagon!” he said. “May he stay dead forever!”

The other diners cheered raucously, many yelling what sounded like curses in Northern.

Arenadd raised his cup, too. “To Lord Rannagon,” he repeated, and drank. “And to his son, and to his daughter,” he added in an undertone.

Laela had heard him. “So Arddryn wanted-”

“She expected me to take her place and start a new rebellion, with Saeddryn at my side. I was reluctant at first, but. . well, those mountains-at Taranis’ Throne-that was where I first saw the Night God, and she told me what my purpose was. That was when I knew what I had to do.”

“And Arddryn?”

“She died,” said Arenadd. “Not long after I came. She thought. . well, that’s a story for another time. Her partner is still alive, though. She lives in the Hatchery and teaches the youngsters griffish lore. Remind me to introduce you to her when we get back.”

They ate in silence for a while.

“Arenadd?”

“Yes?”

“Yeh said somethin’ about Lord Rannagon havin’ a son an’ a daughter,” said Laela.

“Yes, what of it?”

“You killed their father,” said Laela. “Didn’t they. . wait a moment, wasn’t. .?”

“Yes, one of them came after me,” said Arenadd. “His bastard son, Erian. He wanted revenge, and he came all the way to Malvern, looking for it.”

“An’ you killed him.”

“Yes. His sister, too.”

“His entire family,” Laela muttered. “Sweet gods.”

Arenadd sighed. “Not his entire family, actually. Not quite. The Night God wanted it, but. .”

Laela finally recalled the rest of what he had said that awful night. “Flell had a child. Yeh didn’t kill it.”

“No, and the Night God never forgave me for it,” said Arenadd. He looked her in the face, his expression serious. “He’ll be back one day, you know.”

“Who?”

“The child. He’s out there, somewhere. He’ll be a man by now. Sometimes, I wonder what he looks like and