The Shadow's heir

expressions of disbelief slowly spreading over their faces.

For Laela, it was beyond imagining

Skandar rushed over the decks like a massive wave, all claws and talons and enormous beak. Men fell in front of him like blades of grass. Most of the time, the dark griffin didn’t even bother to kill them-he simply knocked them over and then crushed them under his paws as he charged on, straight at the wheel and the man holding it. The man in question made a run for it the instant he saw Skandar coming, but there was nowhere near enough room to dodge, and for his size, the griffin was astonishingly fast. He caught up with the fleeing Amorani and his beak snapped shut around the man’s chest.

Laela heard the sound of breaking bones from all the way over on the deck of the Seabreath.

But Skandar didn’t have the fight all to himself. Arenadd was at the other end of the ship, apparently oblivious to his partner’s slaughter. A gang of pirates had rushed him, obviously hoping to overwhelm him by sheer weight of numbers. For a moment Arenadd disappeared among the press of bodies, and Laela feared the worst.

Then she saw the pirates begin to fall. Arenadd appeared, standing on a dead man’s chest, his sickle scattering drops of blood as he flicked it expertly at another man’s throat. He fought with unbelievable speed, but methodically, like a man who was immune to excitement or fear. He took several blows but didn’t react to them at all.

The ship, listing crazily as Skandar unbalanced it, drifted closer to the Seabreath, and Laela could hear the screams.

Then, as quickly as it had begun, the fight was over. The surviving pirates dropped their weapons and fell to their knees, holding up their hands in surrender.

Laela relaxed. “My gods,” she said. “He’s done it. He’s. .”

Her voice faded away. Arenadd stepped off the dead man and walked slowly toward the cowering pirates. Skandar, bloodied but apparently unhurt, came to join him. Arenadd spoke to him, pointing at his prisoners. Skandar rasped back.

Arenadd nodded, and with a quick, graceful blow, slashed a man’s throat from ear to ear.

“No!”

Laela’s shout was drowned out by the screams and yells.

The defenceless Amoranis were trying in vain to escape, screaming what had to be pleas for mercy. Arenadd chased them and cut them down one by one, pausing occasionally to torment one with the point of his sickle before finally slitting his throat.

Laela realised that he was laughing.

Skandar joined in the sadistic game, lolloping after the victims like an oversized kitten chasing butterflies.

When it was over, and not one single man was left alive on deck, Arenadd went into the cabin and then belowdecks. Left to his own devices, Skandar settled down and began to eat the corpses-tearing at them as if they were no different than the goats and sheep Laela had seen him dismember back at Malvern.

Afterward, when Arenadd returned to the Seabreath, Laela didn’t recognise him at all. His hair was matted with blood, and more blood had stained his bare torso. It dripped from his sickle onto the deck. And from his fingers.

But it wasn’t the blood she noticed. It wasn’t the blood that made him unrecognisable.

His eyes, normally so cold and calm, were burning. The impassive face was locked into a fierce and terrible smile. He looked alive in a way that he never had before. But he didn’t look like a man any more, either.

Laela backed away from him, her inner voice locked into an endless nonsensical loop. By mistake she kissed a snake, by mistake she kissed a snake. .

Arenadd didn’t seem to notice her. “The ship’s ours,” he said to Lord Vander, quite casually. “Mostly intact, too, along with its supplies. They’ve got a lot of valuable loot in the hold. Consider it a gift for the Emperor from me.”

Vander’s expression was guarded. “Thank you, Sire. We had better send men over to clear away the bodies and attach the ship to ours.”

“Of course.” Arenadd nodded. “Now I’m going to go and clean myself up.” He walked off.

Laela couldn’t help it-she went over to the other ship once the sailors had pulled it closer with ropes and made a makeshift walkway between the two vessels.

Once there, she walked around the deck as if in a dream.

In many places, it was slippery with blood.

Belowdecks, she saw far worse. There had been other people down there-wounded men and others unable to fight. Some of them looked as if they had been prisoners of the pirates.

Arenadd had killed them all.

Laela’s numbed mind managed to note that no-one around her looked particularly bothered. Only some of the younger men showed signs of unease. The older ones-the ones she knew must be veterans of the war-acted as if nothing unusual had happened.

They must have seen this kind of thing before.

Laela couldn’t bear to see any more, and went back up onto the deck, where Oeka was idly grooming.

The green-eyed griffin gave her the keen look she had come to know so well. “You are pale. Did you see things you did not like?”

Laela strained to understand her. “Everyone. . is. . killed. .” She gave up, and reverted to Cymrian. “Everyone down there’s dead. Even the people locked up in the little prison thing. He killed ’em all.”

Oeka flicked her tail in displeasure. “I have told you to use griffish when you speak to me.”

Laela ignored her. She noticed the cabin-its door hanging open as Arenadd had left it. Nobody had gone in there yet.

She knew it was a bad idea, but once again she couldn’t help herself. She walked toward it, bracing herself for what she might find inside.

The inside of the cabin wasn’t that much different from her own quarters back on the Seabreath. Somehow, that made the sight of it so much worse. She took in the furniture and the decorations-all made in unfamiliar styles that she knew must be Amorani. They were strange, but beautiful.

She wondered what colour the rug had been, before it had been dyed with blood.

There were two bodies there, one lying near the door and the other slumped over the table. Both of them had had their throats cut.

They died quickly, Laela thought distantly. He killed them quickly. He didn’t. .

Her inner voice died away as she saw the lumpy object by the fireplace, covered in blood.

There was more blood nearby, leaking out of what looked like a wooden cage.

Laela never knew why she looked closer, or where she found the will, but she looked.

She never looked more closely at the thing by the fireplace. Not once she had seen the wisp of hair and the tiny ear showing through the blood.

She left the body of the child and investigated the cradle.

The baby inside had been cut almost in half.

When Laela returned to her cabin she found Arenadd there. He had cleaned the blood off himself and put on fresh clothes, and was sitting by the empty fireplace and peacefully reading a book.

“Hullo!” he said, in cheerful tones. “Have you looked at the treasure yet? If you see anything you like, feel free to take it-I’ve told them you’re allowed to.”

Whatever she’d meant to say fell out of her brain when she saw him, looking so normal and happy. “I. . ain’t looked yet.”

“Well, go ahead if you want to.” He paused. “Something you want to talk about?”

Laela found her voice again. “Why did yeh kill the baby?” she said. “An’ the child?”

Arenadd looked blank. “What?”

“I went on the ship,” said Laela. “I saw it.” Her face twisted with anguish. “I know they was gonna attack us