The Shadow's heir

that you faced your doom if you did not obey.

“Yes, I knew.”

Yet you disobeyed me all the same.

“Yes.”

The Night God sighed. Do you still wish to serve me?

“I serve my people,” said Arenadd.

Then serve them now, said the Night God. The sickle rose, pointing straight at Laela. Kill her.

Laela got up and tried to run, but the mist still filled the clearing, and she couldn’t escape from it. She was trapped. “No! Let me go!”

Arenadd turned to look at her. “Master. .”

Do it, said the Night God. You know what she is. She must be killed.

Arenadd didn’t move. “But I-”

Kill her! the Night God repeated. Kill her, and your sins will be forgiven. Kill her, and you shall have your Kingdom back. Kill her, and all will be well.

Laela didn’t dare go closer, but she held out a hand to Arenadd. “Please,” she said. “Don’t kill me. Please, Arenadd.”

Do it, said the Night God. I command it.

Arenadd turned and looked her in the face. “I refuse.”

The Night God’s hand lashed out, hurling him across the clearing like a doll. He landed at Laela’s feet.

Laela knelt and helped him. “Arenadd! Please no-”

The Night God lifted the full moon and put it into the hole in her face, making a new and terrible eye. You know the price for your failure, she said, very calmly.

Arenadd raised his head. “Yes. I know it.”

Then obey me! The Night God pointed at Laela. She is the last of those I commanded you to kill. The last of the line of Baragher the Blessed. Her blue eyes are an insult and a blasphemy to me. She must die!

Arenadd struggled to get up. “Master, she’s only a child. She’s been a great help to me, and to my people. Without her-”

I warn you one last time, Arenadd, said the Night God. If she lives, she will take all you have. She will cost you everything, and you will be made nothing.

Arenadd got up and faced his master, one last time. “I don’t care what the cost is. I won’t kill her. Not now, not for anything.”

She is of the blood of Rannagon, who murdered you! She is-

“No!” Arenadd stood tall, facing her with the last of his strength. “I know who she is now. You knew, and you never told me. You lied to me.”

Kill her!

“She’s Arren Cardockson’s daughter,” said Arenadd. He put a hand on Laela’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “She’s his daughter,” he said again, more quietly. “She looks just like him. Poor Arren.”

Laela’s shock was too much to make her stay silent. “My father? You knew my-”

The Night God’s anger faded, and a terrible calm came over her. If you will not obey me, then I do not need you any more.

Arenadd pushed Laela aside and darted away from her. “Laela, get away-”

The Night God caught him, lifting him in one hand as if he weighed nothing, and plunged the point of her sickle into his chest. A deep hole opened over his heart, but no blood came out.

Instead, black mist poured out into the night. The Night God gathered it up in her hand and swallowed it, dropping Arenadd to the ground as if he were nothing but rubbish to be thrown away.

And then she was gone.

Laela rubbed her eyes, blinking in confusion. The clearing was full of nothing but snow and rocks-no mist, no light. It was as if nothing had happened. But she knew it had when she found Arenadd lying in the snow. There wasn’t a mark on him.

Laela touched his face. “Arenadd. Arenadd, wake up!”

His eyes opened slowly, and he peered at her. “Laela.”

She almost sobbed in relief. “Yer all right! I thought. .”

“Laela.” His good hand reached into his robe, and dragged out a small scroll. He thrust it into her hand.

Laela took it. “What’s this?”

Arenadd’s hand dropped onto the snow. “Give. . Saeddryn,” he whispered, and his eyes slid closed.

Laela stuffed the scroll into her clothes and shook him gently by the shoulder. “Arenadd. Arenadd! Wake up! Open yer eyes, damn it!”

He didn’t move. Laela ran her hands over him, searching for any sign of injuries.

There was a wet patch on the front of his robe. She pulled it open, and took her hands away at once. “What. .?”

The old wound left by Erian Rannagonson’s sword had opened once more and begun to bleed. And as Laela watched, it happened before her eyes: Slowly, one by one, every one of Arenadd’s old scars re-opened. Blood trickled down his arms and onto the snow, turning it red.

Laela pulled at the edge of her gown, trying to use it to stop the flow, but she may as well have tried to dam a river. The blood soaked into the cloth and kept on coming, more and more of it. Arenadd’s skin turned grey, and then as white as the snow that had begun to drift down from the sky.

A sickening crack broke the silence. And then another, and another. Arenadd jerked slightly and gasped. His eyes opened.

Laela touched his face. “Arenadd. Arenadd, can yeh hear me?”

His eyes rolled back into his head, and he jerked again as more awful cracks rifled through his body.

And then it was over.

Sobbing, Laela put a hand on his chest.

She screamed.

Arenadd’s eyes opened slightly. “Bran,” he whispered.

“Arenadd.” Laela sobbed harder. “Arenadd, I felt a heartbeat. I felt a-”

Arenadd stirred, but he could not move. His arms and legs were bent at horrible, unnatural angles. Barely audibly, he said, “Arren.”

Laela lifted him as gently as she could, cradling his head in her lap. “What is it? Arenadd, what is it? What should I do?”

Blood gurgled in his chest, and trickled out of his mouth. “I. . am. . Arren.”

It was the last thing he ever said.

Quietly, watched over by the moon and mourned by his daughter, Arren Cardockson died.

31

The Shadow Walks

Nearly a month after Saeddryn’s cousin disappeared, when the people had finally accepted that he was not going to return, the day of Saeddryn’s coronation as Queen of Tara had finally arrived.

Few people protested. Arenadd had lost a lot of popularity after his refusal to invade the South, and even more after he’d gone away to Amoran, “abandoning” his Kingdom in the process. Saeddryn was what they wanted now, and she was happy to oblige.

A platform had been built, just outside the gates of the Eyrie, for the ceremony. Everyone in the city could come. Saeddryn had thought of that; she wanted her coronation to be for everyone, great or small.