City of the Mer by DJ Edwards

Author:DJ Edwards [Edwards, DJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781717794703
Published: 2018-08-13T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

The nervous, angry muttering of the minotaurs surrounding Freya reflected the way she herself felt about the envoy that had been sent by King Dreng. No one seemed to know the identity of the emissary, only that he had arrived in the early hours of the morning under the cover of darkness and was now closeted in the newly constructed Great Hall with Alberich, for Clan Iron Axe, and Eggther, who now, reluctantly, spoke for Clan Lion Claw. Freya had half expected to be invited to the meeting herself, until she remembered where she was. Queen Arlana might invite her to counsels, but this was the minotaur clans. As impressed her people were with her actions of late, she was still only a lowly female servant.

I wish I were human, she thought to herself. They don’t worry about whether you’re male or female. A tiny voice in the back of her head told her that wasn’t entirely true, but she stubbornly decided to ignore it.

“Freya, what’s happening?”

She looked down at the wide-eyed, excited face of Elphin, the minotaur boy. “I don’t know,” she said. “I’m as much in the dark as everybody else.”

“But you should be in there with them. You’re Freya Fire Bane.”

“I’m not invited to the meetings, Elphin, I’m… wait a minute; I’m Freya what?!”

“Freya Fire Bane,” Elphin said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “When the Fire demons tried to burn the Warren and devour all the human children, you defeated them because fire has no power over you. And after many hours of battle you smothered their flames and sent them back to the realms of Darkness and saved the lives of a thousand children. I know, I was there.”

Elphin beamed up at her with such a look of admiration that Freya could only gape back at him in utter amazement at the boy’s interpretation of events.

Before she could even think of an answer to Elphin’s absurd story, the doors to the great hall swung open. All the gathered minotaurs from what remained of Iron Axe and Lion Claw came to an immediate hush as Eggther stepped outside. The old minotaur’s hard face was grim as he silently surveyed the sea of upturned faces before him. Finally, his eyes settled upon Freya, and his face darkened further.

“Freya,” he said, “your presence is requested in the Great Hall.”

All eyes swung from Eggther to rest on her. Most of the faces in the crowd watched her with curiosity, some looked mildly outraged, whilst the younger minotaurs – both male and female – wore satisfied expressions as if all was now right with the world.

Freya swallowed nervously as she edged her way through the crowd towards the waiting Eggther. She was as curious as anyone as to why she had been called, but more than a little uneasy about this breaking of tradition.

She climbed the wooden steps of the Great Hall to stand at Eggther’s side.

“I thought you might have still been at the palace,” he said for her ears only.

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