Daindreth's Empress by Elisabeth Wheatley

Author:Elisabeth Wheatley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Elisabeth Wheatley
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

♦♦♦

Daindreth and Thadred suspected that Vesha was headed toward a mine. Amira wasn’t sure what could be in that mine and neither was Sair, but they seemed to be right.

The next day, the trail of the cythraul continued in a haphazard fashion across the land. It seemed that the creatures were taking the shortest possible route toward the mine, if that was indeed their destination.

Amira rode with Tapios and several of her assigned soldiers. The army extended before and behind them. The lieutenant assigned to lead them was a young man named Vansen. He was probably a year or two younger than Amira, but Westfall seemed to think highly of him. He was newly made a knight, from a minor noble family.

Someday, perhaps Amira would have more sorceresses in her contingent, but for now she just had Sair and a few rangers. If Vansen was uncomfortable around them, he hid it remarkably well. Some of the other knights hid it less well, but Vansen seemed to take this warrior empress and her strange group of magic users in stride.

“This will strengthen my shield?” Vansen asked as Sair traced lines over it as they rode. Amira could see the lines of ka being woven into the steel.

Metal was hard to work with, especially when it came to holding ka. There usually needed to be bone or some other formerly living material worked into the metal for it to be effective.

“It will,” Sair nodded. “Though the spell might wear off after a few days. But if we do catch up to the cythraul soon…” Sair passed the shield back to the knight.

Sir Vansen cleared his throat. “Lady Sair, and Your Grace, if I may be so bold.”

“Yes?” Amira kept her attention ahead. The forest was silent and harmless as best she could tell and yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that they would be meeting with trouble soon.

“These…cythraul. You say they are demons?”

“Yes.” There was no point in keeping the secret. These soldiers would most likely be fighting the creatures hand to hand soon.

“And they can take over people? Men, women, even children from the sound of it?”

“Yes,” Amira confirmed. “But not without an agreement.”

Little by little was being revealed to the people of the palace and the common soldiers. The full truth might never be known to the greater empire.

Someday, chroniclers might tell of Empress Vesha and her witchcraft. They’d no doubt include the child sacrifice, that was riveting enough. Vesha’s relationship with Darrigan would no doubt become a torrid affair.

Perhaps one day, it would be alleged that Vesha and Darrigan were lovers who had conspired to curse Drystan and take over the empire.

Amira sometimes wondered if her own legacy would be idealized or scandalized. If they succeeded at banishing the cythraul and stabilizing the empire, would history remember her fondly? No one could tell.

She might be remembered as the seductress who swayed Daindreth away from his intended bride. She might be the warrior princess who saved him or any other number of things.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.