Darklight by Lesley Livingston

Author:Lesley Livingston
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Performing Arts, Love & Romance, Actors and actresses, Action & Adventure, Fantasy, Juvenile Fiction, Fairies, General, Science Fiction, Magic, Fairy Tales & Folklore, Fiction
ISBN: 9780061575402
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-04-15T04:36:06+00:00

“I am not in the business of justifying my actions. Not even to one such as you. That being said, I will also tell you that I do not play games.” Auberon sighed and mustered a chuckle. “It is only that sometimes my expectations are . . . unrealistic. I unwisely assume of others that they employ the same kind of clear-eyed detachment and analysis that I myself bring to bear on a given situation.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know you don’t.” The king continued to stare into the middle distance, his dark eyes unfocused, his voice still soft. “I do not blame you. You are, when all is said and done, only human. But it would, perhaps, behoove you to trust your human senses—and only your senses—in this case. Cold, hard facts can often be a comfort, Sonny. Conjecture and assumption, while seductive, will ultimately leave you wanting.” The king shifted restlessly. “You ran afoul of Mabh once because you assumed she meant one thing when she meant another. You rode astride the Roan Horse when you thought the danger of the Wild Hunt had passed. What other assumptions did you make?”

Sonny thought back to that horrible night. He remembered the horn blasts calling to him—claiming him . . . Auberon stooping to retrieve Mabh’s horn from where it lay in the grass . . . What had he really seen that night? He had not seen Auberon blow the horn. . . .

“Are you trying to tell me that you were not the one responsible for waking the Wild Hunt?” Sonny gaped at the king in astonishment. “But if not you, Auberon, then who?”

“I cannot say.”

“Why not?”

“Because I truly do not know,” the king snapped. “And it is far too dangerous a thing to speculate upon.”

“Out loud, you mean.”

“Even so.”

“But you have your suspicions.”

“Even so.” The king rose and gathered his heavy fur robes around him with some semblance of his usual majesty. He cast a wan eye over Sonny’s shabby appearance but declined to comment. Instead he just lifted his chin and stared down upon the Janus as if from a great height. “Finish your task.”

“But, my lord, if there is some way I can be of more use here—”

“Then I would have you here.”

“Yes, lord.”

“Now go. I grow weary.” The dismissal was not up for debate.

There was nothing else for him to do. Sonny rose, nodded a curt bow, turned on his heel, and left the chamber, Black Annis following soundlessly behind him like a chill wind at his back.

“What ails him, Annis?” he asked as the herald pulled the chamber doors shut.

“Something ails my lord?” The ghost of a smile did not touch her eyes. “Whatever gives you that idea?”

Sonny glared at her, his skull pounding with a headache brought about by the tension of the last day, aggravated now with worry about the man who, despite their current differences, had still raised him from a baby. Sonny’s pulse thrummed behind his eyes.

“I do not know,” Annis continued, before Sonny ran out of patience completely.

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