Lord of the Changing Winds by Neumeier Rachel

Author:Neumeier, Rachel [Neumeier, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: FIC009020
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2010-04-30T17:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 9

Kes woke, confused and afraid, nestled into a bed of cushions, with shadows swinging dizzyingly around her as quiet-footed men took down the lanterns and carried them away. She had slept, she understood, though surely not for very many hours. But the tent was filled with daylight. It was also nearly empty of men: Her guard was there, and the king, sitting in a chair with his long legs thrust out before him and a scattering of papers across the table at his side. The door of the tent was open, light and cold air spilling in across the carpeted floor. The light was nothing like the hammering brilliance of the desert. Kes looked at it, feeling lost and somehow bereft.

The king looked up as Kes straightened in her nest of cushions. He smiled, shoved some of the papers out of the way, and held out a powerful hand to her, indicating a chair near his. “Come,” he said in Terheien.

The King of Casmantium looked younger in daylight, and yet somehow larger than ever, even though he was sitting down. He had clearly not slept himself, but energy radiated from him as heat from the sun: When he looked at Kes, his attention was powerful as a griffin’s.

He was no longer wearing mail. His shirt was a soft ivory color that made the blackness of his hair and beard more stark by contrast. His hair was very short, but his head was not, at least, shaved completely, as some of the Casmantian soldiers seemed to do. He was not wearing any kind of crown, but he had a thick-linked chain of gold about his throat. It seemed somehow to suit his heavy features.

Kes climbed stiffly to her feet, brushing wrinkles out of her clothing as well as she could with her hands. She wanted a bath, a comb, and a change of clothing. There was no sign that she was to be given any of these things, at least not immediately. But it seemed the King of Casmantium did mean to offer her breakfast. Kes looked at the platters of rolls and sliced fruit on the table without interest and settled gingerly into a chair a little farther from the king than the one he had clearly meant her to take. She folded her hands in her lap and looked at the table.

“Kes,” the king said affably. His voice was still harsh and guttural, but he could not help that, and he seemed to want to be kind. “Where is your home?”

Kes found her voice after a moment and whispered, “Minas Ford.”

“You are fifteen, Festellech Anweiechen informs me?”

She nodded.

The king grunted and shoved a platter of rolls her way. “You look twelve,” he said bluntly. “It is the shy way about you, I suppose. My mage Beguchren Teshrichten says you are becoming a fire mage. He says you are half fire now. I suppose that is true.”

Kes supposed it was.

“Eat,” ordered the king, frowning at her. “You are all bone.

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