Prophecy,Child of Earth by Elizabeth Haydon

Author:Elizabeth Haydon
Language: eng
Format: epub

'I want you to go to Canrif—er, Ylorc, as the Firbolg call it." He could hear Prudence exhale beside him, but she said nothing. "I want you to deliver the Firbolg king's wedding invitation—and, uh, the one for his emissary."

'Emissary? Come now, Tristan, surely you can do better than that."

'All right! Rhapsody. Are you happy now? I want you to take the invitation personally to Rhapsody. Gauge her reaction. If she seems open to it, try and get her to come back with you to Bethany, or to at least come soon, so that I can see her once, alone, before I throw my future away, before I wed the Beast of Canderre."

'For what purpose, Tristan?" Prudence's voice was soft, without a hint of accusation. "What do you hope to gain?"

He sighed again. "I don't know. I only know that if I don't I will live in agony for the rest of my life, wondering what she might have said. Wondering if there had been a chance that I never took, that I never even knew about."

Prudence sat up in the tangle of sheets and pulled his arm away from his eyes.

'A chance for what? Do you love her, Tristan?" Her dark brown eyes searched his face, interested but otherwise expressionless.

He looked away. "I don't know. I don't think so. It's more—more—

'Desire?"

'Something like that. An overwhelming, inexplicable need. Like she is a bonfire in the depths of winter. It's like I'm wandering, shirtless, in the snow, and have been since I first beheld her. You've been right about my attraction to her all along, Prudence. I lost my head and committed a full brigade of my own soldiers to a grisly death rather than let her walk away from me. And, if you can believe this, she doesn't even know it; at least that's what the Firbolg king said.

'You knew better, of course, Pru, but I couldn't let myself believe you. Poor Rosentharn had orders to bring her back with the army when the Firbolg were crushed." He blinked rapidly at the memory of the Firbolg warlord, sitting on the edge of this very bed, playing with the crown of Roland like a child's toy, calming dispensing the news of the slaughter of Tristan's army.

Don't worry; the cloaked monster had said in a sandy voice that whispered of death. She has no idea that1 she was the one who inspired they massacre. Of course, I do. Why do you think I sent her to you'? You are a man of free will. If you had genuinely desired peace, you would have greeted my offer, and my emissary, with open arms, no doubt. Any man, especially one who is betrothed, with less-than-honorable intentions toward a woman, would be untrustworthy as a neighbor as well. It's just as well that you threw two thousand lives away trying to win her attention now. You learned your lesson early. The cost would have been far greater later on.

The man-shadow had risen silently from the chair as the Firbolg king prepared to make his exit.

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.