Silver's Bane by Anne Kelleher

Author:Anne Kelleher [Anne Kelleher]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2011-03-21T22:00:00+00:00

The gates opened behind him, and he turned to see a load of armor and weapons and bridles being led in, and neatly stacked by the soldiers of the guard. He gazed around the vaulted space that was the courtyard of the Forest House, and noticed, for the first time, a large amount of weapons and armor and bridles that were all sorted into neat piles of equipment and goods. "What is all this? Are you preparing for some sort of siege?"

"What an interesting question you ask, my lord, under the circumstances." Gillieas folded his arms across his chest.

"Under what circumstances? What are you talking about? This is not the time for talk and explanations, Gillieas. Faerie is dying. Don't you understand?"

"But how is it you've come to be here, Artimour?" asked Gillieas. "How is it again you know the Palace is attacked?"

"I met a carriage full of ladies on the road. And they told me the Palace was attacked by goblins. They asked me to ride on ahead, to summon you and then to go on, to the border. And the host."

"The host, you say. The host that rode out before Samhain?"

"What other is there?"

"There's the one we found slain, my lord Prince. The five hundred we found within the wood, all dead."

Artimour heard the words, but for a moment, they made no sense. He shook his head as if to clear it, and looked around the faces now drawing close, cold and beautiful and terrible in their unyielding expressions of distrust. He remembered the only evidence he'd seen of the passing of the host—all the hoofprints leading into the river that he'd come upon just before he'd met Finuviel. He glanced around the courtyard once more and this time saw the indigo banner wrapped around its golden pole, propped against a tree. "You're telling me the host is dead? All of them?"

"But for thirteen. The thirteen Finuviel ordered to stay here and guard his mother."

"And what about Finuviel?"

"What about Finuviel?" asked Gillieas. "When was the last time you saw him?"

The circle of soldiers was drawing closer. He's accusing me, Artimour thought, and he squared his shoulders. "The last time I saw Finuviel, he tried to kill me with this dagger," Artimour replied. He Anne Helleher - [Silver's Edge 2] - Silver's Bane

ripped the silver dagger from its sheath and waved it beneath their noses, taking a grim satisfaction in the way they all dodged back with hisses and stifled cries. He pulled aside his tunic, stripping off the bandage to reveal the angry purplish line slanting above his heart. "See? Finuviel stabbed me with this dagger, then pushed me in the river and left me there to bleed to death or drown. I happened to wash up in Shadow, which is how I came to be wearing these mortal clothes. The mortals who found me there saved me." He thrust the dagger back into its sheath. "You've wasted enough time."

Gillieas shrugged. "Perhaps, perhaps not. But if Finuviel used the dagger to stab you, how do you happen to have it?"

"I found it in a tree.

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