Sunbolt (The Sunbolt Chronicles) by Khanani Intisar

Author:Khanani, Intisar [Khanani, Intisar]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: young adult, magic, coming of age, sword and sorcery, epic, YA Fantasy, asian
Publisher: Purple Monkey Press
Published: 2013-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

I clamp my arms against my side and stare at the cobbles in Blackflame’s courtyard, trying not to consider what Kol has in store for me. I’ve spent the last hour under close watch in a cell of a room, unable to coax any information from my guards. Blackflame’s guards had been almost immediately relieved by Kol’s: the fang lord’s bid to assure he doesn’t lose his claim on me in the unfolding chaos of the Degaths’ escape.

Kol is, of course, far more dangerous than his escort, but I suppose he must keep up appearances. What human lord would travel alone? The guards are useful, at least, for handling prisoners.

The guards straighten to attention as Kol and Blackflame cross the courtyard towards us. In the gardens, Blackflame had been calm, still relatively certain the Degaths wouldn’t evade recapture. Now he vibrates with pent-up fury. I keep my face down so that he doesn’t notice my pleasure. They just have to make it to tea house I’d told Tarek about, and they’ll be all right. With the help of a mage-healer, Alia should recover.

They have a much better chance of surviving than I do.

“If I had not already given you away,” Blackflame tells me, “I would look forward to taking you apart, bone by bone, sinew by sinew.”

Is it strange to be grateful that I’ve been traded like a goat, especially when I can hardly expect mercy from Kol? I glance towards my unlikely savior. Kol has added boots and soft leather gloves to his attire of the night before. As further protection from the potentially damaging rays of the sun, he wears a short cloak that brushes his thighs, the hood pulled up to shade his face. The morning is bright enough that I can still make out the faint quirk of his lips revealing his amusement. What does he care if his meal escaped? He still has me. If I had the energy, I would fear him, fear that smile, but as my delight in the Degaths’ escape fades, I feel hollowed out, my heartbeat echoing in my lungs.

My mother is here. And well. My mother, who was supposed to be dead, who came here for help and never returned. I swallow the bile in my throat, barely registering Blackflame’s threats, his ire washing over me like water over a stone. Four years I’ve thought her dead, scrabbling to find my next meal and keep a roof over my head, while she has dressed in silk and wandered sunlit gardens. How could she have forgotten me? How could she be here?

Blackflame turns on his heel, leading the way from the courtyard. Kol falls into step beside him, the guards prodding me along after them. Instead of approaching the gates, or calling for horses, we make our way through the gardens to an unpretentious square in which a quaint stone arch has been built, a hedge grown up around it. The white wooden gate, latched closed with a hook, gives the impression of some prosaic, feminine hand at work.

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