The Defiant Heir by Melissa Caruso

Author:Melissa Caruso
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2018-04-24T04:00:00+00:00

The crow stayed ahead of us, fluttering from branch to branch. If we took too long to catch up, it cawed. When I slipped on the snow, it cawed. When Zaira cursed at it, it cawed. I couldn’t be impressed at its vocabulary.

Within half an hour, it had led us to a road. Wagon tracks and hoofprints marred the snow, which had tapered off to occasional scant flurries. We made better time on the road’s level footing, until at last the crow fluttered to land at the white-capped tip of a standing stone, one of two six-foot-tall menhirs flanking the road. It preened its glossy feathers, satisfied.

Boundary markers. A spark of excitement brightened my exhaustion.

“Does this mean we’re heading back into the domain full of chimeras who want to kill you?” Zaira asked warily.

I frowned. “These stones look different.”

They were older and more weathered than the ones we’d seen at the border between Sevaeth and Kazerath, the carvings half worn away. Snow blurred the edges, but the lines of the designs looked softer, forming waves and curls.

Something about those patterns seemed deeply familiar, compelling. I reached out to brush snow from the rough surface of one of the stones.

A ripple ran through me when I laid my hand on it, as if I touched a great bell and the vibrations of its deep tone shook through my body.

The boundary stone warmed under my touch.

There was no mistaking the change. It started cold, as stone standing in the snow should be; but within two breaths of laying my hand on it, I had to snatch it back from the uncomfortable heat. Water trickled down from the snow crowning the stone.

How very odd. I walked around to the other side of the standing stone, crossing the invisible line between domains, and laid my hand on it again, to feel its growing heat. What was it the Wolf Lord had said to Prince Ruven? When you’ve carved out a piece of land from the Empire and claimed it with your own blood …

“This isn’t Sevaeth.” I was certain of it, somehow. “That would make this Atruin, on the far side of Kazerath. The domain of the Lady of Eagles.” My great-grandmother.

The crow suddenly took off from the top of the stone, cawing, its wings beating a breeze into my face.

Zaira froze. “I think someone knows we’re here.”

I pulled my eyes away from the strangely mesmerizing lines graven into the rock to find half a dozen elk staring at us. They formed a neat arc around us on the Atruin side of the line—not clumped together in a herd but surrounding us like predators. All six bore great, branching antlers; they watched us with shining brown eyes. Their breath formed clouds of steam around their velvet muzzles.

They were beautiful, with sleek fur, warm eyes, and graceful legs. But there was power in their broad chests, and they loomed above us. I doubted any one of them would find it a difficult matter to kick me to death, and their antlers spread sharp and proud above them.

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