The Land of Night by Kirby Crow

Author:Kirby Crow [Crow, Kirby]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: erotic MM, Romance MM
ISBN: 9781603704939
Google: 2p1NPQAACAAJ
Amazon: 1603704930
Publisher: Torquere Press
Published: 1995-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

* * * *

As it turned out, Liall was not able to seek his bed just yet.

Baron Ressanda was waiting for him in an alcove not far from Liall's apartments. The Baron was alone, his daughter presumably retired, and he had come without guards, a matter which did not escape Liall's notice.

"Ser," Liall greeted casually.

Ressanda bowed deeply. "Blood Prince," he said, his voice weighted heavy with foreboding. "I come on a grave matter."

"Oh?" Liall looked up and down the hall meaningfully. They were empty, and Ressanda and he were alone.

Ressanda touched his ear with a fingertip. "Even stone walls can hear," he quoted. Liall took his meaning and turned on his heel. Ressanda followed. There was a room not twenty 161

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paces from the apartments, a small salon that Liall had searched thoroughly the night before. It was safe as any room could be in a palace.

Ressanda stood watch by the door as Liall found a lamp and struck a spark for its wick. Blue light flickered around the room as he settled the glass over the flame, then motioned for Ressanda to come forward. Liall found a chair and pulled it up to the small table. This was a bare room with only a little furniture and no ornament, no tapestries or paintings, nothing to hide behind. With a final, suspicious look at the room's contents, Ressanda sighed and heaved his bulk into the single remaining chair. It creaked under his weight and the wooden legs popped and groaned before submitting to support him.

Ressanda put his elbows on the table and folded his arms.

"There is a matter," Ressanda said. "I would have brought it to you before, but I was not sure of you yet."

"And now you are?"

The Baron held up a hand. "Not so quickly, my prince. I may be reassured, but I am not totally reconciled with your return. I knew Nadei from the time he was a boy."

Liall felt his teeth wanting to clench. "Then you knew how he naive was, how delicate his pride and how easily he could be lead, or insulted."

Ressanda nodded, his ruddy hair tumbling across his forehead. "I did, but he was still my prince. That he would have made a poor king does not excuse you."

Liall bowed his head. "No. It does not."

He was surprised to feel Ressanda's hand on his arm. "But there is nothing you can do to recall that. What's done is 162

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done, and we are here and Nadei is burned to ashes, and whatever future he would have taken us to is dust. Now we must look to you to carve a new future."

"Not to me," Liall argued. "Cestimir—"

"Is a boy, still," he finished. "I, for one, believe you when you say you will turn the throne over to him in swift manner, but many do not. Not truly. Yet ... they are content to have their prince back, disgraced or otherwise. It is enough, after so many years of uncertainty, to have a strong man of the pure blood to look to.

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