The Lost Kingdom by E.V. Greig

Author:E.V. Greig
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: E.V. Greig
Published: 2019-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

THE ROYAL PALACE OF Khuffburge was in chaos as they arrived back. The guards were busy trying to put out the blaze that had engulfed the great hall, and the servants were weeping. The would-be courtiers trembled when Hugo asked them for an explanation. “Sire – the daemons returned! They have taken Princess Maria and her companions! There was nothing anyone could do to prevent it; they came from nowhere; leaping out of mirrors.”

Hugo fell to his knees and howled. Kaiwan was already reaching out to try to determine if the wards of the palace had recognised what sort of daemons had been involved. Misericord ran towards the blaze; so blind to the danger that Gyrfalcon had to sit on him. “Have a care, witchfinder: you ain’t flame proof!”

“Asych cal nyr – dasth relnigh! Caldur!” The fey was in pieces. “Mysch Caldur!”

Naomi was no better, and Tik-Tik and Spellsnitcher were left to manage the hapless former brothel slaves until someone could tell them where to put them for the night. The fire needed dealt with first of course. The slaves were nervous; a few glanced back at the gate as though considering flight. Having their lives turned upside down had been frightening enough when they were under the charge of humans! The squirrel-cat and the thing that pretended to be merely feline could do very little to settle them, and both sighed in relief when the palace staff took over.

In the meantime, Elharan had dragged Naomi aside and was talking to her. “Pull yourself together, Naomi! You can scream all you want later, but for now they need you to stand and lead!”

She gulped back her sobs and nodded. “I will manage, Elharan.”

“That’s as well: Hugo has gone to pieces, and the witchfinder is not even speaking a tongue that I can recognise. The palace staff are doing their level best to sort things, but they need instruction.”

“I’ll get on to that now. Help Gyrfalcon please: put Misericord somewhere quiet for now. Chain him if you must, but try not to hurt him.” She strode back to consult with the servants for a few moments. Then she joined Kaiwan, who was attempting to talk to Hugo. “Snap out of it now, Hugo! We have no time to fall apart.”

He looked at them: his eyes had aged in the time since they had arrived back at the palace. “Nami, Kaiwan – what do we do now?”

Kaiwan knelt and hugged him. “We find them, and we find the person responsible for this, and we go from there.”

“It’s Veyrich: it has to be him!” The king could not stand. He had learned over the years prior to his death of just how evil Veyrich actually was. The sylvanth’s supposed death at Korius’ hands had been a relief to many. “He’ll not settle for killing them!”

Naomi looked away at that. “We’ll find them, Hugo. As Kaiwan says, we’ll go from there. There’s nothing else that we can do.”

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