Winterlight by Kristen Britain

Author:Kristen Britain [Britain, Kristen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: DAW
Published: 2021-09-14T00:00:00+00:00

YOLANDHE’S ISLAND

“Oh?” Beryl said. “Has he a ship stashed around here somewhere? One that isn’t a burial ship, that is.”

“I—I don’t know,” Amberhill replied. He absently swung the crescent moon pendant on the end of its chain. “It is only an impression I have. He does not allow me to know everything.”

“That is unfortunate.” She stood. If Akarion had a way off the island and was bent on conquest with those terrifying dragons at his command . . .

Amberhill gazed up at her, and his face blanched. “I know you are more than a Green Rider.”

Of course he did. He’d been in the Teligmar Hills during the rescue of Lady Estora and the capture of Immerez, a captain of Mirwell’s provincial militia who’d thrown his lot in with Second Empire. She’d been Immerez’s interrogator, and torturer, had it come to that. Was he going to plead with her to spare him?

“Please help me,” he whispered. “I don’t want Akarion in my head anymore. And the dragons. . . .” He shuddered. “I keep trying to give his ring back. Watch.”

He stood and Beryl spread her feet as if to take a blow, but he didn’t seem to notice. He walked to the side of the bier and removed the gold ring from his finger. It was fashioned like a dragon consuming its own tail, its eye a ruby gem that shone blood red in the dim light. He pushed it onto the skeletal finger of the king. Then he stepped back.

“See?” he asked.

“See what?”

He showed her his hand. The ring was on his finger, but she had so clearly seen him place it on the skeleton’s finger.

“It won’t let me go,” he said. “It claims me as Akarion’s heir. This ring is how I—he—controls the dragons.”

Beryl shook her head. It was looking more and more like she’d have to kill him. She hated to do so for Amberhill seemed an unwitting party to all this, a victim of his own blood. If there were a way of sparing him without endangering Sacoridia, she would, but she wasn’t seeing it. He wanted her to help him, to free him from Akarion’s grasp, but there was only one way she knew how to do so.

“Tell me how I can help you,” she said.

“I—I don’t know. You can’t exactly kill Akarion. He’s dead.”

He wasn’t helping his case. “You do not know what allows him to . . . continue?”

“This ring, but as I showed you, I can’t get rid of it. I even threw it into the ocean once, but then it was on my finger again.”

It sounded an awful lot like the persistence of Rider brooches. Green Riders did not lose their brooches, and they always found their way home, even after a Rider died. Arcane devices were like that, taking on lives of their own. In any case, he was not helping her to find a way to spare him. She regretted the necessity of killing him for she rather liked the Amberhill part of him, but Akarion had his hooks in him and was too much of a threat.

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