Queen by Larson R.J

Author:Larson, R.J. [Larson, R.J.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Elk Lake Publishing
Published: 2015-05-06T07:00:00+00:00

ChaPteR 18

Jolted by the horse’s rough gait, Serena unwillingly leaned forward and clutched Cziybor’s broad leather belt. He grumbled and kicked his horse into a trot along the snowy base of a cliff, passing most of his men. At the front of the column, Cziybor slowed, and they approached the warrior who’d bound Cousin Iared backward on his horse. Three days of such backward riding left Iared wan and queasy.

Yet as Serena threw him a worried glance, Iared hissed, his words emerging as vapor. “Serena! Where are they taking us?”

She shrugged and then shook her head. If only she could answer.

But Cziybor only spoke to her when he could gloat or snap at her to hurry in the evenings as they built their camp sites.

At least doing chores kept her safely away from Cziybor’s stench.

Seated behind him on his horse, however, she was stifled. The man took in pure air at one end and released foul air at the other as easily as he breathed, defying the early spring chill and half-choking her in the process. Yet Serena subdued her complaints. He’d probably double his stinking output and smother her himself if she mentioned her misery.

Her squeamishness heightened as Cziybor led their procession R. J. Larson

down a beaten trail and into a stark narrow rock passage amid the mountains, where high inward-curving walls almost met at the passage’s crest. Her father would have called it a “defile.” Yet the defile’s structure unnerved Serena. Cziybor’s fumes notwithstanding, these confining walls worried her. An army could array itself atop this defile and rain arrows upon them. Robbers could gather at either end of this passage and wait to attack the unwary as they emerged from the stone channel.

Obviously Cziybor was supremely confident of his own safety.

Either that or he intended to kill all attackers with his foul releases.

She averted her face again, studying the defile’s walls.

At last Cziybor led his men into the sunlight…and an unexpectedly broad valley. With an Agocii encampment. Serena swallowed. Was this their destination? She didn’t dare ask.

When they reached the edge of the encampment, Cziybor—as always—flung one leg over his horse’s long neck and dropped easily to his feet, swinging her down within the same breath. If Ty had perfected such a sweeping and audacious dismount from his horse, Serena would have melted. But Cziybor would never be Ty.

Cziybor set Serena on her feet then gripped her face with one big hand and smiled. “Do you wonder about my plans for you, daughter of the traitor Tsir Andris? Listen carefully then. I promise if you survive, you will bear enemies, warriors who will attack the Eosyths! And for however long or short a time you live, you will remain a loathed stranger among the Agocii.”

She stared at him, speechless. He smiled, lifted his hand from her face, kissed his fingertips, and then flung the kiss toward the sun above. “I praise the gods, Utzaii above all, that I have captured a child of my enemy!”

192

Queen

As his men

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