The King Rolen's Kin: The Uncrowned King - By Rowena Cory Daniells Page 0,10
to travel fast. But the Power-worker's escort would not be concerned with her. They'd return to report to their overlord. If the Utlander died, Byren would have dealt Palatyne a serious, though not devastating, blow. He knew the overlord was accompanied by at least two more Power-workers, rivals for their leader's trust.
'Here.' Byren paused at the lake's edge to strap on his skates, then stood up and dug into his pack, pulling out the last of his food, cold meat and two-day-old bread. The girl put the food away for later. He checked the wandering stars... midnight. He still had a long way to go.
Pointing across the lake to the mountain, which was a dark triangle against the foaming stars, he spoke in Merofynian.
'That's Mount Halcyon. Aim for it. Go around the base. On the far side is a fishing village. Tell them Byren Kingson said that they're to take you across to Sylion Abbey. The nuns will look after you, protect you.'
A shiver ran through the girl's thin frame.
Byren undid the clasp of his cloak and swung the heavy fur over her shoulders. She raised wondering eyes to him.
'We do things differently here in Rolencia,' he told her. 'For one thing we don't chain up children.'
'You're a kingson and yet you speak Merofynian?'
'My mother taught me.'
'Queen Myrella? They say her father was a good king. No one likes the new King Merofyn,' she confided, then cast a quick look at Byren to gauge his reaction. 'They also say the nuns of Sylion steal children who have Affinity and turn them into slaves.'
'It's not true. My brother has Affinity and he's been with the monks in Halcyon Abbey for ten years now. He comes to visit us every feast day. They feed him and teach him a trade. And his Affinity will be used to make Rolencia a better place for everyone.'
The girl blinked. The bird stirred.
Byren glanced at it. 'They'll care for the bird, too. I must leave. Remember, go that way.'
'Can't I stay with you?'
'I'm off to war.'
'I've been to war.'
Byren didn't doubt it. 'In Rolencia we don't send children to war. You'll be safe at the abbey.'
'I -'
'You'd slow me up. I'm on the king's business.'
The girl clutched his arm but said nothing. A light snow began to fall.
He squeezed her hand. 'The snow will cover your tracks. I've got to go now.'
She nodded, but her eyes never left his face.
There was no more he could do for her. 'What's your name?'
'Dinni.'
He realised she would be very pretty once she was fed and cleaned up, even with the lopsided eye.
'Halcyon's luck be with you, Dinni.'
'And with you, kingson.' She let him go at last.
He was wide awake now, so he set off at a good pace. If he skated all night, he should reach the abbey by mid-morning.
Chapter Three
Piro lifted the key ring at her waist and unlocked the back stair to the royal wing. Before the troubles, she had done nothing but fight with her mother, but now she was grateful for Queen Myrella's quick thinking. With the queen's keys of office, Piro had access to every door. Every door, but the one that was kept locked in the top of the mourning tower, where the queen was being held prisoner.
Cobalt had convinced her once-proud father that his beloved Myrella was a spy under the influence of a Merofynian Power-worker.
Well, that was partly Piro's fault.
In front of everyone her mother had been about to slip into a seer's trance and reveal her hidden Affinity. If she had, her marriage to King Rolen would have been annulled and their four children declared illegitimate. This would have left the way open to Lord Cobalt. As the legitimate son of King Rolen's illegitimate older brother, Illien of Cobalt's claim to the throne would have been as strong as Lence's. Again Piro was grateful to her mother, this time for insisting she study Rolencian law. At best the ambiguity would have been enough for Cobalt to claim the succession and force a civil war.
To hide her mother's Affinity, Piro had darted forwards and disrupted the trance, claiming Queen Myrella had been taken over by a Merofynian Power-worker.
Everyone believed her, everyone but Cobalt. He'd seen through her because he was a master of the art of deception. He'd caught Piro on the back stairs and asked his servant to see if she had Affinity. Only an abbey warder could discern Affinity, a warder or a renegade Power-worker.