The King's Bastard - By Rowena Cory Daniells Page 0,151

stop herself imagining the male manticore dragging Byren's body away to devour him. Her head reeled.

Florin walked around the base of the platform. 'No drag marks, so -'

'How am I going to tell King Rolen his son is dead?' Orrade whispered, devastated.

'King Rolen?' Leif repeated. 'You mean that was Byren the leogryf slayer?'

'Byren Rolen Kingson?' Florin rounded on them.

'And this,' Garzik gave a mock bow, 'is Pirola Rolen Kingsdaughter, manticore slayer.'

Despite her fear for Byren, a smile tugged at Piro's lips.

'Hey,' Byren's voice floated up to them. 'When you're done talking can you help me?'

Orrade sprang to his feet but Piro beat him to the rail. Fumbling in their haste, they peered between the rails, over the platform edge.

'Careful,' Byren warned, from the snow-covered beach below.

Piro laughed, then sat down abruptly, resting her forehead on the icy wood of the railing.

The others joined them. Garzik tossed his torch down, so that it landed near Byren's feet, illuminating the broken body of the great cat with Byren standing unhurt beside it.

'I swear you have more lives than a cat, Byren!' Orrade called down. 'What happened?'

'Affinity beastie leaped up and knocked me off the platform. We crashed into the cliffs halfway down. The manticore took the impact of that before hitting the rocky beach beneath me. Killed it outright. Lucky for me.'

'And you're not hurt?' Florin asked, clearly astounded.

He laughed then slapped his arms and thighs. 'The beastie broke my fall both times.'

'Of all the luck.' Florin shook her head. 'Halcyon favours you!'

'Are the manticores all dead?' Byren asked. Orrade stood and tried to get the ladder's mechanism working.

'Aye. All dead,' Florin said.

'We lost Crusher.' Leif's voice quavered.

'I'm sorry, lad. He was a fine dog,' Byren said and Piro could tell he meant it. That's why people loved her brother.

'I can't get the ladder to drop,' Orrade announced. 'The ropes are missing.'

'If the cliff wasn't covered in snow I could try to climb it,' Byren said.

Florin stepped in front of Orrade. 'We take the ropes and pulleys off for winter.' Then she leant out to call down to Byren. 'You'd never make it up the cliff, I tried last summer.'

'Ho, that's a challenge if I ever heard one,' Garzik muttered to Piro, as he pulled her to her feet.

She smiled. She was beginning to understand why they teased each other. It wasn't that they weren't afraid. They were, but the best way to meet fear was to laugh at it.

'Could you make it, if I threw down a rope?' Florin asked Byren.

'Of course he could,' Orrade said, even as Byren said much the same thing.

Florin turned to Leif. 'Run back to the store room and bring a coil of rope.'

'I'll go with him,' Garzik offered. 'Make sure it's strong enough.'

Piro found she was suddenly so tired she couldn't stand up straight, and her limbs trembled.

'Better take Piro - I mean, the kingsdaughter,' Florin advised.

'Piro will do,' she insisted. 'And I don't know what's wrong with me -'

'Don't worry,' Florin told her. 'I feel a bit shaky myself.'

Piro laughed. She couldn't imagine Florin giving in to weakness.

'We'll be ready soon, Byren,' Orrade called down to him. 'Trust you to take on a manticore bare handed!'

'Actually, it was the fall down the cliff that killed it,' Byren corrected. 'That and me landing on it!'

The others roared with laughter. Piro found she laughed so much she cried. Florin gave her a hug and sent her off with Garzik and Leif.

Byren had been torn between heading straight back to Rolenhold or taking the time to remove the manticore chitin so he could present it to their father. The memory of Warlord Corvel of Manticore in his fabulous chitin breast plate decided him. Removing the chitin and loading it on the sled had taken the better part of the day. But it was a fine gift, more than enough for a full suit of armour and worth as much as a small estate.

He'd had Piro say the words over the beasts' bodies to safely release their Affinity. It was the best he could do without an Affinity warder and it meant that Florin and Leif could take the pelts and sell them, a windfall for their family.

'Ready?' Orrade asked.

Byren nodded and skated over to the snowy beach where Florin and Leif waited to say goodbye. 'We'll be off. Thanks for the loan of the sled and skates.'

Leif surprised Byren by throwing his arms around his waist.

'Next litter Queenie has, I'm going to call the biggest one Byren,'