The King's Bastard - By Rowena Cory Daniells Page 0,180

me of this. He said you'd try to discredit him again. Oh, Piro -'

She stamped her foot. 'I tell you it's true. I heard the man curse in Merofynian.'

Still, her father shook his head. 'You chose the one thing you knew I hated most. It's a wonder you didn't try to tell me Cobalt was a Merofynian Power-worker. But then you couldn't, not when we've already proven he has no Affinity.'

'Not without the sorbt stones test,' she countered, however she could see her father had already made up his mind. Frustration flashed through Piro. 'Cobalt's the true Servant of Palos, not Byren!'

As it left her lips, she realised it was true even if Cobalt wasn't a lover of men. Then, she wished it unsaid.

Radiating fury, the king strode towards the door. She ran alongside him. 'Where are you going, father?'

He flung the door open. 'Guard, come here. Escort my daughter to her chamber and see that she does not leave.'

The guard at the bottom of the steps gaped.

'Move, damn it!' King Rolen roared.

Piro lifted her chin. 'I do not need an escort, Father.'

'But you'll have one. I won't have this kind of vicious gossip-mongering undermining the reputation of an honourable man.'

'Honourable man?' Piro bristled. 'If you cannot see how he had undermined Byren's honour you are -'

'Byren?' The king's hands lifted as if he had only just restrained himself from shaking her.

Piro's sight shifted to the Unseen. She saw the face of a youth of eighteen, a youth who had watched helplessly as his father and elder brother were murdered by a renegade Power-worker. As the horror and sorrow faded, they were replaced with implacable anger. This was the expression the young King Rolen had worn when he ordered the execution of the Servants of Palos. And she realised that he did not truly see her or Byren, he saw only a threat that he did not know how to fight. This was his one blindness and Cobalt had used it, just as he had used her mother's blind spot, her kindness.

Piro backed up. Her heel missed the top step and she teetered, vertigo snatching at the base of her stomach.

'Kingsdaughter!' The guard only just caught her. She clung to him, disoriented. 'This way.'

Gently, he guided her down the stairs. Stunned, she followed him along the hall.

'Are you all right, Piro Kingsdaughter?'

As the guard lifted his arm, the flash of manticore tail returned to her. She ducked.

The guard took a step back, horrified. 'Eh, I wouldn't hit you!'

Even as he spoke, she recalled where she had seen the manticore tail - inside the Power-worker's mind.And she recalled where she had seen the servant before - at Dovecote, riding in with Lence and Cobalt.

So that was how Cobalt had lured the pride down to attack Byren. He'd worked with the renegade Power-worker, a Merofynian who was helping Cobalt weave his subtle poison. And now Cobalt and his servant knew that she knew, her life would be forfeit.

She had to hide.

The guard was saying something, Piro could not understand him. Her world tipped then spun.

He caught her for a second time.

She was vaguely aware of him staggering under her weight, not that she was heavy but her collapse was unexpected. Regaining his balance, he lifted her, carrying her towards her bedchamber. Her first impulse was to throw off his help but she made herself go limp as a plan formed.

She was still feigning a faint when he placed her gently on the bed.

'Poor little thing,' he muttered. 'Out cold.'

He stood there helplessly for a moment then ran off to get someone.

The moment he left the chamber, Piro rolled off the bed, grabbing her cloak. For a heartbeat she saw stars pinwheeling across her vision. But she refused to give in to weakness.

Where should she go?

Sure only that she had to remain free, she realised she had become the hunted in her own home and Cobalt and his Merofynian Power-worker were the hunters. Her recurring nightmare of being stalked by wyverns had come true.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Byren skated, his body following a mindless rhythm. Having travelled all day the warriors were tired, but Rejulas had ordered the torches lit. Privately, Byren thought they would have been better off skating by starlight, after giving their eyes time to adjust, but perhaps it was a good idea, when you considered it was almost spring cusp. The winter-dormant creatures would be stirring, hungry after their long sleep.

Skating with bound hands interfered with his balance and he couldn't save