Chapter 31
Roark
The pain began in my skull. An annoyance, but in a matter of moments, the heat of the ache dug into my center. Fierce enough I pounded a fist over my chest, drawing Yanson’s furrowed brow.
“All right?”
Something was wrong. A tumult of emotion rolled through my thoughts, my heart. To my damn cruel soul. Rage. Fear. Betrayal.
I staggered to the window, leaning over the pane, brow to the cold glass. No one in the courtyard seemed amiss. Folk went about their days, avoiding the additional Dark Watch on guard, but no horns sounded danger.
Nothing.
Lyra.
The moment her name filled my thoughts, ice coated every thread of the unseen bond tethering us as one. Like a shrill cry of fear, soul to soul, I knew something had happened to my wife.
I tore from the room, Yanson shouting my name, his hurried steps scrambling over the floorboards. Skin burned along my scar. Hot rage boiled beneath the surface, and the violence of a nature I fought to tame pounded within me, clawing to be free.
When I shoved through the substantial doors near the front of the palace, I gave in to the darkness.
“Dammit. Would you give me some warning?” Yanson stumbled backward. He was a sturdy man, taller than me and even Gunter, but his pale eyes widened at the sight of the monstrous shadows.
It felt as though the rush of bloodlust, larger than was typical, billowed around the deledan soul until my cruelest desires filled the whole of the courtyard.
Folk screamed when Skul Drek strode through the trees and shrubs five paces ahead of me. In the wake of us both, layers of dark mists coated the blooms until they were painted in black deep enough that the sunlight died.
I did not need to command anything; the most wretched edges of my heart knew what it wanted. To find her.
The form of Skul Drek faded and split. Ribbons of darkness curled over the grounds like dark serpents, scouring the edges of the kingdom, searching for the brightness of her soul.
I shoved through the doors of the wolf keep, the heavy iron on the latches pounded against the walls. Wolves in their pens snarled save one—Kyrre stood on his haunches, his tail swishing side to side, but as though the beast sensed the violence rolling in my veins, his lips curled.
“Roark?” Emi peeked around one of the posts. She sat on the fence watching Brynn and Auki teach a group of young ones how to calm a fara.
Where is Lyra? My hands were frantic and stiff, and I wasn’t certain if she’d even understand me.
“I believe she was seen speaking to the queen.” Brynn was the one who answered. She leaned over the pen post. “What is it?”
Something is wrong. Where is she?
“He says something is wrong,” Emi said.
Yanson entered the keep. “My prince, what is happening? That damn…soul is tormenting everyone.”
“Shit.” Emi hopped off the post.
“Why is that shit?” Brynn and Auki directed the young ones to another keeper and made quick work of following when I stormed back toward the entrance. “Why does that matter?”
“It means he felt a threat, soul deep, so the deledan prepares to slaughter.”
“Shit,” Brynn said on a rough breath.
I had no qualms about peeling my own mother’s soul from her blood if she’d done something to my wife.
I unlatched Kyrre’s hold when I stalked past. The wolf had already grown since the battle with the Stav. His back haunches reached my mid-thigh. Hackles raised, a low growl emitted from his jaws, and the wolf seemed ready to pounce and attack, the same as me.
Find her. No need to hand speak to a fara wolf. They understood words from their bonded, no matter what language, what dialect.
Kyrre snarled and bolted from the keep, nose to the ground, racing for the distant gates.
The young wolf narrowly avoided crashing into the queen. Elisabet held her gown in one hand, a flush to her face. Her shoulders slumped in relief when she saw me.
“Roark!”
My mother raced across the courtyard, a few Dark Watch warriors falling in behind her. If she was looking for comfort, she would need to look elsewhere.
I gripped the queen’s arm, drawing her close. Where is she?
Darkness returned, encircling us, our feet, our legs, around our waists. A bit of fear flashed in Elisabet’s eyes. She tried to pull her arm away; I only tightened my hold.
“I don’t know what you’re saying.” To her credit, the queen tried to follow my hand gestures. “I was with Lyra in the willow wood. I turned for a moment and they…ambushed us. They took her.”
Ice chased heat from my blood. Who?
My mother did not need assistance to understand. “Jorvans.”
“But they left the queen untouched?” To my stun, Emi stood at my shoulder, practically challenging my mother.
Elisabet tightened her mouth. “What brings war the swiftest? A stolen melder, or the queen? They did not want me; they want their melding power back. She will be left alive for now, Roark, but there is no time to waste.” The queen faced the courtyard.
“The prince will be going to retrieve his wife. They must find this camp before the Jorvans return to Stonegate and Lyra is harmed, or worse.”
“You’re certain it was Jorvans, Bet?” From the back of the courtyard, Virki stroked the head of his gray wolf.
“Who else, Virki?”
“We ought to be certain before we send our army.”
“The Dark Watch will not be going,” the queen insisted. “This must be done in haste and stealth. Not a damn war before we know what threat we face.” She turned to me, her voice low. “I will not attempt to convince you to send others in your place. Choose who joins you, and get her back.”
Low in my gut, a knot of disquiet thickened.
Something was wrong with the queen’s report. Elisabet was not one to act rashly. She was calculated and clever. Not to mention, she was not one to keep the Dark Watch behind the gates if a threat was leveled at our clan.
I took a step closer, towering over the woman who once sang me to sleep as a child. My fingers against her cheek, I spoke the threat, slowly. If you are behind this, I will destroy you.
After Emi whispered my words, the queen tilted her chin. “I believe they will be headed toward the tip of the Black Fjords, to avoid the ravines. Supplies will be gathered for you and those who ride with you. It’s possible you may be gone for quite some time. May the gods keep you safe.”
She pressed the heel of her palm to my brow in a blessing, then turned away.
But not before I was certain that the slightest hint of a smile teased the queen’s mouth.
—
True to her word, the queen had blades and satchels with food and skins of water in the stables within a bell toll.
The rest came from the supplies we’d smuggled on our own in the last days.
Clad in black, I swung a leg over a dark gelding. Uncontrolled shadows draped over my shoulders. When no hint of Lyra remained in Dravenmoor, I contained my hate and drew back the split soul.
But it still burned, growing more desperate, more violent by the moment.
“Lyra has come into her own brutality,” Emi said, shoving a knife inside her boot. “She will fight, Roark. We’ll find her, then you can finish whatever damage to the Stav she’s surely begun.”
My teeth ground together, and my fingers tightened on the leather bridle.
There was no question who would join me. Brynn, Auki, Gunter, and Emi sat astride their own charges, cowls over their heads, kohl lined around their eyes and down their cheeks.
òlmr and Kyrre remained close, ready to run through the wood.
“You were Stav once.” Gunter led his stallion to my side. Both his seax blades were crossed over his back. “Where do they camp?”
Find heavy trees. I spoke with one hand and pulled my hood low over my nose with the other. They use them for protection.
The others had learned my gestures well enough, but Emi translated all the same. No words should be missed.
“Want us to kill on sight?” Auki asked.
If it means getting Lyra, burn them alive for all I care. I nudged my horse forward, and we disappeared into the darkness of the trees.