Chapter 52
‘Walk with me,’ Hark said, offering an arm for her to lean on. She didn’t hesitate. He had seen her at her most vulnerable – in more ways than one – so there was no point trying to disguise the fact it was painful to move.
He kept the pace slow and provided a warmth against the chill of the air as he led her along the balcony.
It seemed to work its way around the entire perimeter of the building, a connection to every chamber of this level of Claret Hall.
It wasn’t long before the brilliance of the kingdom faded and left them in soft torchlight along the balcony, the darkness a shroud of quiet and privacy.
Arla tried not to notice how perfectly her arm fit in Hark’s and how her body was the ideal height for her head to rest on his shoulder if she dared.
She wanted it all, she thought, but to admit it was to admit that she didn’t know how to do this. She hadn’t loved, or cared for, or been another half of a person before. Was her heart too wicked to be worthy of him?
‘What are you thinking?’ Hark asked her, drawing her attention away from the spiralling thoughts and into the stillness of the world around them.
‘I’m wondering why— How Rheia and Lilith are here?’ Not a complete lie – she had thought of it briefly when Kase was explaining to her that they were no longer in Kastonia, but she wasn’t ready to voice her internal battles with him yet.
Hark chuckled – a lovely, brilliant sound.
‘The twins were my maids, too, you know. They’re loyal to those who show them kindness.
It doesn’t take much to understand that my father was the exact opposite of that to them.
’ Arla nodded her head slightly, imagining how the twins had been treated by Elrod.
She’d seen the way he treated Arabelle, and her heart hurt at the realisation that they’d left her at his mercy in that castle.
She wondered if that thought hurt Hark, too.
‘And besides, it wouldn’t take him long to realise they aren’t like the rest of the staff inside Larkire.’
Arla turned her head sharply to face him, halting them where they stood.
‘Magic?’ she asked, disbelief working its way into her voice.
Hark nodded, a grin widening across his face. ‘You don’t think just anyone could tame all that hair of yours, do you?’ He winked at her, and before she knew what she was doing she was elbowing him, bursting into a laugh when he didn’t so much as move an inch.
‘They came here with you to be safe?’
‘Everyone here is here for that reason. All they’ve wanted for years is safety away from my father. It was hard work but between us we managed to get them out.’
‘Explain it to me,’ she said, reaching for his arm.
She’d seen him slip away from Hadalyn for days at a time under the excuse of meeting with his king but …
it was all making sense now. Why he always returned looking so weary he could barely sit through dinner.
Why he always disappeared into his rooms for days after he came back.
She’d suspected he was meeting with a secret lover and had taunted him endlessly at Castle Grey whenever he returned looking so weary.
Now it all made sense… ‘How did you manage all of this?’
He was silent for a moment, his gaze roaming over the kingdom he had created below them.
‘I’d never have done it on my own,’ he said eventually, dragging a hand through his hair.
‘But four years ago, when my father came up with his harebrained scheme to steal magic, I knew I couldn’t support what he was doing and I knew I had to find a way to keep the magics safe, even if it meant building somewhere new – somewhere hidden.
I already knew Seb and Jaz from when we were younger, and Kase, too, for nearly a year by then – Jack, too.
We became a crew, and between court meetings and the outings to Hadalyn we managed to start helping some of the magics flee beyond the mountains.
After that we took it in turns, each of us spending days at a time helping build this kingdom. ’
She could see the anger bridling the angles of his face and saw the promise in his eyes that he would kill his father if Arla didn’t get there first.
‘My father knew I hated what he was doing. The only thing that stopped me from killing him was the fact that the magics were safe in Flambriar and he knew nothing about it. He sent me to Hadalyn not long afterwards. I confronted him about taking their blood. I told him it was an affront to the gods to try and seek their magic.’
She couldn’t believe he’d managed it. Perhaps she would have to thank Orson, the traitorous bastard, for not revealing that Hark had never returned to Kastonia during those trips he’d claimed to be travelling home to brief the king.
She bit back a smile at the memory of the night she’d caught him fleeing and wondered if he’d been on his way to Flambriar then.
‘But how did you build all of this? I thought nothing existed beyond the border. Anyone who’s ever ventured this far north has never returned. The rest of the world believes it’s desolate – a frozen wasteland.’
A soft smile parted Hark’s lips. ‘That’s what I hope they’ll continue to believe.
’ He dragged a hand through his hair. ‘There were rumours of a town here long ago, before the dragons went to sleep. The magic-wielders whispered about it, though they kept it a secret for a long time before they had the courage to share it with me. We needed somewhere to hide them – somewhere they’d be safe so we took the risk and brought them here.
There were a few half-collapsed buildings sagging beneath the weight of the snow and it was all but a forgotten place.
I thought it was too much in the beginning, that it would be too hard to build anything so far away from the rest of civilisation, but the wielders felt a draw to this place; something magic, they said.
And so we stayed. Stone by stone we built it together, day by day, year by year. ’
‘You have incredible friends,’ she said, meaning every word. But his face was marred with a sort of … sadness, and she hated to see it.
‘They’re more than I deserve,’ he admitted, staring over her shoulder as if the world beyond it would swallow him and make him a better person. ‘And they kept this going after I came to Hadalyn. And Jack… Gods, there isn’t anything I could ever do to make up for what happened…’
‘Could the healers fix him?’ She had no knowledge of the magic the healers bore – or any magic, actually. How she regretted her refusal to listen to the teachings and whatever stubbornness kept her from reading about it when she was older.
‘The magics control things. They can manipulate objects and living things – this building and the materials it’s made of, were created by magics manipulating wood, stone, and glass.
The body is not so different. The healers manipulate what is already there.
I should think they could help him in some way. ’
Arla couldn’t imagine the effects that magic had on the human body, though she thought now that she’d felt the fingers of it when she’d spoken to the strange woman at the festival in Vorstrum.
It had made her feel vulnerable and out of her mind.
She didn’t know how Jack bore that every day, but it wasn’t Hark’s fault.
‘Are Kase and Jack…?’
Hark smiled softly, a warmth filling his eyes. ‘Who knows?’
She smiled back. If that was yet to be revealed, then so be it. She wished them a lifetime of happiness. It was more than she deserved.
‘Will you stay?’ he asked her, with hope shining in his eyes.
Her heart pounded against her chest. She hadn’t thought about what would happen if she made it out of Larkire alive.
It was all too much, too fast. Hark might have planned for this but she never had.
And … was he intending to stay here? To give up the throne of Kastonia and lead this new kingdom instead?
‘I don’t even know what you’re planning,’ she said softly, and she hated the ache in her throat as she tried to blink away the tears. ‘What about your throne, Hark? Just because your father is an evil bastard doesn’t mean you should give up on your kingdom.’
She certainly wouldn’t if she were faced with abandoning Hadalyn.
Hark looked pained, as if she’d struck him in the heart and he didn’t have the ability to stop bleeding.
‘I don’t want Kastonia or its throne. I want Flambriar to be somewhere free of my father’s iron fist. I want to help these people, to guide them, not rule them like he does.
You might not have believed in the gods or magic before, Arla, but for those of us who’ve followed the old religions, the magics represent something so precious that I have to help them.
I have to lead Flambriar and keep them safe.
Damn Kastonia and my father with it! We can build a new world, together, a world in which it doesn’t matter where you’re from or whether the gods blessed you with magic. We can start a new life here.’
Her heart was thundering, her mind spinning with the revelation that Hark had been living a whole secret life whilst keeping his cover in Hadalyn. It was all so much. Too much. She didn’t think she would ever recover from the shock of it.
But there was another part of her, the weak, stupid part of her heart, that longed for it. It would be beautiful, she thought, to spend the rest of her life in these mountains, in this kingdom and … with Hark. But could she?
Had she worked so hard for so long just to abandon Hadalyn in its hour of need and live in peace here?
Thara was quiet, the bond between them suddenly feeling like a faraway thing she didn’t know how to access. Perhaps it was a good thing, because this decision had to be hers and hers alone.
‘I can’t leave them,’ she whispered, lowering her eyes to avoid what she knew would be staring back at her.