A Betrayal of Storms by Ben Alderson

Chapter 26

It took little persuading for Queen Lyra and King Thallan to agree for Father to be put under the Oakstorm's protection. I knew it from the moment I saw their mortified expressions as we interrupted their dinner, covered in his blood. There was no room for disagreement, nor did Tarron allow for any.

Tarron had split the air in two with no more than a swift slice of a hand, much like he had the first time I had seen him, creating a portal we could step between without walking a great distance. It was easier to pull Father's body through it and allow the horde of the queen's personal guards to enter and obtain the bodies of the attackers whom Tarron had discarded in a pile beyond the room's door.

Everything happened so quickly. Father was still unconscious as Tarron took him away, promising that he would give me time with Father before they left for the Oakstorm Court. In a blink he had stepped through another spindle of light, Father's unconscious body draped over his shoulder as though he weighed no more than an empty satchel.

Queen Lyra tried to engage in conversation, but I was unable to say much. She likely told me what we waited for, yet I could not focus on anything but the storm in my mind.

Father was a Hunter. At least he had been. I was not sure what it meant to me. The marking across his skin was evidence enough to know that he was the enemy to everything and everyone in this court and beyond. Had he been the one that tipped off the Hunters outside of Berrow? Perhaps it was never Lady Kelsey at all.

These questions and more haunted me with each, laboured breath.

"I should never have left you." Erix stormed into the room, which had turned out to be the queen and king's own personal quarters. It made sense as it was decorated in wealth, with a lavish covering of food across the table in the living section of their rooms.

Erix's hands found my arms, gripping a hold of them as though a sudden, threatening gust would blow me away in a moment. "Are you hurt? Tell me what happened. I should have refused to leave you. It is my duty and I gave into a command I did not feel comfortable with."

"Please..." My voice was a whisper, it was all I could manage. "Not here."

Erix snapped his attention upwards, surveying the room and those who filled it as though it was the first time he realised where he was. "Forgive me for my intrusion."

"Forgiven." Queen Lyra's voice was blunt, but coated in a false softness to dull the sharpness hidden within it.

"Permission to take Robin to his room?"

"I cannot grant you that," Queen Lyra said, pacing the room whilst her husband sat on the edge of a chair with his fist holding up his chin. "I fear this palace is no longer safe to stay at all. For any of us. If my sister's poisonous influence has spread further than my investigation can reach then I cannot ensure Robin's safety... no matter the company I believed I could trust."

My body felt numb, my mind the only part of me alive like a bolt of lightning had crashed across my skull.

"He needs to rest." Erix's tone matched that of the authority of the queen; he was both demanding and pleading.

"And he shall. Once we reach Farrador we will all be welcome to rest knowing we are far from the threats faced here."

Farrador, the capital of the Cedarfall Court, where Orion's body was travelling to, where Althea had grown up.

Erix flinched, stopping himself from wrapping an arm around me. I almost urged him to do it, to not hold back and take me in his arms.

"What is to say yet another assailant waits for me in Farrador?" I question. Every head in the room turned to me. Perhaps it was the surprise that I had finally uttered a word, or the frozen touch my statement left upon the room.