A Joust of Knights (Book #16 in the Sorcerer's Ring) Read Free

to pass
through an arched opening in the stone when she sensed motion out of the corner
of her eye. She flinched, surprised to see a person standing in the shadows.
    “Gwendolyn?” he said, his voice smooth,
too polished, emerging from the shadows with a smug, small smile on his face.
    Gwendolyn blinked, taken aback, and it
took her moment to remember who he was. She had been introduced to so many
people these last few days, it had all become quite a blur.
    But this was one face she could not forget.
It was, she realized, the King’s son, the other twin, the one with the hair,
who had spoken out against her.
    “You’re the King’s son,” she said,
remembering aloud. “The third eldest.”
    He grinned, a sly grin which she did not
like, as he took another step forward.
    “The second eldest, actually,” he corrected.
“We are twins, but I came first.”
    Gwen looked him over as he took a step
closer, and noticed he was immaculately dressed and shaven, his hair coiffed, smelling
like perfume and oil, dressed in the finest clothes she’d seen. He wore a smug
look, and he reeked of arrogance and self-importance.
    “I prefer not to be thought of as the
twin,” he continued. “I am my own man. Mardig is my name. It is just my lot in
life to be born a twin, one I could not control. The lot, one could say, of
crowns,” he concluded, philosophically.
    Gwen did not like being in his presence,
still smarting from his treatment the night before, and she felt Krohn tense up
at her side, the hairs on his neck rising as he rubbed up against her leg. She
felt impatient to know what he wanted.
    “Do you always linger in the shadows of
these corridors?” she asked.
    Mardig smirked as he stepped closer, a bit
too close for her.
    “It is my castle, after all,” he replied,
territorially. “I’ve been known to wander about it.”
    “ Your castle?” she asked. “And
not your father’s?”
    His expression darkened.
    “Everything in time,” he replied
cryptically, and took another step forward.
    Gwendolyn found herself involuntarily
taking a step back, not liking the feel of his presence, as Krohn began to
snarl.
    Mardig looked down at Krohn
disparagingly.
    “You know that animals do not sleep in
our castle?” he replied.
    Gwen frowned, annoyed.
    “Your father had no qualms.”
    “My father does not enforce the rules,”
he replied. “I do. And the King’s guard is under my command.”
    She frowned, frustrated.
    “Is that why you’ve stopped me here?”
she asked, annoyed. “To enforce animal control?”
    He frowned back, realizing, perhaps,
that he’d met his match. He stared at her, his eyes locking on hers, as if summing
her up.
    “There is not a woman in the Ridge who
does not long for me,” he said. “And yet I see no passion in your eyes.”
    Gwen gaped at him, horrified, as she
finally realized what this was all about.
    “ Passion ?” she repeated,
mortified. “And why would I? I am married, and the love of my life will soon return
to my side.”
    Mardig laughed aloud.
    “Is that so?” he asked. “From what I
hear, he is long dead. Or so far lost to you, he will never return.”
    Gwendolyn scowled, her anger mounting.
    “And even if he should never return,”
she said, “I would never be with another. And certainly not you.”
    His expression darkened.
    She turned to go, but he reached out and
grabbed her arm. Krohn snarled.
    “I don’t ask for what I want here,” he
said. “I take it. You are in a foreign kingdom, at the mercy of a foreign host.
It would best be wise for you to oblige your captors. After all, without our
hospitality, you will be cast into the waste. And there are a great many
unfortunate circumstances which can accidentally befall a guest—even with the
most well-intentioned of hosts.”
    She scowled, having seen too many real
threats in her life to be afraid of his petty warnings.
    “Captors?” she said. “Is that what you call
us? I am a free woman, in case you