A Land Of Fire (Book 12) Read Free

him!” Alistair
protested.
    “No?” Dauphine accused. “Then did the
sword appear magically in your hand?”
    Alistair looked about the room, as they
all gathered around her.
    “It was a man who did this. The man who
challenged him on the field in battle: Bowyer.”
    The others looked to each other,
skeptical.
    “Oh was it, then?” Dauphine countered.
“And where is this man?” she asked, looking all about the room.
    Alistair saw no sign of him, and she realized
they all thought she was lying.
    “He fled,” she said. “After he stabbed
him.”
    “And then how did his bloody sword get
into your hand?” Dauphine countered.
    Alistair looked down at the sword in her
hand in horror, and she flung it, clanging across the stone.
    “But why would I kill my own husband-to-be?”
she asked.
    “You are a sorcerer,” Dauphine said, standing
over her now. “Your kind are not to be trusted. Oh, my brother!” Dauphine said,
rushing forward, dropping down to her knees beside Erec, getting between him
and Alistair. Dauphine hugged Erec, clutching him.
    “What have you done?” Dauphine moaned,
between tears.
    “But I am innocent!” Alistair exclaimed.
    Dauphine turned to her with an expression
of hatred, and then turned to all the soldiers.
    “Arrest her!” she commanded.
    Alistair felt hands grabbing her from
behind, as she was yanked to her feet. Her energy was depleted, and she was
unable to resist as the guards bound her wrists behind her back and began to
drag her away. She cared little for what happened to her—yet, as they dragged
her away, she could not bear the thought of being apart from Erec. Not now, not
when he needed her most. The healing she had given him was only temporary; she knew
that he needed another session, and that if he did not get it, he would die.
    “NO!” she yelled. “Let me go!”
    But her shouts fell on deaf ears as they
dragged her away, shackled, as if she were just another common prisoner.

CHAPTER THREE
     
     
    Thor raised his hands to his eyes,
blinded by the light, as the shining, golden doors to his mother’s castle
opened wide, so intense he could barely see. A figure walked out toward him, a
silhouette, a woman he sensed, in every fiber of his being, to be his mother. Thor’s
heart pounded as he saw her standing there, arms at her side, facing him.
    Slowly, the light began to fade, just
enough for him to lower his hands and look at her. It was the moment he had
been waiting for his entire life, the moment that had haunted him in his
dreams. He could not believe it: it was really her. His mother. Inside this
castle, perched atop this cliff. Thor opened his eyes fully and laid eyes upon
her for the first time, standing but a few feet away, staring back. For the
first time, he saw her face.
    Thor’s breath caught in his throat as he
looked back at the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She looked timeless, at
once both old and young, her skin nearly translucent, her face shining. She
smiled back at him sweetly, her long blonde hair falling down past her stomach,
her big bright translucent gray eyes, her perfectly chiseled cheekbone and jawline
matching his. What surprised Thor most as he stared at her was that he could
recognize many of his own features in her face—the curve of her jaw, her lips,
the shade of her gray eyes, even her proud forehead. In some ways, it was like
staring back at himself. She also looked strikingly like Alistair.
    Thor’s mother, dressed in a white silk
robe and cloak, the hood pulled back, stood with her palms out to her sides,
adorned with no jewelry, her palms smooth, her skin like that of a baby’s. Thor
could feel the intense energy exuding from her, more intense than he had ever
felt, like the sun, enveloping him. As he stood basking in it, he felt waves of
love directed toward him. He had never before felt such unconditional love and
acceptance. He felt like he belonged .
    Standing here now, before her, Thor finally
felt as if a part