Avalyne Series 01: The Queen of Carleon Read Free

fall back into its old practices of isolation and they would be in the same vulnerable place that Balfure had found them.
    Arianne did not have to hear what was being discussed to know that the subject of greatest concern at this time was the rampage of the Berserkers across Northern Province. Dare had told her the night before that he would have to dispatch soldiers to clear out the infested lands so that the business of farming and industry could resume once more.  They need to feed and they need to build to forge a new future and that could not be done if towns were being besieged by the remains of Balfure’s monstrous armies.
    It was Aeron with his keen elven senses that first noticed her arrival. The others followed his gaze stopped immediately what they were doing to face her. She stifled a laugh when she saw Dare’s pained expression, as he wondered what sin he had committed to warrant an unexpected visit to call him out. Poor Dare, she thought and knew that she had much amends to make to her husband, who could not conceive of her unhappiness if there was something he could do to change it.
    ‘ Your highness,’ Ronen, the second highest authority in the kingdom, greeted her. She always found that he was such a contrast to Dare with his dark blond hair worn loose, as that was the fashion for men in Carleon who wished to appear well-groomed unlike Dare’s perpetually unruly locks.  
    ‘Ronen ,’ she answered with a slight bow of her head.
    Ronen was given the title of Bân because he was the first captain of Sandrine to follow Dare when the exiled prince returned to the city to rallying the forces needed to fight Balfure. By the time Dare had arrived, Ronen’s spirit was near exhausted from having to uphold Balfure’s occupation of his homeland. A soldier with a good heart, he was not much older than Dare and enforcing Balfure’s law was driving him to breaking point.
    The arrival of the king had renewed him and given him a sense hope while Ronen reminded Dare of a childhood friend and a trusted member of his circle who died before the war against Balfure had begun. Ronen’s renewed sense of hope and Dare’s memory built a bond between them that was more than the service of a lord to his king, it was one of real friendship.
    There was no need for informality when she regarded Aeron. He was fair like all her people were fair. Tall and lean, his brown almost black hair was worn loose and always seemed wild and tousled even though it was braided in places to keep from being unruly. Only the tips of his elven ears were exposed through the dark strands. Aeron was handsome and never lacking in female company though he had yet to bonded to anyone. Even though he had walked Avalyne for a thousand years, to men he had the appearance of a thirty-year old.
    ‘ My queen ,’ he said, his dark blue eyes dancing with mischief while a small smile crossed his lips.
    Arianne rolled her eyes at the formal greeting, wondering how it was that Aeron with whom she had spent many summers as a child during Lylea’s visits to Eden Halas, could still be as vexing as when were children. No matter how many times she reminded him that since she had given him first kiss when they were both eight, had witnessed his first fall out of a tree, and that they had known each other most of their lives, he continued to ignore her request to call her by name. Arianne was convinced he was doing it to be annoying like he was when they were children.
    Dolt . 
    ‘ Arianne, is something wrong?’ Dare asked his wife gingerly as she was easier to provoke these days than an ogre with a bad tooth.   
    ‘ Nothing my love,’ Arianne assured him, and disarmed his anxiety with a smile he’d know was meant just for him. ‘I would just like a moment alone with my king if my lords do not mind?’ She glanced at the two men.
    ‘ Of course,’ Ronen answered without hesitation and glanced at Dare for the king’s leave to depart.
    ‘ I will send for