Blood and Memory Read Free

Briavel whispered toward the trees, now determined to see her lover one last time, not knowing he was at this very moment just a few miles from entering her own castle’s walls.
    Far sooner than she could have imagined, Valentyna would cast her eyes on Koreldy; kiss him just once more as she so desired.
    Liryk’s expression was grim. Beneath it anger seethed. This should not have happened. The Queen had deliberately granted life, given Koreldy the chance to make a new one elsewhere. She could have easily commanded death. There was friendship between the two, possibly more, if his intuition served him well.
    He could not blame her. Who could help but fall under Koreldy’s spell?
    They had emerged from the cover of the woodland that surrounded the northern rim of the palace grounds. Commander Liryk glanced to his left, where the body of the man he hardly knew but comfortably called friend lay dead in a cart, wrapped in sacking. Combined sorrow and guilt threatened to take over Liryk’s checked emotion, forcing him to look away and back toward the castle.
    Now they had arrived at the famous Bridge of Werryl, where past sovereigns, remembered faithfully in marble, stood proudly on either side and guided visitors into the palace. Liryk raised his hand toward the ramparts, where he knew his guards saw their fellow soldiers approaching through the light mist of dawn. The gate was up, he noticed, and he grimaced. He would have to take a hard look at security again and ensure the castle remained closed to all visitors until permission was formally granted. After Valor’s sudden death, everyone had been so careful, but more recently he had noticed a general slackening of the rules. With an assassin on the loose, who knew what could happen. Their queen must be better protected.
    In the courtyard he wearily handed his horse’s reins to the stable boy and gave orders for Koreldy to be taken to the chapel and laid out. He, like his men, was tired. They had ridden through the night, determined to bring the body back as quickly as possible to ensure that the gossip fled with the evidence. It would flare and rage for a day and then hopefully be forgotten. There was no body, no sign that the grisly death had even occurred. The Forbidden Fruit’s women would be entertaining in that same chamber this very night—no sign of the recent bloodshed in evidence. His mouth twisted at the thought. Poor Koreldy. He deserved better.
    Well, no matter how tired he was now, the next hour would be his most difficult. He suspected that no matter how he counseled her, their headstrong queen would want to see the corpse for herself. He shook his head, resigned. Valentyna was an early riser. Best to go see her immediately and get this ugly business done.
    Liryk made his presence known to another man he liked. Krell, the Queen’s chancellor and former servant to King Valor, was a calm and solid force among Valentyna’s advisers.
    “May I ask if it is urgent, Commander Liryk?” Krell said, shifting papers around his desk. “This is quite an irregular hour to be requesting an audience.”
    Liryk nodded. “Something unexpected. She must be told.”
    “Bad news?” the Chancellor asked. Liryk’s expression was enough to foreshadow the fact that this would not be a happy meeting.
    Liryk would have told him everything anyway; Krell had that way of not showing unnecessary curiosity while still finding out what he felt he should know. It was a masterful skill. He was also a man to trust.
    “It is, I’m afraid. Koreldy is dead.”
    The Queen’s servant looked up sharply from the neat piles of orderly paperwork he trawled through for his monarch. He had single-handedly eased Valentyna into her challenging role as ruler, allaying her fears, guiding her with informed skill, instinctively knowing what her father would expect. In terms of administering the realm, he was a blessing for them all and could rarely be ruffled. However, the expression on his