Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) Read Free Page B

eyes
following his movements. They had sent search parties out looking
for the man after he escaped from the palace, but he hadn’t turned
up anywhere in the city or in the surrounding areas that they had
looked. It had been as if he disappeared off the face of the
planet.
    Suddenly it lashed out at him and Gryffon
backed up a pace and shrugged. “I can’t tell, but if it is…”
    “What in the world did he get himself into?”
Layna finished the sentence for him.
     
    *
    Natalya patted the horse’s mane underneath
the metal faceplate it wore. All the fanfare that came along with
riding among the Queen’s Knights of Phoenix was a bit much, but she
did understand the importance of making sure that they exuded a
strong presence in order to allay any fears that the people may
still have about the snakes in the government. It appeared that her
own hometown, Hardonia, had been the only one where Lord Telvani
had the chance to use his Faithful among the Knights to perform
heinous deeds in the name of the Queen. So luckily their reputation
was not tarnished too badly. The same could not be said for
Natalya’s heart.
    The Queen had felt horrible that Lord Telvani
had ordered the massacre of every person within the walls of her
hometown to cover up Lord Morven’s boasting. Rather than quietly
snatch the talented in the night as he had been ordered to do, the
lord had found it amusing to announce during the festival that he
would be taking the girl – Natalya’s younger sister, Alina. This is
what had prompted Natalya to leave the town to go after her, which
had ironically saved her own life. She had been convinced that if
she could just get to the Queen and tell her what had happened,
everything would be alright.
    Only she had gotten entangled in an elaborate
plot against the King and Queen and had needed to travel with her
companion, Hunter, to the tribe to the north who they discovered
had been responsible for the attack. Once they returned the baby,
the monarchs were able to break out of the spell that held them,
and Natalya’s optimism had been returned.
    That was when she had found out about the
slaughtering of her townspeople, her parents included. Though she
had made peace with the tragedy, her heart still felt as though it
had a huge hole, and the search for her sister had really only just
begun. Contrary to Natalya’s hope that all would be well as soon as
she had an audience with The Queen, the woman had not known about
Telvani’s collection of the talented, and therefore did not know
where her sister had been sent. But she had put together a special
group of her Knights, and put Natalya in ‘charge’ of them for the
explicit purpose of finding these missing people and rounding up
the last of the people once in the Order.
    She found her mind wandering towards other
directions, not wanting to think too hard about Alina and end up
upsetting herself in front of the Knights. She wondered what Hunter
was up to. She had grown accustomed to traveling with him and had
hoped that he would have chosen to accompany her on the rest of her
quest. Unfortunately, he had decided that he had to go back and
rescue the mysterious woman who had given them the means to escape
with the baby. I don’t know why he cares about some faceless
woman in prison , she thought bitterly, and immediately felt
ashamed. Just because she was jealous that someone else would get
to enjoy his company…But why did she care, anyway? She was still
mad at him for keeping the secret of Hardonia. He had known all
along what had gone on there and had chosen not to share it with
her.
    Natalya reined in her horse and pulled out a
rolled up map from the saddlebag. The Knights closed in around her,
forming a protective circle, and she sighed irritably and tried to
ignore them. Unfurling the map against the horse’s neck, she found
the point that marked the crossroads they had just passed and she
counted the number of finger-lengths until their