Page 55 of A Kiss of Flame

‘I’m coming with you,’ Wren shouted as she hurried after Roland and his men, out of the Sacrum and into the courtyard beyond it. Everywhere was a whirl of motion, a flurry of activity.

‘Absolutely not,’ Roland snapped. ‘You will stay here under guard. Olivier—’ His face seemed to freeze. Had he been about to call Anselm as well? The young knight had been his protégé as much as Finn. He’d trusted him. And now…

They didn’t know what they would face down there, what Sassone might have planned. But Wren didn’t care. She looked into the stony face of the Grandmaster and her mind whirled with frustration. He wasn’t going to agree to bring her, she knew that. She almost understood why.

But if she argued now he was going to lock her up somewhere and throw away the key. Grinding her teeth together, she stepped back and Roland nodded to her curtly, pleased, perhaps. Not that he looked it.

How could he look anything other than furious with Elodie missing?

‘You three,’ Roland snapped at a group of young knights Wren didn’t know. ‘Attend the princess. Olivier, you know what to do. Give them their orders.’

It only took moments and then they were gone, leaving Wren, with Olivier still standing behind her.

‘You should go with him,’ she murmured. ‘He’s going to need everyone he has, isn’t he?’

Olivier, clearly reluctant to listen to her right now, shook his head. ‘You need to be safe.’

‘I’m fine. Go with him.’

He hesitated. The light shine on him, he hesitated. He wanted to go, they all did. Wanted to find Elodie and bring her home safe, wanted to follow the Grandmaster wherever he might go. They weren’t going to obey her… not unless she made them.

But still Olivier protested. ‘If anything happens to the queen, Wren?—’

Oh Wren had had enough. ‘Then go and get her back!’

She reached out, wrapping a shaft of light and a twist of shadow together. She wasn’t proud of it, but it was necessary and she could do this. She could make them obey her. She only hoped they would forgive her if they ever found out.

When she spoke again, there was a touch of othertongue in her voice and it rippled with power. Threads of magic wove around them in a translucent net only she could see. It was easy, far too easy, just a little spell, a small push, with words Elodie herself had taught her in the oldest language, the words Elodie had once used on her and oh, how she had hated her for it. ‘You are knights, all of you, servants of the Aurum. Go with the others and bring Elodie back to me.’

It felt like the air left her body all at once.

She shouldn’t have done it. She knew that a heartbeat later, but it was far too late. Before she could act on her regret and unwind the spell, the remaining guards bowed to her and made their way after the other knights, duty- and honour-bound to her by something more than their vows. Something they couldn’t begin to understand.

A wave of revulsion made her gasp. What had she done? What had she been thinking? She had used their loyalty against them.

‘Great light,’ she whispered out loud and the Aurum seemed to stir, as if noticing her for the first time. The light grew a little, but so too did the shadows in the corners. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘You should be,’ Anselm replied, his voice unbearably cold.

Wren jumped, twisting around to face him like a startled cat. The knights taking him to the barracks had followed the others on her command. Everyone else seemed to have left. At the sound of Anselm’s voice, however, Olivier stopped. He had been the last and now he turned back before he reached the gates, rubbing his temples vigorously.

‘Anselm?’ he murmured as if waking from a dream, as if some other reality still clung to his mind.

‘Let him go, Wren,’ said Anselm.

The thread of magic was only a fine one. She didn’t have Elodie’s ability with enchantments. It would have worn off in a little while anyway, by which time Olivier should have been with Roland, attacking the lower city or whatever they were planning to do. He should have gone with the others but he didn’t. Somehow he had been fighting the compulsion. She severed it and Olivier took a step back from her.

‘You… you are her daughter,’ he murmured, and she couldn’t shake the idea that it was an accusation. And a recognition. Like knew like, she thought, absently. Well, she didn’t regret trying to get him out of the way. Now she would have to deal with both of them.

‘I’m something,’ she muttered. Apologies would have to wait. She didn’t have time. ‘I’m angry. Now, where do you think he took her?’ Wren asked Anselm. ‘Where really?’

‘I’m going to get her back,’ he said. Which was not an answer. ‘If I don’t, my life here is over. Everything I’ve worked for. Besides, she is my queen.’

There wasn’t time to discuss this and sooner or later someone was going to notice the three of them standing there in the courtyard.

Anselm was unarmed but he was still a knight. He was Finn’s friend, and hers perhaps as well. And he knew something.

‘I’m coming with you,’ she said.