Page 65 of Court of Treachery

Saradon clapped his hands together. “Oh, you have my fire, daughter. Oh yes,” he said with a knowing smile. “You are a bornladyof my House now. A princess in your own right, if your true lineage be accounted for, for I shall be king of all these lands soon. But, one step at a time. I release you from your bonds.”

He slowly lowered her to the floor, where she stood shakily.

“Together, we will avenge my son’s and granddaughter’s—your mother’s—deaths.” He rumbled with a flicker of anger, and his brow darkened at the thought. “I saw the death that was wrought for your mother, and I will discover what happened to my son—and who is responsible. I promise it will be avenged. Come. You have no need of them now.” Saradon gestured at Aedon, Brand, and Erika, turning away.

Harper moved between Saradon and her companions, crossing her arms. “I go nowhere without them.”

Saradon’s attention slid to them, glancing over them in more detail. “You travel with curious companions, daughter.”

Harper squirmed at the word. “Don’t call me that,” she said, scowling.

Saradon pursed his lips. “Who do you travel with that you would guard so? Do you bring me more allies?”

“Never,” Brand spat from behind her.

“Come, you cannot reject me,” Saradon said, his tone honeyed, but with a dangerous venom. “You do not know me. Only rumours that have been twisted for half a millennium.”

“We know enough,seeenough, to know that we will never ally with you,” said Harper, calling on her magic.

Saradon snuffed it out in an instant without even twitching. His form darkened once more, and the entire hall seemed to darken with him. Even the flames within the iron braziers flickered out for a faint moment before sputtering back to life. “Do not be so foolish, daughter. I will wrest it from all of you if I must. Whom do you travel with? I will decide their use.”

“I travel with Aedon Lindhir Riel of House Felrian, Br?—”

Before she could finish, Saradon hissed. She was shoved aside by his magic, and Aedon dragged forward to sprawl before him.

“You.You are of House Felrian? How relate you toRaedon, he who killed my granddaughter?” Saradon snarled.

Aedon did not answer, but Saradon had it a moment later when he seized it from Aedon’s mind. His attention wholly focused on the elf, he advanced, seeming to grow by the second, shadows building behind him. “Oh, it was indeed fate that brought you here, foolish elf. An eye for an eye shall be taken, the blood price exacted. I will relish your slow punishment. You will pay for the pain caused to mine own, elf.”

Aedon held his head high and his jaw firm. His eyes darkened, showing no apprehension at the half-elf’s words. He hid any fear well. Had Harper’s own body not coursed with fear, she would have felt a flutter of respect, but it was crushed under the torrent of terror that rampaged through her. How would they ever escape now?

At that moment, the doors crashed open. The stench announced their company before Harper could twist to see who joined them. Her heart leapt into her throat. The biggest, ugliest, most foul and dark goblin she had ever seen advanced through the hall. He wore dwarven armour in a mockery of their style, for it had been ripped and patched to fit his grotesque form.As he approached, loping with an unbalanced, animalistic gait, she saw his necklace was of the metal and jewel dwarven beard embellishments she had seen Ragnar and his kin wear… and bones. She dared not wonder whom they belonged to.

He was too close for comfort as he prowled past them, taking no small interest in the small knot they formed in the centre of the hall. His goblins followed, cavorting, chattering, and shrieking as they flooded into the space, surrounding them. Harper froze, barely daring to breathe. She had her dagger, but her dwarven sword had been lost in the heat of their capture. She had no idea whether her companions held any of their own weapons, and she did not dare take her attention from the goblin to look. It mattered not, for they were still bound in their magical bonds. There were so many—if the goblins turned upon them, Harper and her companions would be dead.

With a word from Saradon, barked harshly and loudly across the space, the goblins retreated, grouping by the doors.

“I will have an audience,” said thepaschain twisted Common Tongue. He stood firm, though his kin deserted him under the threat of Saradon’s crackling magic. “These prisoners aremine. Give them to me.”

Saradon snorted with derision. “You presume too much,pascha. They belong to me, and I will not yield them.”

At his words, the goblin chieftain hissed and settled into a crouch, his clawed hands twitching as though he wished to attack Saradon but did not dare.

“I will remind you,” said Saradon through gritted teeth, “how I have already delivered you conquest beyond your greatest desires and capabilities. You shall have nothing more of me through greed. I take my own conquest. They aremine.”

The goblin scuttled forwards on all fours, hissing and gnashing his teeth.

Harper’s attention flicked between the goblin and the half-elf.

Saradon raised his hands, which now contained crackling, dark flames. “I will not warn you again. You intrude upon my business,pascha. I will not suffer it. This hall is mine. You will not come here again without my permission. Leave now, and do not think of these prisoners again. They will be beyond your reach. Go and find sport with your other captives.”

Thepascha’seyes, hazy and unfocused, slid over Harper and her companions. To her surprise, she watched as he turned and ambled away, almost as if in a daze. At a crack of thunderous magic from Saradon, the rest of the goblin horde shrieked into life and fled, too. The doors boomed shut. Saradon’s crackling magic still lurked, as if he were too angry to let it go.

“Those confounded savages,” he cursed. “Would that it be soon I have no need for them.”

A shock coursed through her as Dimitri stepped from the shadows. “Indeed, Lord Ravakian,” Dimitri replied smoothly. He refused to meet Harper’s gaze as she turned to him, ire rising within her.

“I will see to it that there is no chance they touch a hair on your head,” Saradon said to Harper, his dark attention falling to her. “For now, until I have no further need of them, your companions are mine. You are a curious lot, and I will know you all more intimately before I am done with you.”

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