Page 21 of The Bone King and the Starling

“It does not matter if she makes for the worst queen in Wrath’s history, she is mine and you’ll deal with her just as you put up with me.”

He laughs, his head cocked back. “No easy task. Though if she has you making jokes and getting out of bed this early in the morning, I imagine her shortcomings will be easy to forgive.”

I exhale, my shoulders rolling back. “Yes. She is so soft, Raya would be jealous.” I want that softness here. I want to take her again. Ravage her all day. Forget about the games. Demand her acceptance of what I want from her. Be sure she knows her place is at my side and always will be.

Puhyo whistles between the gap in his front teeth. “I am happy for you, my friend.” As I move to pass by him, he claps me on the back. I meet his gaze. His dark eyes are shining with laughter. It eases me, though I’m not certain why. “The bone king deserves his softness.”

“I want her at my side, never to be parted from her again.” I want to touch her, hold her, squeeze her, speak to her…do what it takes to have her look up at me through those thick, curly black eyelashes with nothing but trust and affection.

“Do not worry, my king. She will need to come back if she intends to receive the reward you promised her.” He sneers the word.

Puhyo had counseled me to wed the female the moment I saw her in the village yesterday morning. It had been to him I’d confided after I saw her the first time, that fated night. He had counseled me away from announcing that I wanted a bed whore for the night in exchange for riches. I had thought otherwise. It seems he’d been right.

“That was a foolish ruse, my king.”

I laugh through my nose and rise to my full height. “I did not want to announce my plans to the room.”

“You insinuated a willing female would receive gold, when the true prize was a kingdom.”

“You have seen these people,” I tell him as we step out into the Winterbren hall. I gesture around the space. Dilapidated andin disrepair, despite the emeralds that sit fat on Lady Rosalind’s neck. “I will marry once, and I do not take mistresses or bed whores. The chief and his wife need disrupt the sanctity of my bond with her, nor the other villagers. That is between us and the gods.”

“Yes, I know. And Ghabari shines down on you with affection.” I can hear him rolling his eyes in his tone.

A more devout believer in the gods than he, I know better than to cross Ghabari, the god of matrimony and sacrifice. He is Raya’s cruel but loyal lover, just as I intend to be to my queen.

“I’m only saying that no matter how brightly Ghabari may shine on you, his smile still did not stop you from rutting the poor sapling before you wed her properly. Ghabari would not be pleased in this.”

“Ghabari knows what will come.” I stand in obstinance, knowing that Puhyo speaks the truth. “A ceremony is only a formality. She is mine in all ways that count.”

“Would that she knew that, too. You need to be clear with the girl.”

I shove Puhyo out ahead of me as I approach the high table and take a seat. A thrall immediately runs to attend to me. “I did not ask for your counsel. Now find her before your king of lambs becomes your king of pain.”

Puhyo smiles at me, looking every bit the mischievous boy I knew once, and I can see on his face that he is pleased, despite my threats. He gives me a subtle nod. “My lord.”

THE DOOMED

The chief’s speaker may have been speaking through his arse when he told tales of the bounty of this place last night over King Calai’s feast, but one thing he did not lie about was the beauty of its women. In all the years I’ve known Calai — since we were boys, all rough and tumble, before we trained with blades made of steel and were content to prod one another with wooden sticks, thinking we were brave — I’ve never seen him react in such a way to a female.

Granted, I’ve never seen a female who looked quite like she does, either. My first thought was that she’d been stolen from some land in a raid, brought here by a boat, but not one of ours. If she had been, Calai would have seen her then and I would have remembered. So, I asked around and learned that it was the girl’s mother who was brought over by King Calai’s father on Calai’s very first raid as a boy.

Having glimpsed her in the crowd, one female among many, I’d been surprised that this was the female who’d so enchanted the king the previous night. Calai had hardly spared her a look in the light of day. I thought perhaps, he’d changed his mind. Then,dismounting his horse in the barns after completing his tour of the city, he’d turned to me and said, “She is even more stunning in the light of day.”

“Who?” I’d asked.

He’d given me an incredulous look. “My wife.”

I have learned as much as I can about her in the past day — knowing that females can bring males all kinds of trouble and I have no desire to see my king and friend betrayed or broken by one — only to discover a rather sad, short story about a young girl orphaned with no home. Waiting for her reward.

Ghabari is good.

He brought her a prize most sacred. For none will treat her better or protect her more fiercely than our king — that is, if he doesn’t frighten her away first. His intensity and violence are devils to be bargained with and one as soft as she could fall to them if she isn’t careful. If she isn’t clever. I know naught of her mind and have little faith that I’ll be given much occasion to speak with her privately to learn more about her thoughts than this opportunity I’m afforded now. I intend to use the moment to my advantage.

I ask several villagers for directions, and this morning, all know of whom I speak when I ask them for the female the king selected. Even those who were not in attendance at last night’s feast no doubt have heard the rumors already.

I am pointed in the direction of the kitchens. Preparations for first meal are well underway, with thralls and cooks streaming in and out of the structure built opposite the great hall on the town square. It is a squat, wooden structure with a patchy thatch roof and only two chimneys.

It looks far too small to accommodate the dozens of people bustling in and out of it — quite a few more than one would expect for a village this small. But I imagine that the feast theking supplied for the full three-day period would excite many. I don’t doubt there’s quite a bit of thievery going on as well.

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