Page 1 of A Matter of Destiny

Chapter1

Rayne

My entire body goes cold.

I’m frozen in place like some horribly awkward statue of a woman with wine spilled down her shirt and rainwater dripping off her hair to stain the thick, plush rug of King Donovan’s bedchambers. The of Valgros’ newly-crowned Queen Nepetha makes a sound low in her throat, a sort of growl, as Ensyvir slithers out of the shadows to move toward me.

The Royal Advisor Ensyvir. The one who controls King Donovan’s signet ring, and the man who apparently controls the entire of Valgros.

He’s in the king’s bedchamber. On the king’s wedding night.

“Remove this woman from my chambers,” Nepetha growls.

Ensyvir nods. His teeth flash in the glow of a thousand candles as he gives her a smile that makes me feel like my bones are freezing from the inside out.

“Yes,” Ensyvir purrs. “Tell me all about what you found in my chambers, Rayne.”

I can’t speak. My throat is barely wide enough to breathe, let alone to force words out. King Donovan’s signet ring glows in my memory like the setting sun. The sign of His Royal Highness, all his power and leadership and authority. The signet that made his declarations official, that carried the power of the throne of Valgros across the ocean.

And King Donovan doesn’t even wear it. My eyes creep across the room to the bed, where the mighty King of Valgros lies sprawled out in a drunken stupor on the silken bedspread. Queen Nepetha is already moving around the bed like I’m not even here, and without a glance toward the man she just married.

No. She didn’t marry a man, did she? She married a crown. She married a signet ring, a ring that now rests in Ensyvir’s chambers.

Something cool closes over my arm. I jump. Ensyvir is beside me now, his hand brushing my wrist. His pale cheeks seem flushed with wine, but there’s something made of steel in his gaze.

“Come,” he says.

It’s not an invitation. In my mind, I hear the dull pulse of Doshir’s wings beating the air, churning the ocean’s waves in his wake, and I find that some small part of me is glad of the memory. At least one of us escaped from Valgros. At least one of us is free.

Ensyvir pulls forward, not waiting to see if I follow. And I do follow. What choice do I have, now?

Ensyvir uses the secret passage, sliding the door open somewhat forcefully. The men in the hallway jump to attention when they see us. Ensyvir presses one finger to his lips, like he’s sharing a secret, and their wide eyes hop from me to the Royal Advisor to the corridor leading to the king’s bedchamber like they’re trying to make sense of something. Before they can think to speak, Ensyvir has tugged me down the darkened hallway that leads away from the king’s private chambers.

“Child,” Ensyvir says.

His whisper sounds like the wind over dead leaves; I feel like something with many legs just crawled across my skin.

“You said it didn’t weaken you,” Ensyvir finishes.

He stops, turns, and crosses his arms over his chest. We’re in a broad, open corridor lined with leaded glass. Rain from the storm outside pelts the window and hisses down the empty panes. Ensyvir’s face looks almost white in the thin tendrils of moonlight that manage to pierce the passing clouds and, for a heartbeat, I could almost believe he’s a monster who’s crawled out from my nightmares.

But no. This is much, much worse than any nightmare.

Ensyvir scowls at me until the memory rises through my shock-numbed mind.I regret your association with him,Ensyvir had said about my relationship with King Donovan. If you could even call it a relationship.It hasn’t weakened you?he’d asked.

I hadn’t understood the question, but the answer His Majesty’s Royal Advisor Ensyvir wanted was clear enough. No, I’d answered. Nothing weakened me.

“It didn’t,” I stammer.

Ensyvir laughs. It sounds like someone drawing a blade.

“You know the problem with these little associations?” he hisses, swirling his fingers in the air between us like he’s stirring a cup of tea. “It’s like handing your enemy a weapon, child.”

Does this mean we’re enemies, I wonder? The empty cell in Ensyvir’s chamber dances through my mind. If we’re enemies now, what will the man who controls the signet ring of Valgros do to me once he learns I freed his captives? Once he learns I’m the reason Doshir and his mother flew across the ocean earlier tonight?

“Now that I know what you want,” Ensyvir continues, leaning toward me. “Now that I know what’s important to you, I know how to apply the proper leverage. How to ensure your, shall we say, continuing motivation?”

Kings above, what is he talking about? Again, I don’t understand, but I can guess the answer he wants. A cleaning lady who’s motivated by the promise of future training. A woman who’s spent her entire adult life throwing herself against the walls of the King’s Royal Guard. Someone who’s well trained, who follows protocol, and who is perhaps not too smart. Someone who would never dream of breaking a dragon out of the Royal Advisor’s tower.

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