Only then would he kill Edana. She would lose everything she cared about. Her family, her friends, her home, and eventually her life.

  Morfram would do anything to make it happen.

  CHAPTER 32--EDANA

  Standing side-by-side with her sister, hands laced, Edana stared at her mother. The sun was shining down on them. The wind blew gently off the water. It should have been a beautiful day, but their mother’s actions had cast a pall over everything.

  Alain had taken the precaution of having the queen’s hands and feet bound.

  Edana was grateful. She knew she could never hurt anyone so helpless, and right now, those restraints were the only thing saving the woman.

  “Let’s try this again,” Edana said. “Did you kill our father?”

  Queen Bidelia, once considered the most beautiful woman in all of Eire, blew the scorched ends of hair out of her face, and looked at them. “I killed your father,” she said with a small smile.

  Edana desperately wanted to slap the smile off her face. She restrained herself. Barely.

  “Ianna’s father,” Bidelia continued, “is very much alive.”

  Ianna released Edana’s hand and stepped forward. Her arm swung out and connected with Bidelia’s face for the second time before anyone could react.

  Bidelia’s cry of pain was met without sympathy.

  “Cian is my father. I don’t care what you say,” she hissed.

  Bidelia’s face was stricken. She turned to Edana. “You did this,” she spat.

  Edana threw her hands up. “You and Morfram seem to blame me for everything. But I’ll bite. How is this my fault?”

  “You offended Morfram too many times to count. You think you can use your pretty face and people will do whatever you want them to. Take this one here,” she pointed her bound hands at Phelan. “We thought he was trying to kill you. That you offended someone else more than Morfram. Now he’s watching you like a puppy.”

  “That’s the second time someone’s said that,” Phelan mused. “I don’t think I like it.”

  Edana rolled her eyes. “How exactly did I insult Morfram?” she asked Bidelia.

  “You give orders like you have the right, like you outrank him. Then you expect him, and everybody else, to follow them.”

  “I do outrank him,” she said slowly.

  “You’ve done nothing to be worthy of your position. You were born into it, yet you have no loyalty for me or for Morfram. What about the other nobles? No! You care more about those commoners in the Navan. They don’t deserve our help,” she barked. “You’ll see. When Morfram’s king, they’ll be back in their proper places--starving in a gutter somewhere.”

  “Do you hear yourself?” Edana asked, shocked. “Those are our people. Most of them work hard to take care of their families. Then they’re taxed until they can barely afford to take care of themselves.”

  Bidelia sniffed. “If they can’t take care of themselves, then why should we bother to take care of them?”

  “Because it’s our duty!”

  “Not for much longer. Things will change when our next ruler is crowned,” Bidelia asserted.

  “You think this will all be done by the king?”

  Bidelia lifted her chin. “Morfram will see it done.”

  “Did you ever consider that Morfram won’t be King?” Edana asked. “Ever consider that Father already chose his successor?”

  Bidelia laughed. “If you think you’ll be Eire’s next ruler, you’re even more arrogant than I thought.”

  “First of all, Morfram’s the one who told me I would rule in the first place. I hadn’t really considered it. Secondly, Father named Phelan to succeed him. In case you missed it before, Phelan is Fal’s grandson. It’s a pretty good bet the gods will accept his suit.”

  Bidelia’s face went white. “You’re lying.”

  “Why would she lie?” Phelan asked. “Didn’t you just stab me? Am I not standing here unharmed?” He turned to Edana. “Crazy must run in your family.”

  Kyl chuckled from his place beside Ianna, earning an elbow to his side. “What? You’ve got to admit, he has a point.”

  “Oh really?” Ianna’s brow winged up.

  “Well actually--” Kyl began. He was interrupted by Bidelia’s pleas to her younger daughter.

  “You have to help me, Ianna,” she begged. “They want to hurt me. Please don’t let them hurt me. I’m your mother!”

  Ianna looked down at their mother with ice in her eyes. “I’d say they’d be justified. You tried to kill Edana, also your daughter, and ended up attacking our new king. You’d do better to ask him to spare your life. I have no mercy to spare right now.”

  Tears flowed down Bidelia’s pale face. The woman might not have loved her, Edana thought, but she’d always loved Ianna.

  She turned to Phelan to see him staring down at Bidelia. His golden gaze was hard, uncompromising. His long hair when paired with the look in his eyes gave him the air of a very dangerous man. He surveyed the queen for a moment before crouching down so that their eyes were on the same level. “You’ll tell us what we need to know. If you do, I’ll make sure you aren’t executed for treason. Understand?”

  Bidelia nodded slowly as she looked at her hands.

  “You admitted in the cave that you killed Cian. Is that true? Did you murder the king?”

  “No,” she answered quickly.

  Phelan looked to Edana. “Found another new power. I can tell when someone’s lying.” He turned back to Bidelia. “Let’s try this again. A little honesty would be appreciated. Did you murder King Cian?”

  She swallowed visibly. “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “I started poisoning him over a year ago. Small amounts at first, but more and more as time went on and he didn’t die.”

  “What was the poison?”

  “It‘s called Trailing Bittersweet. It‘s a plant that looks almost like a vine. It grows around flowers and other plants. A small amount will only make a person sick. With prolonged exposure, the body‘s ability to fight off the poison wears down.”

  “Where did you get it?”

  Bidelia looked at Ianna. There was regret in her eyes. “I grew it.”

  Edana and Ianna had gripped each other’s hands tightly. Their mother just confessed to killing their father. From the look in her eyes, Edana thought her mother might see the mistake she’d made.

  “Why?” Phelan continued. He stood and laid a comforting hand on Edana’s shoulder.

  “Morfram wanted to be king.” She shrugged her elegant shoulders.

  “Then why come after the sword?”

  “He’d heard rumors about its existence years ago. He was obsessed. When he heard the King’s Champion had returned home, he decided the sword was his answer to defeating him--or you, I suppose. With you out of the way, he would go to the stone. Eventually, he would get the spear and the cauldron. He wanted to assure that if he got the throne he would be able to keep it.”

  “And he wants to kill Edana over some imaginary slight?” Phelan prompted.

  Bidelia’s eyes drifted to meet Edana’s. Edana could see them frosting over. So much for hoping her mother would see the error of her ways. “She thinks everyone’s weaker than she is. That she has to protect everyone.

  “Morfram shut down Cian’s program to feed the poor and stopped sending food into the city. He said we didn’t need to pay for them. If they couldn’t take care of themselves, then they didn’t deserve our help. They’re weak,” she bit out. “Then Edana started sneaking out of the citadel at night. Suddenly the commoners have money and food. It wasn’t hard to figure out who was behind it. She directly opposed Morfram’s wishes. Then she had the nerve to steal from Morfram. Money went missing out of his office. It wasn’t hard to figure out who was behind it, though I wasn‘t in Tara when it happened,” she admitted.

  “Sorry I called you a spoiled brat,” Phelan said to Edana.

  She found her lips twitching. Leave it to Phelan to take time out from an interrogation to do the unexpected. “Father was sick, and Morfram didn’t want to deal with the expense.” She shrugged. “Kyl and Ianna were helping too.”

  “Ianna wouldn’t do that,” Bidelia snapped. “She knows what’s expected of her.”

  “And what’s that?” Ianna asked. “Letting innocent people starve to death?”

  “Obedience.”

  Ianna laughed. There wasn’t much humor in the sound. “You don’t really know me at all. For your information, I was the one who stole from Morfram. It was easy. I walked right into his office while Edana and Kyl stood watch.”

  Bidelia’s eyes were angry. “Just get on with it,” she told Phelan, turning her gaze away from her daughters.

  “Where did the ships come from?”

  Now the queen’s smile was sly. “You’ve heard of Barbary pirates, haven’t you? They make excellent allies.”

  Until they stabbed you in the back, Edana thought. But why would Morfram use them? They typically raided coastal towns or other ships. Their ships wouldn’t do them any good in this type of war. Then it hit her.

  “He wants to use them to drive the people from the coastal towns inland.”

  “Ah, clever girl.”

  Edana glared at her mother’s purred interruption.

  “Why would he do that?” Kyl asked.

  “Think about it.” Edana didn’t like this. “If the people are driven out of their homes, they’ll want to report it to the king, the royal family, or the royal guard. Morfram’s obviously made some deal with the pirates. I assume it has something to do with all the plunder they can get from the towns. Probably an additional fee. He makes a show out of driving them out of Eire and gains the support of anyone who opposes him as ruler.”

  “But he’d still have you and Phelan to deal with,” Ianna pointed out.

  Edana shook her head. “Donal was supposed to deliver me to Morfram. I would get the sword, he would kill me, and

  then he would use the sword on Phelan, even if he didn’t know who Phelan was. If he did, he didn’t want to let him out of the dungeons alive. She just said they thought he was an assassin sent in to kill me.”

  “I thought about it,” Phelan smirked.

  Edana made a face in his direction. “Nothing’s going the way he planned. If we’re lucky, that means the Ottomans haven’t had a chance to start raiding yet.”

  “Until you and I are put down, he can’t afford to set them loose,” Phelan pointed out. “So we’ll go to Ulaid, meet up with Alain’s uncle. He’s the current northern commander,” he said to Kyl and Ianna. “Then we march south to Tara.”

  “We can’t attack the city.”

  “We won’t have to,” Ianna put in. “If we can get Phelan to the stone while all those troops are gathered, any Eirans fighting for Morfram will have to lay down their weapons or risk treason. Plus, we’ll be stealing his thunder right out from under him. After that, dealing with his mercenaries should be fairly simple.”

  “The soldiers haven’t already committed treason?” Kyl asked. “When the Queen went missing, Edana was in charge. When she left, you were.”

  “Morfram could have convinced them that I wasn’t. Normally, the king would name his successor publicly before his death. Father didn’t do that. Lacking any public declaration, the Code of Kings states that the royal family has thirty days to name a successor to go to the stone. In the meantime, the oldest male of the family reigns in the interim.

  “Father’s the first king in centuries that didn’t have any male children. There’s nothing in the Code about who’s in charge if there aren’t any boys. Morfram would be familiar with the Code and the ways he could manipulate it.”

  Edana stared at her sister in surprise.

  Ianna blushed. “What? I like to read.”

  Phelan laughed. “You’re handy to have around.” He rubbed his hands together. “It’s a plan.”

  “Ulaid, soldiers, Tara, and the stone. In that order.” Edana nodded. “Did I miss anything?”

  “What do you want to do with her?” Phelan motioned to her mother.

  Bidelia still had a cruel smile plastered on her face. Edana didn’t know this woman. Not really. This woman was a murderer. Had she really been so blind not to notice the hatred that burned in those bright green eyes?

  Ianna wrung her hands in obvious distress.

  “We’ll take her with us to Ulaid for holding,” Edana told them. “After Morfram’s defeated and Phelan is king, she can be moved to Tara and tried for treason.”

  “Ianna just said opposing you isn’t treason.” Bidelia’s smile was wide and triumphant.

  “No,” Edana conceded. “But regicide is.” Her mother’s smile melted away. “Let’s go. We’ve got work to do.”

  CHAPTER 33--KYL

  The ten-day ride to Ulaid was pretty uneventful. Except for the weather and that Edana and Phelan’s bickering had resumed. For eight of the last ten days, the rain had poured down, muddying the roads they were on and slowing their progress as they moved northeast away from the cliffs of Moher. The only bright side Kyl saw was that the rain on the leaves made the trees along the road glisten when a stray beam of light snuck through the clouds. As for the bickering, it seemed mostly friendly, but there’d been a few times when the two had to be pulled apart.

  Kyl could laugh about it now. Edana had a quick temper, while Phelan seemed slower to anger, more controlled. Even so, when he got going, the two seemed pretty evenly matched. But gods! They argued about everything--when to stop for the day, the best place to make camp, the quickest route between Ulaid and Tara, whether they would tell the northern commander and his soldiers that Phelan would be their next king…the list went on.

  Kyl, Ianna, and Alain just stood back and enjoyed the show, while some of the other soldiers placed bets regarding when the two might come to blows. Even there they seemed evenly matched. Phelan definitely had the physical advantage, but Edana was crafty and had a sword that could shoot fire.

  The blasted sword scared Kyl to death. Edana’s supernatural sword wasn’t all they had to deal with though. Phelan learned several of his new abilities--often by accident. His strength grew, his senses were heightened to an unbelievable level, and he could occasionally read minds.

  Kyl had to admit he’d been a bit stunned when Phelan had been arguing back and forth with Edana, who didn’t even manage to say a single word out loud. It seemed to disconcert Phelan as well, and he promised he would try to get a better handle on that one. He said he didn’t want to go traipsing around in people’s minds, learning all of their dirty secrets. Edana had laughed then.

  Her laughter lasted right up until their next argument.

  At dusk, their group agreed to camp outside Ulaid’s city walls and go into the town in the morning. Kyl fully agreed. Guards tended to get twitchy at night, especially when a couple dozen people, all but two of them soldiers, came riding in after nightfall.

  Despite their arguing, Phelan and Edana spent as much time together as possible. Surprisingly--at least it was surprising to him--they discussed more than the upcoming battle. Once, Kyl heard them talking about Phelan’s mother. He didn’t want to eavesdrop on another conversation about the man’s family. The first time, with Moira, had been necessary. Now it would just be rude, so he’d left them alone.

  Friendship between Edana and Phelan could only benefit them all. Especially him, Kyl thought. This gave him more time alone with Ianna when Alain and his small group of men went out to scout the area, as they were doing now.

  One of the men had dragged a fallen log near the fire so Ianna wouldn’t have to sit on the ground. They seemed less concerned with Edana’s sensibilities. She’d been dubbed one of the men, though most were occasionally seen casting admiring looks in her direction.

  Apparently, they found her combination of hot temper and dainty beauty appealing. More fool they, he thought.

  Kyl approached the fire and sat next to Ianna. She continued to stare into it. Her hair was loose and the light from the fire turned her copper locks to flame. At least they’d been lucky enough to get new breeches and tunics before they’d left the western coast. They weren’t exactly clean after so long on the road, but at least they weren’t torn and covered in blood.

  Kyl nudged Ianna’s shoulder. Her face was pale and her eyes were glazed with exhaustion. “You okay?”

  Ianna offered a tired smile. “I’ve never ridden so much in my life. Between the horses, my mother’s complaining, and watching Edana and Phelan argue, I’m exhausted.”

  Kyl laughed. “I was just thinking the same thing about those two.” He rubbed his palms on his thighs, hoping to rub the knots out of his muscles. “Where do they get the energy? I’m hoping when we go into the city tomorrow, they’ll relax a bit. At least in front of the men.”

  “They will. Edana said they made a deal. I think they’re trying to work out the kinks before what little privacy they have is lost. It’s kind of nice though.”

  “What is? Their fighting?”

  Ianna chuckled. “Edana’s never had any close friends outside of you and me. She never had time. Then Phelan comes along when our world is turned upside down. The two of them are well-matched.” The sound of raised voices could be heard now. Ianna smiled. “Sometimes, anyway.”

  “What about you? You don’t have a lot of close friends either.”

  She shrugged. “I’ve never really needed any. I had you and Edana, my books, my mother, and Aral.” She was quiet for a moment. “How did I miss it, Kyl? My mother’s a murderer. And Morfram’s my father? How could I not know?”

  Kyl draped an arm over her shoulder in a friendly gesture he’d used all his life. Ianna leaned into him. “We all missed it. Your mother has never been the kindest person. Think back to how she treated some of the people in the citadel. I think people generally ignored it because she has a pretty face. People underestimate the pretty ones. That’s why you and Edana are always treated like you might break if you’re bumped wrong.”

 

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