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THE STORM LET LOOSE its fury that night as Anna paced from the elaborately framed mirror that revealed how malicious she looked when anger overcame her, to the closet where she kept her warmest cloaks. She could run away from all of this, from her father’s wicked schemes, Chase’s deranged proposals, and Hadley’s incorrigible disobedience. She could easily don one of these robes, steal one of her father’s horses, and ride away. Where? That was easy. She’d escape to Prasa Potama where at least people acted decently to one another and there’d be no one pulling strings to trap her into doing what she hated. Perhaps she could reignite the flame that she and King Barin had when he was still a young prince and she the daughter of a trusted nobleman. Her father had ruined all of that, conspiring to a coup against Barin’s father with the other lords of the council. Lord Sylvester flaunted his influence as did the other noblemen. But unlike them, her father never gave up his ambitions of becoming king. What was worse, he had trained her for war ever since she was small, innocent, and unaware. Now that she was an adult, he expected her full support.
As for Chase! Anna didn’t blame the wizard for seeking a way out of the rebellion, but how brazen to steal the very magic the Influencers kept under lock and key! How unintelligent to assume they wouldn’t discover his treachery? He had a lot of nerve asking her to help throw an axe-head into her father’s campaigns all the while disguising himself with the Influencer’s magic! She had no desire to abduct any more peasant children, but now that Hadley had burst into the picture with the very people she told the boy to stay clear of, she was trapped.
The boy tapped on the door as he entered at the same moment Anna threw her hairbrush on the bed. Hadley jumped back.
“Whoa, Milady. Did I come at the wrong time?” His childish grin failed to amuse her.
“I’m beginning to believe any time you come is the wrong time, Hadley.”
Hadley crept into the room and took off his cap that had plastered his curls tight against his head. Rain had saturated his clothes, and mud clung to his shoes.
“Hadley, you’re repulsive!” She grabbed a clay alabastron from her vanity and let a dollop of infusion drop to the floor in front of him. The room filled with the scent of a summer bouquet. He sneezed.
“What are you doing?” he asked angrily.
“Ridding my room of your stink. Sit down. I need to lecture you.”
As arrogant as the boy was, he always succumbed to Anna’s will without argument—at least when they were alone. But the boy was irredeemable, and she couldn’t trust him to do anything she told him to in her absence. Hadley went to the only chair in her room and sat.
“Why did you bring those people from Tuluva to our manor?”
Hadley snickered. “What do you mean why? You know why. Your father told me to. He needs them for the war.”
“You need to stop doing everything my father tells you to do. He put me in charge of you. Why don’t you ever listen to me? I told you to stay away from those strangers.”
“And as soon as your father heard about folks coming from Tuluva, he had me fetch them.”
“Who told my father about them?”
Hadley’s face turned red. He put his cap on and looked away.
“You? Did you tell him what I said?” Anna asked.
“No. I only told him that you’d be mad. I didn’t think you’d get in trouble.”
She stormed across the room, frustrated with the boy. It seemed she had no influence in this household at all even when she’d been given authority by her parents.
“Why did you say that? Now he thinks I’m working against him.”
“Because I’m not like you, Milady. I don’t sit around and wonder if the things I do are right or wrong. I just do them. Afterwards, if there’s consequences to pay, I either eat the crow, or fly away with its mate.”
Anna rolled her eyes.
“You might laugh, but if you were me you’d be the same way. It’s not easy being an orphan, you know. Depending on folks who aren’t my kin. Having to slave away for meals.”
“Oh, stop playing that game! My father has taken you in like a son.”
Hadley shrugged and slumped in the chair. “So, he tells me. I wouldn’t know cause I never had a father. But I suppose that’s why I get away with a lot of things, some you don’t even know about. But I’d never disobey the baron. I need his approval. He’s the only one who ever did right to me.” With that Hadley’s eyes misted and his face reddened.
“Stop that. Everyone here does right to you.”
He shrugged and sniveled, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. “Besides, I’m liking what he’s employed me to do. You might think raising an army’s a terrible thing, but someone’s going to be shooting arrows your way some day and if you don’t have a quiver full of bolts, they’re going to hit you. At the blacksmiths, the boy from Tuluva showed off his skills. He’s a good archer. Better than most of the boys on the team. We need him and your father praised me for fetching him.”
She opened her mouth to respond, but her father stepped into her room, and like a snake slithering into the shadows, Hadley made his escape.
“What’s he doing here?”
“He came to tell me it’s raining.”
Lord Sylvester peered down the hall in the direction the boy ran and shook his head. “Foolish lad. He spends too much time in the castle. He has work to do elsewhere.”
Her father’s relationship with Hadley made Anna wince for it was obvious to her that he had no real affection for the boy, even though Hadley thought Lord Sylvester loved him. Hadley wasn’t his son, his servant, nor his puppet, but her father used the lad like one, just like he used her. Not with force. No, she seldom saw a whip in his hand. His control came from his voice, his eyes, his body movements. He could make her feel like a dog in a pigsty if he chose to, shaming her until she wished she’d never been born. She’d seen him do it to Hadley. He would have the boy crying like a coyote pup in a den of wolves without laying a hand on him. His tactics were subtle. He gave Hadley gifts—a bath, fancy clothes, a shiny dagger, then he’d shame him into “gratitude” and service. So long had Hadley been under this spell of her father’s, that the boy believed every word the man spoke, admired him, and supported his campaigns. Her father became a god to Hadley, and Anna hated it.
“Tell him,” she snickered.
“I’m here on more important business. I have a mission for you. I’m sending you to Prasa Potama. I want you to see King Barin.”
Her eyes widened. “What on earth for?”
He pouted at her, those gray eyes stilling her. “Are you arguing with me?”
“No. I just want to know why.”
“If you hush up, I’ll get to that. I remember how well you and Barin got along before we were exiled from the capital. I doubt his affection for you has changed, nor yours for him.”
“We were young and in love with love, Father.”
“And you’re still young and in love, am I right? If nothing else, you must still be friends. Tell me if it is so.”
“I have no idea,” she said, peering into his eyes. “What if there is? What are you suggesting?”
“Someone needs to make the trip to the capital, and it would be impossible for me to go. Hadley would make a mess of things. No one else knows King Barin well enough to accomplish what I need done.”
“Which is?”
“We need the king’s sword.”
Anna choked. Surely he didn’t mean the weapon that devoured the Dark Wizard’s magic. Her father’s lips turned up at one corner as he stared at her. “You must have known this was coming, Anna.”
“Why are you asking me to execute such a dangerous task?”
“Because that sword holds the only power that could crush us. We’re moving into the final phases of our plan, Anna. But we can’t go forward until we know we’ll defeat the opposition swiftly and thoroughly with little to no resistance that we can’t overcome. We’re almost there, but this is the one stumbling block. I want to secure our success..”
“You want me to ask Barin for his sword?”
He laughed, a cruel, cynical laugh. “He’s not going to give it to you just for asking, no matter what his feelings are toward you. However, your relationship could get you into the castle and close to him. You’re capable of rekindling the affection you two enjoyed in the past, especially now that you’re a woman, and an attractive one at that.”
“That’s brazen, Father.”
“Brazen?” he laughed. “I know you’ve had ill thoughts toward me ever since I and your mother were banished from Prasa Potama. Well, now I’m giving you the freedom to return to your sweetheart and revive what you once had. At least until you’re in possession of the sword.”
Anna growled. How dare he play with her emotions like this. Her face flushed and she turned away from him. “It’s not fair to use my love for King Barin to accomplish your end!”
“Use whatever you want, then. What matters is getting the sword. I’m sure you’ll find a way without sacrificing your feelings.” He chuckled. “Besides, it will all come to an end soon enough—your love, his life. You can’t possibly think the king will live through all of this?”
“I can’t do it.”
“You will. Your mother and I depend on your cooperation, Anna. We raised you for this end. We’ve given you everything you ever needed or wanted. Now it’s time for you to show your appreciation. You’ll be doing this for us. For your mother and me. This is crucial.”
When he walked out of the room, she grabbed her hairbrush off the bed and threw it at the door. Of all the unbearable tasks, this was the worst. How dare he use her feelings like that!
Lord Sylvester had no care for anyone, not for her or her mother. The only ones he cared for were his Influencers—soulless spirits of the night. Her father used everyone as pawns, just like he used the innocent children to employ his wicked games.
She wouldn’t go. She’d run away, maybe steal two of her father’s horses and flee the country with Chase. Perhaps the wizard had enough transformation magic to change her into someone else too. She could tell Barin. Warn him, fight with him.
Against her family?
Anna paced the room, tears leaking down her cheeks. She couldn’t go. She wouldn’t!
With a sigh, she collapsed on her bed knowing what would happen. She’d give in to her father because she always had.
He had a large army already, one empowered with not only manpower and sorcery, but with cunning. It would be impossible to stop his rebellion and if he began the war without King Barin’s sword, many would perish. Children would perish. He and her mother would die. If she went against her father, he’d find out. There were too many creatures in the Neverworld she didn’t trust. They wouldn’t only kill her, but they’d kill Hadley, and Chase. Her stomach turned inside out, and bile made its way to her mouth. She rushed to the window, pushed it open, and retched.