Read Online A Little Fate by Nora Roberts - Free Book Online Page B

on Thane’s arm. “Take some joy before that day, or you’ll never really be free.”
    â€œI’ll have joy enough when Lorcan’s blood is on my sword.”
    Kern shook his head. “There’s a storm coming, and you will ride it. But it will be your choice if you ride it alone.”
    Kern flicked his wrist, and a glossy red apple appearedin his hand. With a merry grin, he tossed it to Thane, then vanished.
    Thane bit into the apple, and the taste that flooded his mouth made him think of Aurora. He offered the rest to a greedy gelding.
    Alone, he reminded himself, was best.

6
    W RAPPED in a purple cloak pinned with a jeweled brooch, Lorcan stood and watched his son practice his swordsmanship. What Owen lacked in style and form he made up for in sheer brutality, and that had his father’s approval.
    The soldier chosen for the practice had a good arm and a steady eye, and so made the match lively. Still, there were none in the city, or in the whole of Twylia, Lorcan knew, who could best the prince at steel against steel.
    None would dare.
    He had been given only one son, and that was a bitter disappointment. The wife he had taken in his youth had birthed two stillborn babes before Owen, and had died as she’d lived—without a murmur of complaint or wit—days after his birthing.
    He had taken another, a young girl whose robust looks had belied a barren womb. It had been a simple matter to rid himself of her by damning her as a witch. After a month in the dungeons at the hands of his tribunal, she’d been willing enough to confess and face the purifying fires.
    So he had taken Brynn. Far cousin of the one who had been queen. He’d wanted the blue of royal blood to runthrough the veins of his future sons—and had he got them, would have cast his firstborn aside without a qualm.
    But Brynn had given him nothing but two daughters. Leia, at least, had possessed beauty, and would have been a rich bargaining chip in a marriage trade. But she’d been willful as well, and had tried to run away when he’d betrothed her.
    The wild beasts of the forest had left little more than her torn and bloody cloak.
    So he had no child but Dira, a pale, silent girl whose only use would be in the betrothing of her to a lord still loyal enough, still rich enough, to warrant the favor in two or three years’ time.
    He had planted his seed in Brynn again and again, but she lost the child each time before her term was up, and now was too sickly to breed. Even the maids and servants he took to his bed failed to give him a son.
    So it was Owen who would carry his name, and his ambitions turned to the grandsons he would get. A king could not be a god without the continuity of blood.
    His son must choose well.
    He smiled as he watched Owen draw blood from his opponent, as he beat back his man with vicious strikes until the soldier lost his footing and fell. And Lorcan nodded with approval as Owen stabbed the sword’s point into the man’s shoulder.
    He’d taught his son well. A fallen enemy was, after all, still an enemy.
    â€œEnough.” Lorcan’s rings flashed in the sunlight as he clapped his hands. “Bear him away, bind him up.” He waved off the wounded soldier and threw his arm around Owen’s shoulders. “You please me.”
    â€œHe was hardly worth the effort.” Owen studied the stain on his blade before ramming it home. “It’s tedious not to have more of a challenge.”
    â€œCome, the envoys have brought the taxes from the four points, and I would speak with you before I deal with them. There are rumbles of rebellion in the north.”
    â€œThe north is a place of ignorant peasants and hilldwellers who wait for Draco to fly from his mountain.” With a glance toward the high peak, Owen snorted in disgust. “A battalion of troops sent up to burn a few huts, put a few of their witches on the pyre should be enough to