Read Online Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton - Free Book Online

nobody.'
    'Is it possible that any of them could've informed an enemy? Is it possible one of them didn't want us to succeed?'
    Johynn spun around, approached Brynd. 'Are you saying we've a traitor within our own halls now? For the love of Bohr, what next? Are you quite sure, Commander Lathraea, that such accusations have good foundation?'
    'Our force was almost wiped out. You say no one outside the Council knew of our mission, yet we were ambushed. Sire, I'm only trying to find out who might threaten the Empire.'
    'You're a good man, Commander Lathraea. A good man. You were all good men, you Night Guards.' He leaned close to Brynd, then whispered, 'I can trust you, can't I?'
    Brynd straightened up, bowing fractionally. 'Beyond my life, your Majesty.'
    Johynn came closer still, the smell of alcohol on his breath now as intense as a bad perfume. 'It's over.'
    'I'm not sure I follow,' Brynd said.
    'I've had increasing suspicions that someone in here is after me. They all are, maybe. They want to take my life, my existence. They want this.' Johynn indicated the halls, the furnishings. 'They want it all before the ice comes. I've heard them whispering in their chambers, making decisions for me. Doing my job for me.'
    'My lord,' Brynd said, 'they're your Council. That's what they're supposed to do. No one is out to get you.'
    Brynd considered his own words, because perhaps that wasn't altogether the case. There was usually something devious going on. This was government, after all.
    Jamur Johynn took a step away from Brynd and looked him up and down as if judging his character in one simple gesture. A childlike gesture. Brynd began to feel self-conscious again. Johynn opened his mouth, but the door opened just then.
    A welcome break as the Emperor's daughter walked into the room.
    When he had first joined the Night Guard, he remembered seeing her, in her younger days, when she seemed confined in this building like a butterfly in a net. Hers seemed a delicate energy waiting to be restrained. Serious meetings would be interrupted by her childish conversations with her older sister, Rika, the heir to the Imperial seat, and their joyful shrieks filled the corridors with warmth. But those days were soon gone, departed at about the same time their mother was killed. Johynn had tried to replace parental love with treats and indulgences, something the little girl never seemed to desire, but altering her in some remote way.
    Eir possessed a certain natural grace, a distinctive quality of manner. With short-cropped black hair, and tall for her age, her attitude to dress was cavalier, wearing items from any number of eras without caring how they matched. Her eyes were intense, her eyebrows two thin lines, and her face lacked the symmetry necessary to appeal to Villjamur convention. She liked to dress a little bit different. Despite her non-traditional looks, a queue of eligible suitors waited to claim her hand, and maybe decisions had already been made for her by her father over who she would be betrothed to. Maybe that was why she was rude to almost every boy she ever spoke to. For all her privileges, Brynd guessed it was no real existence for a woman in Villjamur.
    'I apologize for disturbing you, father, but the Dawnir wishes to speak to the commander.'
    The Emperor stared at her as if he did not recognize who she was.
    Brynd intervened. 'We were just discussing what our Dawnir could want--'
    'Some more plots against me, no doubt,' Johynn muttered.
    'Should we see him now, my Emperor, if you've finished with our business?' Brynd asked.
    'Yes, yes. Why not.' He waved Brynd away, walked to the window. This time he opened it, allowing the icy air to enter the room, stepped aside, his fists clenched, then suddenly burst past them, out of the room, leaving the three men and his daughter behind with the echo of a slammed door.
    'Hello, commander,' she said.
    There was always a slight informality between her and the Night Guard soldiers,