Read Online The Pages of the Mind by Jeffe Kennedy - Free Book Online Page A

Kral’s long, assessing stare with unflinching steel.
    â€œYou . . . You what? But . . . that cannot be compelled. Which means you have gone crazier than I thought.” Unexpectedly, Kral broke out into an enormous laugh, booming like Harlan’s, and grabbed the plate back, stabbing a slice of meat with a small dagger. He stuffed the meat in his mouth and pointed the dagger at Harlan. “At least you shall make a colorful contribution to the grand Dasnarian tradition of pledging doomed eternal love to the worst choice possible. Will she make you king?”
    â€œI have no wish to be king.”
    â€œNonsense, every man wishes to be king. Any man with balls.”
    â€œIs that why you are here, Kral—do you think to be king here since you will never reach that status in Dasnaria?”
    â€œPerhaps.” He nodded thoughtfully, scanning the room. “You know I could bring an army so vast that your queen would fall, no matter the speed of her sword or how many pet magicians she calls to her.”
    â€œAh, but there we know you are lying, Kral.” Harlan translated for Ursula, handing her the conversational ball. Like the hawk he called her, she went in for the kill.

    It took hours—well into the evening—before Kral cracked and admitted that all had happened just as we’d surmised. He’d been on a mission to Nahanau when the magic storm hit. The devastation had been enough to stymie whatever they’d been there to do, which he would not elaborate on. Not wanting to strain the resources of the devastated islands, they’d left for home, with the intent of returning at another time.
    And hit the barrier.
    They had sailed south along its edge, seeking a way through, until they found themselves rounding the Crane Isthmus, following land north again in search of human habitation. One of his men was a historian and recognized Windroven’s distinctive profile from drawings and recalled the peaceful Port of Ehas as a place that had welcomed Dasnarians in the past.
    â€œ ‘Welcomed’ as in ‘were easily conquered,’ ” Ursula inserted.
    Kral grinned at her, still the shark with his flashing teeth, but no longer so hungry. “Would you have picked a different strategy?”
    She conceded with a twitch of her shoulder.
    â€œMy historian knows enough of your Common Tongue to eavesdrop, especially as your realm is churning with discussion of recent events. A High King dead. A High Queen stepping over his body to the throne. And, against all probability, my baby brother and the Temple of Deyrr, in the thick of it.”
    â€œDo not lump me in with Illyria,” Harlan told him, and Kral surveyed him, wary again.
    â€œSo she was here.”
    â€œShe was, and, no—I don’t know how or why.”
    â€œIt’s bad business to mess with the practitioners of Deyrr.”
    â€œBelieve me, I did not do so willingly.”
    â€œIt relieves me to know that. I had bad moments, wondering.”
    â€œThen why make a production of accusing us of her murder and threatening to drag me back to face charges?”
    â€œIf you were unwillingly chained to your queen, it would have been a good gambit to take you away from her. I knew you could not have killed Illyria, so I offered the people here a scapegoat to pin the murder on, to escape the might of Dasnaria. I thought they might let our ship through the barrier wall to get rid of us.”
    â€œI’m surprised you cared so much for my fate.”
    Kral heaved out a sigh and folded his hands together on the table, a habit Harlan shared. “Many years have passed since you left, and I am not the same man I was. I . . . have regretted the nature of our parting. I would not have sought you out—would not have known how to—but now hlyti has brought us together. I knew it as soon as we landed at Ehas and heard your name in the rumors. I wish to make amends with