Read Online The Traitor's Heir by Anna Thayer - Free Book Online Page A

palm.
    â€œThe throned has done much that is evil, Eamon,” Aeryn continued, “and in more ways than I can explain to you now – probably in more ways than I understand. The mark on your hand is just a reflection of it. Dunthruik is a darkened city, built on suffering and founded in blood.”
    â€œFreedom is bought by blood.”
    â€œI suppose you’ll be telling me that that’s why your uniform is red, next!”
    Eamon fell silent. It was taught in the Gauntlet colleges that red, the Master’s colour, was one of sacrifice and glory.
    Aeryn reached out and touched his shoulder, drawing his eyes back to her. “Believe me when I tell you that the throned works evil in Dunthruik, as do his Hands and his Gauntlet.”
    â€œSo what about Ede?” Eamon was struggling to grasp what she was saying.
    â€œEde died in battle against the throned but Ede’s line was not destroyed. His sister survived the fighting and escaped the siege of her city, carrying an unborn son who was the last child of royal blood…” Aeryn paused, as though wondering what to say next. “The throned, with his Hands and his Gauntlet, had – and have – great power. But after Ede’s death some of the King’s men began to show new courage of their own.”
    â€œThese ‘King’s men’,” Eamon asked uncertainly, “are they the wayfarers?”
    â€œThe King’s men – wayfarers or ‘snakes’, as the throned and his own call us – believe that your ‘master’ has wrongfully taken rule of this land and that we suffer for it.”
    Eamon sat silent and pensive. His eyes drifted to his palm and to the eagle etched upon it. Part of him wondered what this, his own mark, would bring him. Part of him did not dare to entertain the thought.
    Aeryn seemed to read his troubled mind. “The mark of the throned is not easily cast aside,” she said. “I can’t tell you exactly what it does or doesn’t do, except that by it you have given yourself to him. Some say that the Gauntlet are his possessions in more ways than one and that his mark grants strange strengths.”
    Eamon’s flesh crawled. “But… it’s just a uniform. I serve the people of the River Realm and –”
    â€œNo, Eamon; you are bound to him. You serve him .”
    Eamon took a deep breath, hoping that his heart might be kind and return to a steady pace. It did not.
    Aeryn looked once more at the parchment in her hand and then tucked it into her cloak. Silently, she rose.
    â€œI have to go. My father died for these papers and I cannot let you take them.”
    He blinked at her in astonishment. “What are they?”
    She hesitated. “I can’t tell you, Eamon.” She turned to go.
    â€œIs that it?” Eamon asked angrily. “You’re just going to leave me here?”
    â€œEamon –”
    He leapt to his feet, his bonds falling easily from him; Aeryn shied back from him as he grabbed her arm. He was angry with her – for not warning him before he swore and for leaving him now in impossible turmoil. His anger rose in him like a thing alive, tightening his grip on her.
    â€œAfter everything you’ve said?” he cried, laughing bitterly. “You’re just going to go!” What right had she to tie him up, feed him a wild collection of lies, question his allegiance, doubt his integrity, and, to top it all, take what he had found by his own initiative – with no explanation as to what it was and where it came from! More than any of that, she meant to go… If he let her go he would never see her again.
    And he would never learn what she knew.
    The answer, then, was simple: he would not let her go. He would take what he wanted from her, by force if he had to. She was making him; it was her own fault.
    â€œ Eamon! ”
    Aeryn’s words seemed far away but something in him heard