Bronze Magic (Book 1) Page 64
Watching Danton respond without question to Tarkyn showed Waterstone, as nothing else could, the truth of Danton’s allegiance.
“You had a part to play, given the unexpected presence of Andoran and Sargon,” continued the prince. “I’m sure you played it to perfection.”
“I did my best, my lord. It was essential not to arouse their suspicions. So I spent many long hours enduring their company and their opinions.”
“And what did you say to support me against their accusations?”
Danton took a deep breath and let it out shakily. “Nothing, my lord. Nothing whatsoever.”
“I see.”
“I could not risk Sargon and Andoran suspecting me of associating with you, Sire.”
“However,” said Tarkyn icily, “No such excuse exists for what you said about me to Waterstone. So I can assume that was your true opinion of me?”
Danton brought his head up and met Tarkyn’s gaze defiantly, even though fear flickered at the back of his eyes. “If you punish me when I have given you nothing but loyal service, your behaviour will be no better than your brothers’. The reason for your behaviour may be different, but the effect will be the same on the people you hurt.”
Tarkyn let out a low whistle and shook his head. His face was white with anger. “Danton, you forget yourself. I think woodfolk society has affected your sense of propriety more than I expected. I can’t believe you just had the temerity to say that to me.”
The prince stood up and walked across to tower over Danton, “Stand up,” he ordered. Tarkyn grabbed Danton and hoisted him upward as he struggled awkwardly to his feet.
“Turn around,” snapped the prince. He aimed a thin, intense ray of bronze power at the bonds and disintegrated them. “Now, turn and face me.”
Tarkyn stared down into Danton’s purple eyes. “You are free to go.”
For long moments, the pair stared in silence at each other. Danton endured the returning circulation in his wrists without moving. “I said, Danton, you are free to go.”
“I heard you, my lord,” replied Danton slowly. “And I thank you for your trust. But I have no wish to leave you, Sire.”
Tarkyn raised his eyebrows haughtily. “Indeed? And what should I think of someone who is prepared to serve such a corruption as myself?”
“You should think of him as a loyal friend and liegeman, who is willing to stake his life on his belief that your integrity will overcome your fear of betrayal.”
“Even though I am no better than my brothers?”
“I did not say that, my lord. I said your actions against me would make it seem that way.” He took a breath. “All three of you fear betrayal, but in you, it is counter-balanced by your care for people. In your brothers, it is fed by their obsession with power.” Danton rubbed his stinging wrists. “My lord, for you, betrayal means personal pain. For them it is merely a counter move in a political game. You care for people. They care only for power.”
Danton dropped to one knee and bowed, hand on heart. “And that is why, my lord, you are the only true hope for the future of Eskuzor and why I will serve you to the end of my days.”
Tarkyn gazed down at the top of Danton’s head in bemusement, shocked and moved by what his liegeman had said. He became aware that a ring of woodfolk had appeared and were watching silently. He recovered himself enough to place his hand on Danton’s shoulder and say gently, “Please rise Danton. I am honoured by your loyalty and your service. I will do my best to justify your faith in me.”
He waited until Danton stood face to face with him then gave a wry smile, “As to being the hope of Eskuzor, I think not. As you have just said yourself, I have no aspirations to enter into a game of power with my brothers.” He picked out Ancient Oak and Waterstone and smiled, “…. any of my brothers.”
“And yet, my lord,” came Stormaway’s voice from behind him, low and intense, reverberating around the gathering. “Your destiny is written in the stars and lives deep inside the trees of the forest. It has been clear from the day of your birth for all to see who have knowledge of such things. Your father and I always knew. That’s why you had to be protected. You are not only the guardian of the forest. You are the one true hope for the future of all Eskuzor.”
s Stormaway’s final words rang out, Andoran and Sargon were sitting disconsolately, four miles away, before a cheerless fire. Red wheals down their arms bore witness to the hours of itching and scratching they had endured, and their eyes were hollow from lack of sleep. From time to time they glanced uncertainly at each other, each wondering if the other had seen the strangely dressed man with eyes the colour of new leaves, face and hair the colour of walnut shells. Each of them wondered in his own isolated uncertainty whether, if he had existed at all, the strange man had had fleas.
THE SORCERER’S OATH ~ BOOK TWO
n the darkness of his shelter, Waterstone lay asleep, his daughter Sparrow a short distance away from him. Outside, the wind was picking up. Within minutes, the trees were thrashing under an
ever-increasing gale. Suddenly, an intense wave of fear slammed into Waterstone’s mind, followed almost instantaneously by a peremptory summons. Sparrow woke crying.
Waterstone had no time to comfort her. “Stay here,” he said urgently, as he quickly pulled on his boots. “Whatever you do, don’t leave the shelter until I call you. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Sparrow nodded bravely. “Go on. I’ll be all right. Tarkyn’s in trouble, isn’t he?”
Waterstone answered over his shoulder as he left, “Something is wrong, badly wrong. Stay here until you hear from me.”
Once outside, the woodman was buffeted by the strong winds that were now shrieking through the trees. He could hear branches breaking and the air was filled with flying leaves and twigs. Eerily, he could see the stars shining peacefully above him in a cloudless sky.
“Oh no.” Waterstone murmured to himself in horror. “It’s not a storm. Someone is betraying the oath. The forest is being destroyed.”
Jennifer Jane Ealey was born in outback Western Australia where her father was studying kangaroos on a research station, one hundred miles from the nearest town. Her arrival into the world was watched, unexpectedly, by their pet kangaroo who had hopped into the hospital. Having survived the excitement of her birth, she moved firstly to Perth and then Melbourne where she spent most of her formative years. She took a year off from studying to ride a motorbike around Australia before working as a mathematics teacher and school psychologist in England and Australia, a bicycle courier in London and running a pub in outback New South Wales.
She now lives in Melton, a country town just outside Melbourne, working by day as a psychologist and beavering away by night as a novelist. She has written two detective novels and has just completed The Sorcerer’s Oath, a series of four fantasy novels, of which Bronze Magic is the first.