Amaskan's Blood Raven Oak (polar express read aloud TXT) 📖

“Speak. Tell me what has kept you tossing in your sleep.”

At first, she didn’t make a sound, choosing instead to stare at the carved pieces of wood inlaid in stone across his bedchamber floor, and he ground his teeth at the silence. When his lips smacked open, she said, “I never intended to hurt ya. Know that I’d no idea what they planned, I swear to ya, but I found—in Sadai—your daughter’s alive. Iliana’s alive.”

This time when the air left him, he worried it would not return as his lungs froze in place. He sputtered twice before his vocal cords worked again. “You speak madness. She died by Amaskan hands.”

“I believed it, too, Your Majesty, but I swear to ya that I saw your daughter alive… and well. You sent me home to find those responsible for her death, but she’s alive and traipsin’ through the capital city of Aruna. It’s her; I’d swear my life on it.”

Leon gripped the handle on the door as he squeezed his eyes shut. “I sent her away for protection, and the Amaskans killed her outside the city walls. That’s what Goefrin told me.”

“Bastard’s a traitor.”

King Leon heaved her to her feet by her bare shoulders. Rough hands tilted her face to look at his, but even then, her eyes veered sideways as she refused to meet his gaze. “You speak in riddles. You tell me my daughter’s alive, you tell me you have the location of my enemies, and that my most trusted advisor’s a traitor. You will explain yourself and how you know this to be true.”

“G-Goefrin’s my uncle. Was sent here to get close to your father, to gain the royal family’s trust, and then to give evidence to interested parties of your family’s coup to overthrow the Boahim Senate.” As the words spilled from her mouth, he could feel the wrinkles in his brow multiply.

Don’t do that, Papa. The wrinkle monster will get you. Hearing Iliana’s five-year-old voice in his mind left him weak, and he stepped sideways as his balance wavered. Three steps found him alongside the bed he’d shared with Ida minutes before, and he reached out to one of the four bedposts. His aim was true, but he stubbed his big toe on the chest at the foot of the bed. Leon cursed under his breath.

Ida massaged her throat as she spoke. “I grew up in a family that told me… things, things that’d make it easy for me to believe that my own actions were just and true. When the Little War of Three began, it—it was the perfect opportunity. Uncle Goefrin and my brother sent three of us here to Alesta.”

King Leon dropped the letter in his hand.

“—Our task was simple. While the King was busy with the enemy at his border, we’d take the child Uncle Goefrin arranged for us to ‘protect.’”

“No.”

The single word sent her blue eyes to drown in unshed tears. “I swear to ya, Leon, I didn’t know what they planned. No one said they were to kill ’er. I thought—”

“You thought what, exactly? You would kidnap my children and wife? My family? To do what exactly? Go for a walk in the woods? Who the hell are you to take part in such a—” This time when he shook her, the tears fled their prison and leapt across her cheeks. “That’s what you are—you’re Amaskan,” he whispered. She winced when his fingers squeezed what little flesh clung to her bones, but she didn’t look away. The quiet anger within left him breathless, yet he lifted her off her feet before he flung her to the floor with a snarl. “Who are you? What are you to crawl into my bed, into my heart. For ten years—”

The knock at the door startled them both. “Your Majesty?”

“Send the captain away,” she hissed from where she’d fallen, her robe torn where she’d tripped over it.

“Why should I do anything you ask?”

“Because I’m the only one who knows where your daughter is.”

He stared at the stranger before him, the jaguar who had slipped into his castle only to shred him with jagged claws as it toyed with his life. “I’ll send him away, but only so he doesn’t see the mess I’ve made when I’m done with you.”

Her tears only made it worse. If she had acted like a cold-blooded killer, it would have been easier to kill her. Damn her. The wooden door shook as Michael resumed pounding on it. King Leon opened it enough to poke his balding head outside.

“Your Majesty, are you well? I heard shouting—”

“I’m fine. Give us a moment.” Captain Fenton frowned, but nodded once before Leon shut the door.

“You have my attention for five minutes. Use it well, Ida. And leave nothing out—be truthful… if you’re capable of it.”

Ida nodded before wiping a few tears from her cheek with the back of her hand. “B-before I was captain of your guard, I was Amaskan. My brother’s Malaki Abner, though few know his birth name as he hides in shadows, under many names and many labels. One ya may know is Eli Bredych.”

Leon clenched his jaw against the words he would speak. She’s sister to the Amaskan leader. She may have just bought herself more time.

Her hand moved along her scar, and when she realized the action, Ida clenched her hand into a fist. “Goefrin had a deal with my brother, though not the deal you think. His job was to convince ya that sendin’ away your family was the best way to keep ’em safe. The Shadians paid the Amaskans to wipe out your line, and once you’d sent your family outside these walls, they were marked as kill on sight.”

She swallowed hard. “I swear I didn’t know my brother ordered Iliana killed. Not ’til we’d already seized her and had crossed into Sadai. He… he knew I’d have trouble with killin’ a child. We all should’ve. That