Shadow War - Deborah Chester [129]
He was ideal for her purposes, but she dared not select him. For one thing, he had belonged to Tirhin only a few days ago. She did not understand whether the prince had sold him or freed him or why, but she suspected from the look on Tirhin’s face that it had not been by choice. Tirhin already considered her his enemy and direct rival. She did not wish to fuel the flames of his resentment.
Besides, she was extremely disconcerted by her personal reaction to Caelan E’non today. Disconcerted and angry. Passion was not a quality she expected to find in herself. She would not permit it to exist if she could not feel it for her husband.
No, Caelan was too dangerous, in too many ways.
Without further hesitation, she looked at the curly-headed man. “I choose Rander Malk.”
Rander’s mouth dropped open in disbelief, only to spread wide in a grin.
Thai Brintel sneered, hooding his eyes but not before she saw contempt in their depths, mingled with a dose of self-pity. She was glad to be rid of him.
Caelan E’non was looking at Tirhin; then his gaze brushed against hers and again she felt oddly breathless. He nodded to her very slightly, and it was like a tiny salute of respect and acceptance.
That, more than anything else, reassured her that she had done the right thing.
Then all was confusion. The sergeant hustled the others away, leaving Rander Malk with only his captain for support. Rander looked overwhelmed and delighted. He could not stop grinning.
When she rose to her feet and walked over to speak to him, he bowed deeply to her.
“My lady—Majesty,” he stammered. “I am honored. I will serve you till death. I swear it.”
She returned his smile, gratified by his eagerness, but held up her hand. “The truth-light first. Lord Sien?”
The priest gathered a shimmering ball of unearthly light in his palm, then tossed it at the suddenly serious Rander. The light shimmered down over the soldier and spilled in a radiant glow at his feet.
“He is true, Majesty,” Sien said.
She nodded and held out her hand to Rander, who knelt and kissed her fingers clumsily. But all the while, she was thinking of a tall, kingly man with blue eyes who was walking away from her at this moment, a man who would have served her beyond duty and ordinary courage, a man who might have given her his heart and his soul.
She wanted to change her mind and call him back, but she couldn’t, not with Rander kneeling at her feet and humbly swearing his oath of allegiance. Not with her aged husband standing beside her with a benign smile of approval.
Chapter Eighteen
A strange noise awakened Elandra from the depths of sleep. It was a soft susurration of sound, like the rubbing of cloth across a hard surface, almost inaudible, yet unusual enough to have pricked through the layers of her sleep. At the same time she also became conscious of a disturbing warmth against her chest.
She stirred, burrowing her face deeper against her pillow, and slitted one eye open.
A strange golden glow shone from beneath her, reflecting off the pale surfaces of her pillow and bedclothes.
Puzzled and only semiawake, she groped for the jewel pouch hanging around her neck. When her fingers closed on it, she was startled by its warmth. It was as though the jewel had taken on a life of its own. The light glowing from it spilled through the drawn top of the pouch and grew increasingly brighter.
Elandra raised her head and yawned, wondering what magic was working on the jewel.
Just then, she heard a slight scrape of the bed curtain rings upon the brass rod fitted to the canopy of her bed.
Elandra rolled over and saw a shadow looming over her.
It was like nothing she had ever seen before. In that split second of frozen time, she saw it clearly in the unearthly