The Coral Kingdom - Douglas Niles [87]
Instead, the prisoner played along, groaning sleepily, slurping at the vessel, spilling a great deal of the drink from the corners of his mouth, letting it trickle through his beard while his throat went through the bobbing action of swallowing. Finally, the flask empty, the hulking fish creature turned and flapped away, diving into the pool and disappearing.
Immediately the man rolled from his hard bunk and vomited, retching continuously, miserably, until he had nothing left inside of him.
After he had drunk some water and rinsed himself off, he felt the reawakening of anger. I will make it suffer; I will destroy it.
The intent was a blanket future for the man, a life's goal condensed into the image of a hateful creature who had drugged and maimed him. The man's purpose seemed clear, but even as he considered it, another shred of thought came to him.
A fit purpose for a man it may be… and I am a man. But somewhere in the back of his mind a voice whispered to him, speaking softly but convincingly: you are more than a man.
How? The question followed, and he puzzled it through. How can I be more than a man? And then he knew the answer, and another piece of his being fell into place.
Because I am a king.
* * * * *
Hanrald stood at the rail of the stranded Princess of Moonshae. He looked to the west, where the sun continued its descent over the elvenhome. If anything, he thought angrily, Evermeet looks even more beautiful in the light of sunset.
But not half so beautiful as the one his mind drifted toward with inexorable longing. Indeed, as her female features etched themselves in his mind, as her golden hair swirled around the face that smiled just for him, the earl's brain focused with unrelenting diligence on the impossible love that had seized and transformed his heart.
He thought, with surprise, how quickly he had earlier felt himself to be in love-and now at how fleeting that emotion had seemed.
For it was no longer Alicia Kendrick who occupied the thoughts of the proud knight. His feelings for her, in the light of memory, seemed no more than youthful infatuation.
Instead, Hanrald thought bitterly, his heart's longing had turned from one who was distant, perhaps unattainable, to one whose affections must inevitably remain aloof. For the Earl of Fairheight understood beyond doubt that he loved Brigit Cu'Lyrran, Mistress Captain of the Sisters of Synnoria.
* * * * *
"Let Her Majesty ask the questions," Trillhalla coached as they passed down a long corridor of crystal walls, each of which seemed to provide a different vista of the placid lake and its pastoral valley, or of the seacoast beyond.
Alicia didn't need to be reminded. She was so overawed by these surroundings that she wondered if she'd have the composure to answer a question, much less to do any interrogating of her own.
Then abruptly they passed around a corner that Alicia hadn't even seen before them, coming to a stop before another pair of grandiose doors. Like the palace entrance, these seemed to be made of purest gold and swung inward with the same whisper of sound.
The princess had to restrain an audible gasp as they stepped into the throne room of Queen Amlaruil of Evermeet. There was no mistaking the monarch, for her throne of diamond-and-ruby-encrusted platinum hovered a full thirty feet above the floor, in the center of a chamber brighter and far more dazzling than anything the humans had ever seen.
It makes even the Argen-Tellirynd of Chrysalis seem like a farmer's shed by comparison! The thought, shocking in its truth, further awed the Princess of Callidyrr.
The great floor of the chamber was empty, but unlike the corridor and courtyard of the palace, this surface was visible as interlocking tiles of black, white, and red. The room itself was unbelievably vast. To Alicia's eyes, it