A Little Fate Read Online Free PDF Page A

It had been the royal seal of Twylia before Lorcan had ordered all such symbols outlawed.
    â€œIt’s beautiful. You honor my mother, Rohan.”
    â€œShe was a great lady.”
    She opened the box and saw the clear globe, the clear star lying on dark velvet. Like the moon and star she’d seen in the night sky. “Conjured from love and grief, from joy and tears. Can there be stronger magic?”
    When she lifted the globe, the light exploded in her hand. She saw through it, into the glass, into the world. Green fields sparkling in summer sunlight, wide rivers teeming with fish, thick forests where game grew fat. Cities with silver towers.
    Men worked the fields, hunted the forests, fished the rivers, brought their wares to the city.
    The mountains speared up, white at the peaks where the snow never melted. Beyond them, the Sea of Wonders fanned out. Other lands rose and spread. Other fields, other cities.
    So they were not the world, she thought. But this was hers, to guard, to rule.
    She took the star in her other hand and felt its heat, the flame of its power, fly into her.
    â€œAnd the star shall burn with the blood of the dragon. Come as a lamb, mate with the wolf. Under truth is lies, under lies, truth. And valor holds its light under the coward’s guise. When the witching hour comes, when the blood of the true one spills on the moon, the snake shall be vanquished, torn by the fangs of the wolf.”
    She swayed, lowered the crystals in her hands. “Who spoke?”
    â€œYou.” Gwayne’s voice was thin as he stared at her. Her hair had flown out as if on a wind, and her face had been full of light, her eyes full of power. Power that struck even a warrior with edges of fear and superstition.
    â€œI am who I was. And more. It’s time to begin. To tell you, tell everyone.”
    Â 
    â€œI had visions,” Aurora said when everyone gathered around. “Waking and dreaming. Some were shown and some were told to me, and some I know because it is my blood. I must go to the City of Stars and take my place on the throne.”
    â€œWhen do we march?” Rhys shouted, and was lightly cuffed by his father.
    â€œWe will march, and we’ll fight, and some of us will fall. But the world will not be freed by only the slice of a sword. It is not only might that will win what was taken from us.”
    â€œMagic.” Rohan nodded. “And logic.”
    â€œMagic, logic,” Aurora agreed. “Strategy and steel. And wiles,” she added with a sly smile. “A woman’s wiles. Cyra, what was most talked of in the village where we last stopped for supplies?”
    Cyra, a blooming sixteen, still struggled not to stare at Aurora with awe. “Prince Owen, son of Lorcan. He seeks a bride among the ranking ladies across Twylia. Orders have gone out for any knights or lords still with holdings to send their eligible daughters to the city.”
    â€œSo Owen can pick and pluck,” Aurora said with disgust. “There will be feasting, and a grand ball, will there not, while ladies are paraded before the son of the snake like mares at auction?”
    â€œSo it’s said, my . . . my lady.”
    â€œMy sister,” Aurora corrected, and made Cyra smile. “I will go as the lamb. Can you make me look the lady, Rhiann?”
    â€œTo ride into the city unarmed—”
    â€œI won’t be unarmed.” Aurora looked at the crystals, and the sword she’d laid beside them. “Or alone. I’ll have an escort, as befits a lady of quality, and servants.” She tugged the hem of her hunting tunic. “And a wardrobe. And so . . . garbed, I will gain access to the castle. I need men.”
    Excitement rose in her. What had been stretching inside her had found its shape. She bounded onto the table, lifted her voice. “I need men to ride out, to find the pockets of rebels, of soldiers whose swords grow dull and