First Comes The One Who Wanders Read Online Free PDF Page A

tall, fair-complected, gangly, and his nose didn’t quite fit his face. He was not yet a man, but she could see the man he would become in his face now. "What brings you here? Who is that with you?"
    The queen looked up in surprise to find a stranger in her room. Leilas followed her startled stare to Joshuas, who had stepped in the room and shut the door behind them, then barred it. "This is Master Joshuas, a magik from the school. Master Joshuas, may I introduce you to my mother, Queen Daina and my brother, Prince Brenth."
    "Queen Daina," Joshuas greeted her, stressing her title. "It is indeed a pleasure to see you again after all this time." Joshuas took the hand that the queen extended to him and bent over it. Leilas thought that he took care not to linger long over it or to touch his lips to it as was customary. He did seem to be a man who followed his own set of rules. She wondered if all wanderers were like that.
    "I didn't think we would ever meet again," Queen Daina responded quietly to Joshuas' greeting.
    "Under normal circumstances, I doubt we would have. But these aren't normal circumstances."
    "What do you mean?" asked the queen, withdrawing her scarlet and silver bedecked hand from his, but staying close. Like her son, Queen Daina was fair-skinned with dark hair and dark eyes. She was renowned as a beauty in the region. There were many who wondered why she had married Leyhan, a broad-chested man with gangly legs and an overly large nose.
    "Darryl and Jarras are on their way to attack us as we speak. They've sworn to kill all the royal family." Leilas broke in. "Master Manchu has agreed to offer you and Brenth sanctuary, but we must hurry and enter the school before it is sealed against the attack."
    The queen didn't seem at all surprised at her daughter's revelation. She sighed softly and turned to the window. Brenth stood and walked to her side.
    Brenth had always been close to his mother, though he seemed to be distant from others. Leilas had done her best to get to know her youngest and only surviving brother, but he seemed reluctant to let her into his world. She'd always supposed it was because she was so much older and so busy with her studies. There were some around the Manor who said he was fey and shied away from him. There were times she thought he might have inherited some of the gifts she'd inherited, but he'd never expressed any interest in pursuing them.
    "I'm not surprised to find that those around us wish to put a stop to my husband's excesses. Though I know I'll probably lose my life, I can't run away. After all, I am queen."
    "And that's why you must come with me," argued Leilas. "Who will bring the kingdom back together, if you're killed along with father?"
    "Brenth is old enough to take his father's place." Daina turned from the window and faced Leilas with quiet determination. "I can't run like a coward."
    "And I won't leave you," Brenth said with the same quiet. "As you said, I'm a man. I'll stay and protect you."
    "Sometimes it takes more courage to run, than it does to stay and fight." Leilas knew she was fighting a losing battle. Once her mother made up her mind, she rarely changed it. She could count the times her mother had reversed a decision on one hand. Instead of wasting her time thinking up reasons that would convince her mother to come with her, she was already planning how they could best defend this room.
    "Sometimes it does. I wish I was strong enough to make that decision. I wasn't strong enough thirty years ago. I'm not strong enough today. I will stay."
    "If you won't do it for yourself, do it for me. Do it for Brenth. Neither of us wants to see you die." Queen Daina turned and faced her young son. Leilas could almost feel the communication between them, but she didn't understand it. Perhaps it was less a thought than a feeling. But whatever mother and son shared, they didn't choose to share it with her.
    "I'll stay with my mother," said Brenth again. "But we both feel you