The Born Queen Read Online Free PDF Page A

“They do that. This place spooks them.” Then her vision seemed to clear. “Some
thing
?”
    “I’ve no idea. I fell asleep, upstairs—”
    “Nose in your book.”
    He stopped. “You came up?”
    “I guessed. If you’d gone to sleep on purpose, I rather think you would have come down here with me.” She shrugged. “Or do I flatter myself?”
    “Ah, no, you don’t.”
    “But go on.”
    “The, umm, the window ledge was hot.”
    She arched an eyebrow. “Hot?”
    “I mean
really
hot. Burning, almost. And the banister of the stairs and the floor, in places, as if something really blistering walked through.”
    “Like what?”
    “I’ve no idea. But what with all of the greffyns and utins and waurms and generally ancient nasties I’ve seen lately, it might be anything. A salamandra, maybe.”
    She stroked his arm. “Well, it didn’t hurt you and it didn’t hurt me, did it? Or even the dogs. So maybe it’s a friendly burning-invisible thing.”
    “Maybe. Or maybe friendly like Fend.”
    “Fend hasn’t made the slightest false move,” she pointed out.
    “He tried to kill me.”
    “I mean since he became the Blood Knight and swore himself to your service.”
    “Well, right, but…he
will,
mark my words. Anyway, it’s been less than a month. He’s up to something.”
    She shrugged. “Do you want to keep trailing this beastie of yours? I can get dressed.”
    He blinked, suddenly understanding that in sitting up she hadn’t brought the covers with her and was quite nude.
    “That’s something I’d hate to ask,” he murmured.
    “And generally untypical of men,” she replied.
    “Still…”
    “Just wait.” She swung her slim legs off the bed and stepped onto the floor, crossing a few paces to a dressing gown that lay rumpled there. As she slid it over her head and her white body vanished into it, he felt a strong stirring. Why should it be more erotic for her to dress than the opposite? But there it was, a fact.
    He shook that off. She pulled on her buskins, and together they set off in search of the apparition, the dogs padding silently behind. Stephen wondered if she even believed him or if she was just being as deferential to him as the Aitivar and Fend appeared to be. He hoped not; he had been attracted by her strong and independent spirit, not her pliancy. In fact, she had been very much in control of the relationship in the beginning. Now, it sometimes almost felt that he was. It was as worrying as any other unfamiliar thing, especially considering the reverence with which the Aitivar seemed to treat him.
    “Seemed,” because they had brought him here by force, and he hadn’t forgotten that.
    But there hadn’t been anything like that since. His word was law, and so far as he could tell, no part of the mountain was off limits.
    Except the parts he couldn’t find.
    “What’s wrong?”
    It was disconcerting how well Zemlé could read his mood.
    “Watch your step,” he muttered, “not me.”
    “Come on. You’re distracted.”
    “I’m just wondering again why the Aitivar don’t know where the Alq is,” Stephen said. “It’s supposed to be the heart, the treasury of this place, and no one can point me toward it despite the fact that that’s what I came here to find.”
    “Well, treasuries are usually hidden or well guarded or both,” she pointed out. “And the Aitivar were latecomers here, too.”
    “I know,” he said.
    They’d reached the next landing and a series of galleries that might have once been ballrooms or banquet halls, so grand were they.
    He listened, but his once supernatural hearing had been damaged by an explosion a few months before. He could still hear better than the average mortal, though, and now he didn’t notice anything out of place. Feeling about, he couldn’t detect any warm spots, either.
    “Well, it could have gone ten ways from here,” he said. “Maybe I should just alert the guard.”
    “That’s what they’re for,” Zemlé said.
    He