The King of Forever (Scarlet and the White Wolf, #4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

glanced at Jochi. “I’ll have to give him a name soon. What do you fancy I should call him?”
    “Apples,” Jochi said, deadpan.
    ***
    T hick, leafless limbs of fruit trees, fringed with snow, made a lacy canopy over their heads. Scarlet cat-footed through a stone arch in the grove, the third of many such arches and pylons built over the centuries. He’d been comforted when Liall revealed that the markers denoted the location of graves.
    “Not royal graves,” Liall had said. “When royalty dies, they are taken to the Kingsdal, to be entombed and preserved in ice forever. The snows never melt in the far north.”
    Scarlet’s village had contained an afarit, where the earthly remains of Hilurin were buried to nourish the fruit trees that grew there. Others preferred to be settled deep in their own grain fields. There had been a few tombstones in the afarit for those of non-Hilurin blood, and the wealthy could afford to consign their remains to the priests of Deva, who took them to charnel grounds high in the mountains for sky burials.
    Scarlet yearned to ask Liall if he could build a small templon in the grove to honor his parents, but he knew that asking for a Hilurin shrine on Rshani land was an unwise request, one that Liall would want to grant anyway and they would both regret.
    Tesk followed Scarlet a few paces back, being much more silent than Scarlet thought anyone with feet that big could manage. The ground crunched softly under their boots as they tracked the paw prints of a large hare. They went deeper into the grove, almost out of sight of their party. Scarlet could hear the breath of the horses still, and Jochi’s low whispers as he spoke to the guards. If he could hear them, the game could.
    He motioned to Tesk to follow him as he rounded a stand of apple trees. They roamed deeper into the silent woods for another quarter of an hour, their progress slow and quiet, until they were nearing the eastern wall of the grove.
    Scarlet stopped under an apple tree. Most of its silver limbs were still bare, but on a low branch, several sprigs of bright green sprouted from the bark.
    It had been so long since he saw budding green. Suddenly, he had an impulse to help it along. “Tesk,” he whispered. He touched a finger to the branch and warmth flowed from his skin.
    Tesk watched him curiously.
    Scarlet leaned close to the tree and breathed a withy chant onto the tiny green leaves. They stirred, twisted, and bright pink buds popped into existence. They unfurled swiftly into white blossoms with blushing petals.
    Tesk’s eyes went round and he exhaled in awe. “Amazing.”
    Scarlet smiled in real pleasure. He hadn’t had much chance to use his Gift since he landed in Rshan, and almost none at all since Liall was made king. Smiling, he gave the withy another little push. “On danaee Deva shani,” he whispered.
    It was too much.
    The blossoms withered, dropped, and small, red fruits appeared, no bigger than his smallest fingernail. They weren’t small for long. He stopped the withy in mid-chant and tried to pull back his Gift, but it wouldn’t come.
    He stepped away, hoping the distance would break the connection, but the apples kept growing. The slender branch bowed and snapped with a crack.
    Scarlet stared in dismay at the ruined branch and the apples at his feet.
    “Ser?” Worry was in Tesk’s voice.
    “That’s not how that’s supposed to happen,” Scarlet murmured. He looked at the palm of his hand. “I’ve never been able to do that. I heard tell of folk who could, but not me.”
    “You’re young,” Tesk said. “Perhaps you just needed time.” Snowflakes landed on his silver eyelashes as he stared unblinking at Scarlet’s hands.
    Like Jochi, Tesk was a Setna, but the resemblance ended there. Jochi was reserved; Tesk was a born charmer and probably a libertine in his spare time. Now he was simply fascinated, like all Setna when it came to magic.
    Scarlet shook his head. “Maybe.” He picked