The Stolen Prince (Blood for Blood Book 1) Read Online Free PDF

again, but it only fueled his mad quest to find him, and when he had finally given up, he had considered her insistence to be the aching of a mother’s heart, not the sign of prophecy. He believed in the Keepers of the Future about as much as everyone else, which was very little.
    Kara had been born during the Second Vengeance, right in the middle of that awful war, just two years after Hakon had been stolen. By then, Arden had lost so many men to the forest, he was starting to suspect that this was the Terra’s intent all along: to drive them into an impossible war. A war that had never really ended, even when the Alem retreated, and they had captured enough Terra to fill every village and city with working slaves. There hadn’t been an all–out war in a decade, but still the enemy was there, and the threat of them was always on the mind of the Alem. They attacked villages in small numbers occasionally, like constant pests. Arden kept saying the earth people would not defeat them—how could they? But perhaps they had undermined them in significant ways. Ways that were only beginning to show. A few hundred villages, a few thousand slaves—each had a small impact on their kingdom’s prosperity.
    Yet the king wouldn’t let go completely. The code hung over him—he must avenge his son’s death. It was the greatest cause for revenge, after a mother’s death and then a father’s. His disappearance had brought shame, and her husband’s pride wouldn’t allow him to bow down in this war of attrition. Even when I insist his son lives , Sabola thought.
    This was why it was so important for them to gain the coastal kingdom’s aid. Why it was so important that Kara finally become a proper princess.
    “Mother, how do you know?” Kara asked again, taking the queen’s silence as a sign she hadn’t heard.
    Sabola turned to her daughter, ignoring her question. “You know why you are betrothed, Kara?”
    Kara nodded. “Political reasons.”
    “Yes, but do you know why?”
    “They want to take our kingdom.”
    Smart girl. “Yes, eventually, that is probably what King Darr wants. Your father is no fool—he knows his intent.”
    Kara’s face turned ashen. “Does he wish to have Father assassinated?”
    Queen Sabola shook her head. “No… we don’t know for sure. His motivation is strange, which is what troubles me about this whole arrangement. He might be securing the throne for his line, but then I don’t understand why he would engage you to his sixth son and not his heir.” Sabola had been offended by the kings’ decision. They might both think of Kara as a pawn, but her daughter deserved a higher ranked son than the sixth! “We do have some leverage. If the Terra break our hold, they will only spread and terrorize the coastal kingdoms as well.”
    “Like insects without a predator,” Kara quoted solemnly.
    “Exactly.”
    Kara shuddered, but Sabola could see it wasn’t really the Terra that bothered her at the moment.
    “Must I really marry him, Mother? Really?”
    Sabola smiled, thinking of her many betrothals. “Whom else would you marry?”
    Kara looked surprised. She hadn’t ever considered that question. She stumbled her way through a response. “I don’t know… I thought I would be older, have more time.”
    “Oh, you will have time. This is merely an engagement, not a marriage.”
    “How long?”
    The queen stood up and picked up her cloak. “As long as it takes. As long as you are bound to their kingdom, you are their kin. No treaty is as strong as that.”
    “When would we get married?” Kara stood to help her up.
    “I don’t think you’ll need to. Your father and King Darr made this arrangement hoping you would birth an heir. And…” Sabola hesitated. Should she tell Kara the truth? It would be better if her daughter knew everything, should something terrible happen. “Kara, the child I carry is a boy…”
    “How do you—”
    “I know.”
    Kara nodded, skepticism showing on