Dark Throne, The (22 page)

Fade could see the other man was not ashamed to cry at the
sight of his long lost daughter
.

Henrik opened his arms and said,
"Heather
.”

Heather hovered, obviously wanting to go but her mind was
obviously at war with her heart
. Henrik's hurt was visible and Fade felt his pain. The
King's arms faltered and were about to lower, when Heather suddenly
took off, almost knocking Henrik over in her haste to embrace
him.

In a way, Fade knew his mate's emotions would be more
unstable with her father
.
Setta was a Lady. Unused to showing affection, something that had
probably worsened without the softening presence of her daughter.
She had been a Crown Princess of Halstor and those people were not
known for their affectionate and open personalities.

Jenderians, on the other hand, were
.

"Oh, it is good to see you, lass
,” Henrik whispered, but his whisper was louder than
the average man's mutter.

"It's strange
. I don't
know you but I do. I'll get used to it, but it's still
weird.”

"Weird
? What is
weird?"

Fade spoke up, "Your daughter's tongue is laced with Earth
colloquialisms
. I've learned
that weird is similar to peculiar. For the most part, she is
fluent, but when you can't understand a word, it's usually because
she's cursing.”

Heather broke free of her father's bear
hug
. "Oh, great, Fade. Tell my
dad that I swear.”

"He would have learned of your propensity to curse sooner
or later
.”

"Later being the preferable moment
.”

He merely cocked his brows, hiding a
smile as she shot yet another glare at him.

"Come, lass, I swear
.
It is not proper for a lady of your station to do so, but neither
is it usual for you to leave the protection of the castle. We must
accept you for the creature you have become and proud we are of
that.” He kept his hands on her shoulders and studied her. "You
remind me of Setta, when she was but a lass. But you've got my
eyes.” He nodded. "They pass through our line they do, Heather.
Your children will have them. Wings too, probably.”

The lack of censure in his tone stopped any anger passing
from Heather's lips
. He
watched her deflate and felt pride in her stance. She truly cared
for him, hated that people were prejudiced.

When destiny had made her his mate, when
t
heir blood had been forged
together,
he
had been the lucky one.

Not she.

Desperate times called for desperate
measures
.

Calder was on the brink of a treasonous act but when his
ultimate intent was to kill a man, who according to the ridiculous
laws of this nation ought to be king, he supposed abusing some
shamans was not all that bad in comparison
.

Abusing a shaman’s power could result in
execution
. As could killing
Fade, his nephew, the future King, if the council realized he was
behind the act.

For the past five days since Calder had witnessed Fade and
some changeling, hoonan female in one of the crystal orbs, he’d
known that the time to act was upon him
. Fade had returned to this plane, he was not stuck in
another dimension and the timing couldn’t have been
worse.

There were but a few weeks remaining to the deadline
imposed by the council: soon, he would either be seated upon the
throne he coveted so, or be winging his way back to his
quarters
. A prospect he simply
couldn’t tolerate.

Unfortunately, he had the feeling that Merrick would twist
and manipulate the laws of the land to ensure that Calder would
never sit upon the throne
.

As such, he was at a stalemate
. The only alternative seemed to be to cause enough
mischief and mayhem to instigate a war and even then, his
reasonings were overstretched. Everything relied upon unreliable
information and he sorely felt the lack of pertinent
facts.

From his position on the bed, he could hear the wailings of
the small group of shamans that one of his stewards had dragged
into his suite earlier
. They’d
been there for hours, grunting and groaning at being hog-tied, but
he had ignored them for the most part.

The consequences of his actions did not concern
him
. He was already far too
deeply embroiled in the situation to be scared at the prospect of
having more blood on his hands. The end result concerned him more
than anything and whether his plottings would take him to where he
needed to be.

Upon the
Dark
Throne.

Calder knew he was getting desperate and for that alone, he
wanted Merrick to die
.

Without Merrick, Calder would have been King for the last
year
. Without Merrick,
Calder’s life would be free from problems and so, he had deduced
that whatever route he chose to take, it would have to include the
annihilation of both Fade and the councilor. In many ways, Merrick
was more of his nemesis than Fade.

Only by destroying the pair of them would he be able to
accede to the throne
. His
rightful place.

Leaping off the bed, he strode towards the prone
shamans
. There were four in
total. One of the elder ones had fainted. Her chest moved
sluggishly and Calder cursed his stewards for their mistreatment of
the woman. It wasn’t that he cared for her welfare, it was that he
cared their abuse would deny him the answers he sought.

Ignoring the other three, he strode to her, turned her on
to her front and untied her wrists
. Her arms had been pulled so far back that it had been
difficult for her to breathe so constricted had been her chest. Now
with her hands free, she was starting to breathe normally and color
was returning to her cheeks.

The three other shamans glared at him
. Their ages varied. The still-unconscious woman
was the eldest and the youngest had to have seen only sixteen
years. They were here to guide him to the throne and Calder knew he
had to move fast and move decisively because he himself was
starting to wonder if he would ever obtain his ultimate
dream.

Throughout this last year, Merrick had juggled ancient and
antique laws
. Weaving them,
crafting them, manipulating them so that Calder was tied up in a
legal battle. It had been far easier to murder his way to the
throne and now this one bastard was standing in his way. When
Calder had seen Fade and the hoonan in the crystal orb, an idea had
come to him and with some finagling, he thought he had a reasonable
idea of a way to achieve all he’d ever wanted.

Fade’s face had been alight with happiness, when his gaze
had touched upon the strange female who accompanied him and Calder
had never seen such a reaction from his nephew
. Practically always staid and dour, such an
expression told him of the female’s importance to the other man.
And while she had the appearance of a hoonan, the woman was quite
definitely full of intrigue.

Why?

Because the two of them had met with the King and Queen of
Jender
. He’d heard of the
disappearance of the Crown Princess of Jender a few decades ago but
had thought nothing of it, for Jender’s affairs did not concern
him.

Until now
.

There could be no other reason for Fade to take a woman to
meet with the King and Queen of Jender unless that stranger was
t
heir daughter. At least, that
seemed to be the most logical explanation. He’d looked into the
disappearance and the women appeared to be the right age and held a
passable likeness to the young girl’s appearance.

There had been news of the girl’s death, of her kidnapping…
stories concocted to explain away the chit’s vanishing
act
. And while it seemed
improbable that the girl was said Princess, there was no other
explanation and because of that image meeting with the royal
family, Calder had had an idea.

Somehow, he had to get to the woman
.

The path ahead of Calder was fraught with potential
errors
. Fraught with danger
both to himself to his nation and also to his soul. The mayhem he
intended to cause would turn realms on their heads, but he had
striven for too long to become the King of Haden.

It was in his blood
.
He was more than desperate to rule, because Calder knew that the
onyx laden seat was his destiny. Over the last five days, he had
locked himself in his old chambers. The new suites the council had
given him upon his new and more exalted status were comfortable and
pleasant but they were not suitable for what he had planned. In his
study, books lined the walls from floor to ceiling. There were
normal books, there were grand tomes of spells and wizardry and
magick. But there were also those who dealt with the dark magick.
With the dark arts. It was here where he had found his solution, no
matter how convoluted that solution might be. Amongst the writings
etched in blood, with books covered in human flesh, he had found
the answer.

The steps Calder was on the brink of taking would change
many lives
. But he was willing
to see it through in order to obtain that which should have always
belonged to him.

His only concern lay with his soul
.

And where that was concerned, Calder knew he reason to
worry
.

The deaths that rested with him, the blood that lay on his
hands, it all meant that Mother Mearth’s fury with him would be far
more terrifying a prospect than anything he could imagine on Mearth
itself
. Her retribution would
be fierce and in that regard, he was scared. But at the same time,
his lust for power was too great to swerve him from this
path.

Everything he’d ever wanted was within
reach
. He just had to widen
his grip and hold tight.

Over hours of study, he’d discovered that there was a
magick that manipulated the air
. It twisted time and space and wrapped it around certain
shaman’s fingers. From what he’d been able to understand, this
power would enable a person to open a pocket in space as though one
had passed through a door and into another room. Within seconds he
could land in the Jenderian castle, abduct what he could only
assume was the Princess of Jender and then retreat to his suites in
the Haden nation.

Using the crystal orbs to ascertain the girl’s solitude, he
would be a silent abductor
.
Leaving no evidence behind to point in his direction. And that was
where the shamans came in. These four had all been reported as
possessing magick that pertained to the air.

There were many types of shamans
. Some dealt with fire or with Earth, others with
water – a talent Calder himself possessed- or the weather. But
these four in his rooms were able to manipulate air. And it was
this particular type of shaman that would enable Calder to enact
his plan.

His intentions were to cause a war
. It would mean the deaths of many of his fellow Elfen
but it would be worth it in the end. He felt no guilt whatsoever
for the losses of lives that lay ahead. He had a purpose and that
purpose had to be seen to fruition. Haden and Jender were on the
brink of a union. If Fade wed the Princess of Jender, this would
unite the two nations. A coronation was imminent and Calder
intended to make sure that it was he upon the throne and not Fade
and this woman.

If Calder could steal the princess, before a wedding could
occur, then suspicion would rest with Jender’s
enemies
. Of which there were
many. Kingdoms that envied Jender’s natural resources and gifts
from Mother Mearth. He would never be suspected for he was of Haden
soil. In that respect it was a perfect plan.

Haden would unite with Jaden in t
heir search for the Princess and when Calder planted
proof that one of these other nations were behind the Princess’
abduction then Haden and Jender would go to war with that
nation.

Fade would be so furious that he would not think of a
coronation, he’d think only of retrieving the
female
. The women who
tolerated him were few and far between and from that look of
pleasure on his face, Calder knew that the woman was of extreme
importance to his nephew. He could only hope that Fade would rush
off into battle and that in his grief, his powers would be
diminished and he would be slain on the battle field. And if that
wasn’t the case, Calder would scurry fate along.

As it was, the most imminent death needed to be that of
Merrick
. If Fade was to die
and Merrick acted upon his threats, it would be Merrick who ceded
to the throne and that Calder could not tolerate.

He turned to the shamans and bit out, “Whether you wish to
or not, you are about to help me
. The future rests in your hands and if you choose to abide
and to guide me, then you shall be richer than you ever imagined.
But do wrong by me and you shall die. Of that I promise.” He paused
and glared at them. “Do you understand?”