The Raven Throne by Stephanie Burgis
Author:Stephanie Burgis [Burgis, Stephanie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781526614476
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2023-06-05T00:00:00+00:00
14
Giles woke, as was usual, with a song in his head. This time, it was full of such overwhelming heartbreak that it threatened to sink him into despair ⦠until something soft and ticklish suddenly bumped against his nose, making his eyes fly open.
âOh, you!â Half laughing, half sighing, he reached out from under his piled covers to pet the small and pointed chin of the nosy little hedgehog who stared expectantly at him from the cloth floor beside his head. She had waddled up to him in the royal stables last night, just as heâd been about to finally mount his horse for the journey, and had insisted with a series of noisy grunts and snorts that she ought to come along.
In that moment, he hadnât had the heart to turn her away, no matter how foolish he might look to all the adults around him. He had needed the comfort of her steady presence, tucked snugly against him as he and Ros rode away from the castle, leaving the rest of their family behind.
Now, though ⦠âI thought youâd leave once I fell asleep,â he whispered. âDonât you want to be wild and free?â
She snorted in his face and then turned to waddle purposefully across the small tent that the duke had given him, coming to a stop at his lute case.
âSorry,â he told her as she nosed hopefully at it. âNo music for you today. My lute isnât even in there any more.â
His fingers tingled with the old, familiar yearning to start his morning by strumming a chord; he shook them out, as he had every morning for nearly six weeks, and then pushed himself upright, tossing aside his covers. He might only have had a few hours of sleep, but there was no more time to waste â and outside, he could hear brisk footsteps and adult voices already sounding through the thin black-and-silver tent walls.
âRight,â he said. âNo time for singing or despair. Letâs find food and my sister.â
He and Ros needed to talk. Last night, when heâd arrived at the stables too late and found chaos erupting, heâd fumbled everything. Heâd been so wrecked by his confrontation with Wincester that heâd faltered and failed to find the right words for that perilous moment. Even if heâd dared to use magic on the duke or the duchess, by then, he couldnât have managed it. His magical reserves had been trickling away, like sand in an hourglass, to maintain his first casting and hold Wincester safely unconscious.
Of course, he hadnât been able to explain that in front of the others, though, so who knew what Ros had made of it? Even beforehand, sheâd spent so much of the day being inexplicably angry at him. Heâd hated to leave his failure unexplained â but by the time their whole party had finally come to a halt, hours later, the sun had been creeping up over the horizon and his head had been spinning with exhaustion. Heâd barely even managed to slide off his horse and fall into the tent heâd been given.
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