Page 199 of North Queen
A heat rose in her cheeks at his dismissal. She trailed behind him, a fury growing in her core. “You will hear it!” she snapped.
He whirled back to face her. “Have I not given you everything?” he raged.
Norah stumbled back but caught herself against the railing.
His voice came low, but it chilled her soul. “I’ve required nothing of the North, put no demands upon you. I’ve given everything you’ve asked—peace, mercy, tolerance. I give provisions for your people. I give your army horses and weapons. Men.” His face grew darker. “And I let you keep the one threat to my crown. The man who is to strike me down rides unchallenged through my kingdom, through my castle. Even now he goes freely to my enemy. Still, I do nothing.”
He looked at her with defeat in his eyes. “I wed you to change my fate. But I’ve only brought it closer.” He steadied his weight against the railing. “I won’t hear it.” Then he turned and continued up the stairs.
Norah took a deep breath, tempering her fury. He was speaking from fear, she told herself. And meeting that fear with anger wouldn’t help either of them.
She followed him up the staircase and down the hall to his study. He said nothing as he unfastened his sword belt from around his hips and leaned the blade against the wall.
“What did the seer tell you?” she asked again.
Mikael waved his servant away, and Vimal left them to the quiet of the crackling fireplace. He pulled off his breastplate, dropping it onto the floor by his desk. He started with his left pauldron but fumbled with the small clasps and gave up. Norah watched as he gripped the corners of the desk and leaned his weight against it. He breathed heavily through his mouth.
She moved to his side. “What did the seer tell you?” she asked again, softly.
He breathed in a long breath and let it out slowly. “I die at the hand of the Bear.”
She needed to walk him back from this. “That’s an old vision.”
“No. There will be another Great War. A powerful event. There are many visions of it now: North flags throughout the Tribelands, Aleon forces in Bahoul.” He paused, his eyes burning. “You. Beside the Aleon king.”
Samuel’s paintings flooded her mind. But she knew things weren’t always as they seemed. “Mikael, these are but interpretations of what the seer has seen. They lack context, all the detail. You can’t necessarily rely on his translation.”
“I saw it with my own eyes!” he snapped back.
Norah stopped as her breath hitched in her throat.Of course. She felt so stupid—how could she have forgotten?Mikael had a traveler, someone who could enter his mind and show him these visions. She needed to see them. “How powerful is this seer?” she asked.
“The most powerful of the four kingdoms.”
Was he powerful enough to see what happened to her memories? Was he powerful enough to unlock them?
Mikael stood with a somber weight curving his shoulders. There was something more.
“He showed Soren a vision,” he added quietly, “one that Soren won’t speak of, even to me. It’s his own demise, I’m sure.” He paused, drawing in a devastated breath. “I haven’t changed my fate. I’ve brought it to my door. And I’ve cursed those closest to me.”
He struggled again with the clasps of his armor. She moved forward to help him, but he caught her wrist, pulling back from her touch.
The storms of his eyes eddied. “Leave me, North Queen.”
Chapter fifty-seven
Mikael’sanguishfromthenight before weighed heavily on Norah. And there was nothing she could do. Morning brought a new day, but not a new hope. This place, this kingdom of darkness that decayed the mind and heart, was breaking her.
She decided to try for a ride. She needed fresh air, and sun. How far had she fallen from Mikael’s grace? Would she be denied the little freedom she’d had before?
Norah stepped out of her sanctuary to see Captain Artem personally waiting for her.
“Salara,” he greeted her coldly.
His nearness made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Of course there’d been no retribution for his cruelty, and his smug presence enraged her. She hated this man. She praised herself for sending Vitalia and Serene to stay with Kiran and his mother—they were hidden, and safe.
“Captain Artem, what a surprise,” she said, not bothering to hide her disgust.
His eyes moved over her clothing. “We’re going riding, I see.”
