Destiny by Fiona McIntosh Page B

the elder god decided his nephew was spineless. When the time was right he would overpower him for good but that was some while away yet—he must wait until he had the full measure of his host’s extensive magics and strengths. He must know that before he could make any decisive moves.
    Goth cleared his throat uncomfortably. He noticed that Orlac did a lot of staring into nothing. The pauses in the man’s conversation unsettled the former chief inquisitor. It was as though Orlac’s attention was entirely diverted; that he was seeing something else, talking to someone else.
    Orlac came out of whatever reverie he had been in and looked down upon Goth.
    ‘Where is the Princess?’
    Goth was relieved to be talking again and released from the disturbing silence. ‘Presumably in her chambers. No one has seen her much since her mother’sdeath at Neame and the girl’s arrival in the city. She has a maidservant who is rather,’ he carefully chose an appropriate phrase, ‘over-protective.’ It was the right choice he decided and just stopped short of smirking. Perhaps he could get Hela thrown out of the palace as well. Better still, killed or, wait, even more satisfying…delivered to him as a slave.
    Orlac’s voice disturbed his flight of fancy. ‘I want the girl summoned. I instruct you to personally find her and bring her to me.’
    ‘Now, your highness?’ Goth was not quite sure when this golden man had become a sovereign but he felt it was the right amount of respect to show to this person.
    Orlac ignored the title. ‘Did you think, perhaps, I meant tomorrow?’
    Goth felt his colour rise immediately. It was not often he could be caught out like this. ‘No, sire. I presumed you meant right now.’
    ‘Then why are you still here?’ Orlac asked, a subtle change in his tone suggesting something of a threat.
    Goth snapped into a bow. ‘At once, sire.’ He left the chamber immediately in search of Sarel.
    After a lengthy and extensive search of every room, every nook and cranny of the palace with dozens of people involved in the orchestrated hunt, Goth found himself once again standing in front of Orlac. This time, however, he felt a lot less confident.
    He bowed low. ‘My lord. She has disappeared.’ Brevity was best, he decided.
    ‘Would escaped be a better word?’
    Goth found the courage to look into those violet eyes. ‘Perhaps, sire. I have no idea. She was not under any constraint. I’m guessing now that she may have been alerted to your arrival in the city and took flight.’
    ‘Perhaps,’ the god conceded, suddenly tired. ‘I want her found and returned to the palace. You, Goth, will track her down.’
    Dorgryl whispered. She will have fled to Tallinor.
    To Gynt?
    I couldn’t say but you can be sure it’s Tallinese soil which beckons. It would be the safest place to flee to…and the largest to get lost in. The only other places around here are tiny islands.
    Goth felt a finger of doubt poke at him and again the silence was unnerving. ‘She may already be on a ship, sire,’ he offered.
    ‘Then chase her. This is your first duty for me and if you succeed you will be richly rewarded, in the manner you wish. Don’t fail me, Almyd Goth.’
    ‘I will not let you down, my lord. May I have some men?’
    ‘Take what you want. Leave immediately. I suggest you head for Tallinor first.’
    Goth bowed, ecstatic. Back to Tallinor and with armed men behind him. Could it get any better?
    ‘Try not to bumble and kill another Queen of Cipres,’ Orlac added as Goth made his departure. ‘I wish her returned alive.’ That would annoy Dorgryl, he thought, and smiled.

7
Decision
    Alyssa’s face betrayed the pain filling her heart as she revealed her plan to Gyl. They were alone in what had been Lorys’s chambers. How sad, she thought, that someone so vital, so alive just days ago, was now being referred to as the ‘old King’, as if he had been in his dotage.
    ‘You would leave me now,’ Gyl asked,