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Authors: Rhiannon Hart

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My hands were cold and swollen, but I brandished my knife and faced Servilock.

He looked between us, both free, both brandishing knives and ready to attack, as if unable to comprehend how it had happened. I could barely comprehend it myself. ‘You have killed yourselves,’ Servilock roared, and dashed out into the cave.

He was probably right. There was a chemical smell in the air that made me feel sick and dizzy. Rodden pulled off his cloak. ‘We have to make it to the exit and seal it behind us, and we have to make it there blind. Can you run?’

‘Yes, but I can’t sense the direction. I was drugged –’

‘Just run.’ He pulled the cloak over our heads and grasped me about the waist. ‘Deep breath,’ he said. ‘Let’s go.’

We staggered into the Turning place. I could see nothing with the cloak over my head and my eyes squeezed shut, but I heard plenty. The Turning was in chaos. Bodies careened into us. The harmings seemed to be running about at random.

The yelbar gas stung my eyes. My head throbbed. I stumbled over the uneven ground, my lungs nearly bursting, but I didn’t dare take a breath. Rodden tripped and fell, almost dragging me down too. I hauled on his arms and we were up and running again.

We were no longer jostled by the crowd. The passage should have been full of escaping harmings. Where were they? Were they too stupid to get away?

The air changed. Light forced its way through the thick cloth. Rodden threw it off us and, still running, we took great lungfuls of fresh air.

We stopped at the edge of the trees. I could see nothing moving. Overhead the clouds were heavy but did not threaten an acid storm.

‘I must go back and seal the cave. Stay here and
call a brant.’ He limped back, and I wondered how badly he was hurt.

I searched the sky for brants, and then remembered. Griffin. Where was my bird? It had been days. I tried to call her with my mind but I was still so foggy. Rodden would find her. He would be able to call a brant too. I turned back and ran to the cave.

A huge rock was being manoeuvred to block the entrance.

From the inside.

‘
No!
’ The scream tore through me. I doubled my speed and slammed into the rock. It didn’t budge an inch. ‘Rodden.’ I pushed at it with all my strength. ‘What are you doing? You can’t stay in there. You’ll die.’ I scrabbled at the stone.

‘Get away, Zeraphina.’ I could hear him clearly despite the barrier between us. There were gaps where the rock didn’t quite meet. ‘You have to leave.’

‘I’m not going anywhere without you. How could you trick me like this?’

‘I’m sorry. You would never have let me go back in.’

‘You’re right about that. Come out here this instant.’

‘I can’t. It’s over for me. I’m Turned.’

‘You’re not – you’re fine. You came back.’

‘It won’t last. I can’t resist the blood forever. I can already feel it changing me again. Which is why you must leave now.’

‘But I love you,’ I burst out.

His voice softened. ‘I know you do. I love you too.’

Shock made me step back. I stared at the rock. ‘Say my name,’ I said. ‘Say you know who I am.’

‘I love you, Zeraphina.’

A great heaving sob took my voice away.

‘From the moment I first heard you all the way off in Amentia, I’ve loved you. I couldn’t keep myself away. That’s why I stole your ring, so I would have a little piece of you everywhere I went. Why I arranged for your sister to marry Amis. To draw you closer, even though I knew it was wrong.
I couldn’t believe there was someone else like me. Someone whose insides felt like my own. You always believed in me, even after you knew the truth. But deep down I knew that it would have to end this way. I’ve done some terrible things. Happiness was never meant to be mine.’

My voice shook with unshed tears. ‘But why do you only say this now? Why couldn’t you have told me before, when you could have held me? How can I tell you that I love you with this rock between us?
Please, come out so I can tell you, or let me come in because I don’t want to leave without you, no matter where you go. Do you hear? Take me with you.’

The yelbar gas would be spreading. It wouldn’t be long before it reached him.

‘We could run away,’ I went on desperately. ‘We could go to the Jarbin. Be with Uwin and Oilif. She ran away, and look at them. They are so happy together. That could be us.’

‘You know it can’t. I tried so hard to make this end differently. But look what we have achieved. I think we have killed every Turned harming in Lharmell. All but one. The last one has to die as well. I’m going back down the passage now, and you must find a brant and fly home. Don’t let all this be for nothing.’

‘No, Rodden. Don’t go, not yet.’ I thought frantically for a way to delay him. ‘You can’t leave me yet.’

But he was drawing away. I could feel it. The laudanum had faded just enough and I felt the thread between us. I tugged on it hard. As hard as I could, knowing it would hurt him, and not caring. He faltered. He was already so weak from the beating. But he continued down the passage.

And then something happened. Something like wildfire racing through a dry forest. I heard a distant
cry. Orange poison raced down the thread towards me and exploded in my chest. I reeled backwards, falling to my knees and retching. Tears ran down my face and pattered on the dry leaves.

No.

I sent out clumsy thought-fingers, feeling for him.

‘Rodden,’ I called, pressing my face to the gaps in the rock.

It couldn’t have been him. That cry had been another harming. He was still just behind the rock, waiting for me to leave so he could hide himself away in Verapine. Kill the last of the harmings without putting me in danger.

I hunted for the thread, I searched for it further and further down the passage.

But it wasn’t there. He was gone.

I screamed and the sky, only just beginning to lighten, darkened again into night. An eagle’s cry rent the air; my eagle. She shrieked again and again, each call sounding closer.

The clouds boiled with the power of my anguish. Bolts of lightning ripped through the heavens and thunder rumbled over the land. The sky opened, and sheets of freezing rain poured from the clouds as if they would drown all beneath them.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to all my friends and family who read
Blood Storm
through its various drafts, inspired me, and supported me beyond anything I expected. Your encouragement and enthusiasm make me so very happy. Especially the ‘kisses for your brain’. And my apologies to those whom I gave nightmares!

The team at Random House Australia have been a joy to work with, again. Thank you so much Kimberley for your editing and insight; Zoe for your excitement; and Astred for the cover. THE COVER. Wow. I am one lucky author. And thanks of course to Sarana and Dorothy for all your marketing and publicity work.

I have to give a shout out to my beautiful cover girl, Ana Gremard, who not only embodies the spirit
of Zeraphina effortlessly, but is model and photographer in one.

I can’t imagine what it was like to write before there were blogs and Twitter, but I’m so grateful that there are now. Thank you to the Aussie blogosphere (and beyond) for getting behind
Blood Song
. Your support has been amazing.

And thank you of course to Ginger Clark, who’s always got my back.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

R
hiannon Hart remembers writing before she could read, puzzling over the strange squiggles in
Jeremiah and the Dark Woods
by Janet and Alan Ahlberg and putting her own words in their places. Her first love was Jareth the Goblin King at the tender age of eight. She wrote fan fiction in high school but she’d never admit to it out loud, so don’t ask. When she’s not reading or writing she is belly dancing, chasing after other people’s cats, or putting the pedal to the floor at her sewing machine. She grew up in north-western Australia and currently resides in Melbourne, where she works in marketing. Rhiannon has been published in the
Australian Book Review
,
Magpies
,
Viewpoint
and mamamia.com.au and blogs at
rhiannon-hart.blogspot.com.
Rhiannon is currently working on the Third Book of Lharmell.

Did you miss

Blood Song

The First Book of Lharmell

Read on for a sample

ONE

I was thinking of blood again so I went to practise my archery. That’s what I always did when

I thought I was going to kill something. I hit the bullseye every time and nothing had died yet, so at least I had that going for me.

I didn’t know any other sixteen-year-old girls but the ones in my books didn’t obsessively fire arrows because they felt the urge to bite someone. They worried about suitors and ribbons and things. Then again, a few got fed to dragons, so I seemed to have it better than some.

There was still an hour before sundown but the forest around me was blackening into an early twilight. The light barely mattered; I could practise well into the night if I wanted to, still firing perfect shots.

Leap was curled up on my discarded cloak. His eyes were slitted and he watched me, purring when I glanced at him. Far above us Griffin was hovering over the clearing, golden wings spread against a steely sky.

My feet were tangled in the long, unkempt grass. The grounds of the Amentine palace were once the most magnificent in all southern Brivora. Now, they have fallen into disrepair. As the wealth of the House of Amentia trickled away over many genera- tions, so too did the magnificence of the palace. The gardens were weedy and overgrown. The forest had reclaimed the land, and uncut saplings had become towering oaks. Ivy had crept inexorably up the steep castle walls, reaching far above my head to touch the windowsill of my lofty bedroom.

By the time my mother took the crown as queen, the disorder was complete. It would take huge sums of money to repair not only the gardens to their former magnificence, but also the crumbling castle, the spreading mould and unfashionable décor – money we didn’t have. It was easier for my mother simply to shut up the unusable parts of the keep. So this was what she did.

I preferred it in the grounds where there were still tracts of scraggy grass and I could set up my archery range, the forest enveloping me on four sides.

The world had all but forgotten our existence, but I found I did not mind so much. I liked my solitude. If given the choice, I would prefer to stay that way forever.

But we wouldn’t. Lilith was to be married. And sometime soon, all too soon, it would be my turn for a husband. As Second Daughter I would have to make my home with my husband in his kingdom, wherever that should be.

I grimaced, and swiped another arrow from my quiver. My skin crawled at the thought of someone touching me.

Lilith, on the other hand, had always detested our home for its chilly and ramshackle nature, and was looking forward to her marriage to Prince Lester and life as the future Queen of Varlint. Amentia was hers by inheritance but I doubted she would rule it from its rightful seat. Rather she would reign by proxy from Varlint. Perhaps Amentia had seen its last queen.

I notched the arrow, which I had fletched myself with Griffin’s golden feathers, and aimed at the target thirty feet away. I drew back on the taut string, my eyes narrowing, seeing nothing but the ringed red circle.

Before I could fire I was distracted by the urgent drumming of hoof beats approaching rapidly. I tried to shut out the noise but the horse’s scream as it was pulled to a sudden halt made me start.

‘Drat.’ I lowered my bow and waited, ears cocked towards the keep.

Silence.

I raised my bow and drew back on the string. I had the red dot in my sights again when voices reached my ears. I couldn’t make out the words but the speakers were agitated. Again I lowered my bow, preferring to wait until the interruption ceased. I glanced at Leap; he was tucked into a tight ball, his short silvery fur fluffed out against the cold. His purr rumbled deep in his chest, and he flexed his claws luxuriously.

I was raising my bow for the third time when a cry rang out. It was sharp and defiant, the noise evaporating quickly in the brittle air.

Lilith.

‘Oh, blast it all!’ I cried, hurling my bow to the ground, where it bounced harmlessly in the long grass. My concentration was ruined so I bent to unstring the bow. There was no point practising any more today. I would have words with my sister when I got inside. She had no respect for –

I noticed that Leap had lifted his head and his ears were pricked in the direction of the castle. His pupils dilated and he raised himself into a crouch.

My breath caught. Something was wrong.

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Copyright Act 1968
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Version 1.0

Blood Storm

9781742754796

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

A Random House Australia book

Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd

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First published by Random House Australia in 2012

National Library of Australia

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