Queen of Lost Stars (Dragonblade Series/House of St. Hever) (31 page)

But it was something that consumed his entire being… and he didn’t care in the least.

Still, there was more to his desire to see her than simple emotion. There was concern as well. Even though he knew de Dalyn was very ill and unable to move about, there was still an inherent distrust of the man. He knew, if Nicholas was able, that he’d drag himself out of his deathbed if it meant he could get close to Madelayne without Kaspian hanging about. Kaspian didn’t want to admit that very reason was predominantly why he was racing to Kirk at breakneck speed.

The truth was that he didn’t trust Nicholas in the least.

So the party raced down the road, avoiding the ruts from the recent rains and, on more than one occasion, found themselves up on the grassy shoulders of the road, running along the grass rather than the uneven road. Kaspian was still experiencing pain and fatigue as the result of his wound but he ignored it, pushing through it, because he felt such a sense of urgency to return to Kirk. Even if someone had asked him why he was so determined to return, he couldn’t have really explained it. All he knew was that the sense of urgency was clawing at him and he had to make it back to Kirk quickly, to see Madelayne and to make sure she was well. More than that, he was seriously considering asking Lord de Kirk to lock Nicholas up in the vault for the duration of his absence from Kirk. He knew he would only relax if the man was imprisoned.

In fact, it became the only option as far as he was concerned. He would seek out Lord de Kirk and ask him to put a guard on Nicholas’ room. But that thought vanished when he finally entered the bailey of Kirk to face a scene he never thought he would ever see. It was something so confusing, and startling, that once he envisioned it, all else seemed to fade from his mind. All he could think of was fury, fear, and death as he had never embraced it in his life.

Nicholas, Thomas, and Madelayne were grouped near one another and it was clear that something terrible had happened. He saw weapons and blood. Then he heard his wife’s voice; she was crying his name. Bailing from his steed, his broadsword was out before his feet even hit the ground.

Kaspian St. Hèver, in all of his deadly forms, was released.

The reckoning, for all of them, had finally come.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

A
fter leaving the
sergeant near the stables, Madelayne had returned to the chamber she shared with Kaspian. The calm she felt was quite eerie, really, a peace that had settled upon her with regard to Nicholas that it was difficult to describe. She was no longer afraid of the man, nor did she have an aversion to him as she had before. All she knew was that she was at peace with what needed to be done and she was quite convinced she was the only one who could do it.

Nicholas had caused so much death and destruction to the people of Lavister, her family and friends, that there was no one left who could avenge them – Kaspian and Reece were away and Thomas had crawled in to a bottle to fester. She didn’t even know where the man was; no one seemed to know. Moreover, she was afraid that if Thomas knew what the sergeant had told her, he’d run right to Nicholas to try and kill the man and end up getting himself killed instead. He wasn’t in any shape to kill a knight.

But she was.

It was very odd that she would think so because she had never killed anyone before. She’d never even thought on such a thing. In fact, she didn’t even like to kill chickens or rabbits for the cook. She just wasn’t the killing type. But this was different; Nicholas was going to kill them all, she was sure, and she was the only one who knew of his wicked intentions. She looked at the situation as more than vengeance for Cairn and Ewan and Mavia – she looked at it as self-preservation for those left behind. She looked at it as saving Kaspian’s life. It was something she was determined to do, more than she had ever been determined about anything in her life.

It was time for Nicholas to pay.

Something changed in Madelayne that day. Gone was the woman who was rather naïve and stubborn. In her place came a woman determined to fight for her friends and family, to fight for what she believed in. If it meant taking a man’s life, then she was willing to do it to save others. The woman who had suffered such loss in her life, the queen of the lost stars that hung high in the heavens watching over her, was about to reclaim some of that sorrow and tuck it away where it could never harm her again. She was going to take back control of her life, to a certain extent, by seeking vengeance against someone who had inadvertently tried to destroy her. There was no more line between those Nicholas had harmed and those he hadn’t. Now, they were all one group.

Madelayne was about to fight for that group.

But there were obstacles to that plan. She knew that Nicholas simply wouldn’t lie down and let her do as she pleased to him so her only chance against him was surprise. He was much bigger than she was, and much stronger, and she was sure that he believed he was much more intelligent, too. But that was not to be the case – she was going to outsmart him. Since she couldn’t overpower him, her only chance was the element of surprise and being just a little bit smarter than he was because she was certain if she didn’t seriously disable him with her first strike, she might not get a second chance.

So she plotted what she would do and how she would do it. Up in the bedroom high above Kirk’s bailey, she knew what her actions would be. The first strike would be hard and fast, to disable the man. The second would be to kill him. But she wanted him to know why he was suffering, that everything she was doing had vengeance written all over it. Was she an avenging angel? Perhaps. All she knew was that she had to do this. To delay, in any fashion, might cost someone else their life and she was terrified that the someone suffering would be Kaspian.

She couldn’t let that happen.

Looking around the chamber, she could see the stick she’d brought with her from the stables. It was actually quite heavy and would make a perfect club to brain him over the skull with. Kaspian had most of his weaponry in the armory but not all of it; they’d come to Kirk with little more than the clothes on their back but Kaspian had possessed numerous small daggers that he had carried on his body and some of those daggers were on a table near the lancet window. She went to the table and picked one of them up, examining it, wondering if she could kill a man with it. It wasn’t very large but it could do some damage, at least enough to incapacitate him. After that, she would either have to stab him until she pierced his heart or find something larger to cut him with.

She held the dirk, staring at it, finally feeling some apprehension as she touched the razor-sharp tip. It wasn’t fear of Nicholas but fear for herself, perhaps. If something happened to her, then Nicholas would tell everyone that she had gone mad and tried to kill him, and that he had been forced to kill her in self-defense. She knew that Kaspian would not believe him and, in the man’s weakened state, he would go after Nicholas and quite possibly lose.

Therefore, she had to win this fight. There was no other option. Therefore, she drew in a deep breath and collected both the dirk and her big stick.

It was time to act.

With every step she took, however, apprehension grew. She hadn’t done much with her life; she had lived unspectacularly, doing mundane things, never anything grand. Never anything that would sway nations or save people or contribute to the cause of man. She was, in truth, unspectacular, at least she thought so. But in this chance to avenge people who had been wrongfully taken from this earth, she felt as if, finally, she were doing something important.

She was doing something noble.

The sun was bright in the bailey as she exited the keep, her gaze nervous as she kept an eye out for Nicholas. She wasn’t sure what she would say to him when she saw him because she knew he would rush upon her and try to tell her more lies, so it was very important that she be the one to spot him first and not the other way around. That way, she would have time to consider her actions and, hopefully, have the element of surprise. Therefore, she tried to stay in the shadows, watching and waiting for her prey.

This time, she would be the hunter.

A brisk breeze blew through the bailey, stirring the dust and debris, as Madelayne remained at the corner of the keep, standing behind a flying buttress-like feature that kept her somewhat shielded. She stood there for quite some time, watching the comings and goings of the bailey, watching for any sign of the tall, blonde knight who had done so much damage.

Minutes passed into an hour and still no sign of him. She was considering moving to the great hall to see if he might be in there, or even if someone might know where he was, when she suddenly caught sight of him as he crossed the bailey away from the stables.

Seized with the vision of an unsuspecting Nicholas, Madelayne pushed herself against the stone, watching from the shadows as Nicholas crossed the bailey towards the outbuildings that were housing some of Lavister’s troops. The man appeared as if he didn’t have a care in the world, moving quite casually, and Madelayne waited until he moved well past her. This way, she could sneak up behind him and club him on the head from behind. Therefore, she was prompted to move as he strolled across the ward away from her. She came out of her hiding place and fell in behind him.

Heart pounding in her ears, Madelayne held the heavy stick in both hands as she stalked Nicholas. There weren’t many people in the bailey at this time of day and most of the soldiers were up on the wall, so there wasn’t anybody to wonder why Lady St. Hèver was following de Dalyn with a stick in her hands. There wasn’t anyone to stop her. That was well and good because Madelayne didn’t want any distractions. She picked up her pace, closing the gap between her and Nicholas before coming to within just a few feet of him. He still wasn’t aware of her presence and that was exactly what she wanted. Lifting the heavy stick, she clobbered Nicholas across the back of the skull with it. He fell like a stone.

Terrified and thrilled she had struck down her prey, Madelayne circled him at a distance, the club still in her hands preparing to strike him again. She was delighted her plan had worked but apprehensive of what she had gotten herself in to. The reality of the blow was more than she thought it would be and now a man was at her feet, dazed. A man who had killed and killed again.

Still, she didn’t want to beat him to death, at least not yet. She wanted him to know why. For Cairn and Ewan and Mavia, she wanted Nicholas to know her motivation, a motivation as old as time itself. To right wrongs. To seek justice.

To seek vengeance.

“Can you hear me, Sir Nicholas?” Madelayne asked. When he didn’t respond, she kicked his foot. “Can you hear me?”

Nicholas moaned and twitched, rolling his head back and forth and struggling to come around. Madelayne moved closer, standing over him with the stick held high.

“Open your eyes,” she commanded. “Open your eyes and look at me, Nicholas. I know you can hear me.”

Nicholas lay there a moment before one eye popped open. Then, a second eye popped open, both of them dazed but looking at her. Madelayne realized, as he looked at her, that her fury was returning. Gazing into the face of the man who allowed Cairn to die, any apprehension she might have felt at her actions was vanished. She kicked him again.

“Listen to me, you arrogant swine,” she hissed. “I know what you did. I know that you allowed Cairn to die at the hands of the Welsh. Did you think no one would tell me? Did you think no one saw what you did? With God as my witness, you are going to pay for your treachery. Do you understand me?”

Nicholas was becoming more alert. He blinked his eyes but that was all he did; he made no effort to move anything else, not at the moment. His gaze never left hers.

“What on earth are you talking about?” he said, sounding very much as if he were the victim in all of this. “What’s this about Cairn? I did what I could for him, lady. I pulled him away from the Welsh. Who would dare to tell you otherwise?”

Infuriated, she kicked him again, right in the thigh. He flinched with pain but made no move to stop her. He didn’t move at all. Standing over him, Madelayne was close to striking him with her stick again.

“Soldiers who saw what happened,” she snapped. “They saw Cairn beg for help and they saw you stand immobile until it was too late. Are you so arrogant that you would think no one would see such a thing? Worse yet, that they would not tell me what they saw?”

Nicholas gazed up at the woman steadily. He was in a bad position, on his back as she stood over him with a stick. He knew he could easily subdue her but she would fight him and more than likely hurt herself in the process. No one would be sympathetic to a man who hurt a woman, and especially not St. Hèver. Even though Kaspian was still recovering from his wound, he was still formidable. Nicholas wasn’t ready yet to face that battle. But he also couldn’t let Lady St. Hèver have the advantage over him, now with the knowledge of what really happened at Beeston with Cairn l’Ebreux.