Queens' Warriors Read online

  QUEENS’ WARRIORS

  An Ellora’s Cave Publication, April 2004

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

  PO Box 787

  Hudson, OH 44236-0787

  ISBN MS Reader (LIT) ISBN # 1-84360-856-1

  Other available formats (no ISBNs are assigned):

  Adobe (PDF), Rocketbook (RB), Mobipocket (PRC) HTML

  QUEENS’ WARRIORS © 2004 MARI BYRNE

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part without permission.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. They are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.

  Edited by Mary Moran.

  Cover art by Syneca.

  Queens’ Warriors

  Mari Byrne

  Prologue

  “Frech!” The large, dark-haired Warrior sitting opposite his identical twin exclaimed as he rubbed his hands together in a bid to gain warmth in the absurdly cold hovel. “I’m getting damned tired of sitting watch, waiting for an attack that’s never going to come.” Shan Lin muttered to his twin brother Vincent as both men crouched in the barren shack in the middle of the Aranakian mountain range. What few items lay scattered here and there in the dilapidated building belonged to the brothers, who had carried everything needed to survive on their backs up the mountainside.

  “And they say we’re envied in the Queen’s Guard for our prestigious postings given personally from the Queen.” Vincent pointed out, in a sarcasm-laced voice.

  A snort of disbelief sounded next to him, but Vincent continued to toss things about the shack as he listened to his brother.

  “Oh, please. Let them come and have this fantastic location where all that ever happens is an averon comes scratching at the door every other week. I swear I see more action from Winters, than from anything going on out here.” Shan Lin smiled at the image of their butler/majordomo/surrogate father/friend getting any “action” and nearly laughed out loud.

  “Well, we won’t be here all that much longer. Might as well finish setting up the scene here and get some rest before more of the Horrd figures out we’re really still here. Shouldn’t take long. All we have to convince them of is that we’re drifters passing through.” Vincent suggested as he tossed the pack he had been pulling items out of into a corner.

  “We need to be at our full strength when the rest of that small army reaches us.” Shan Lin agreed.

  Vincent heard a deep sigh before he heard his brother reach out for the second pack they brought with them.

  “Yeah. I’ve been missing my beauty sleep lately.” Vincent quipped back. “My face still hasn’t launched any ships out of the galaxy, but those triplets I fucked last night sure thought I looked adorable with the lights on or off.”

  “As long as they were worth the loss of sleep.” Shan Lin replied, a smile in his voice.

  “Just shut up and sleep. You’re getting old, and need all the rest you can get.” Vincent shot back as he unrolled his sleep blankets and crawled between them before closing his own eyes and relaxing. This time it was he who nearly laughed out loud at his brother’s response.

  “Sure thing, old man. Though I’ll never be as old as you are big brother. After all, you shot out first, and that makes you the oldest. Damned, ancient wise-ass that you are.”

  * * * * *

  Vincent sat up, wide-awake from an unknown and as yet unidentifiable noise. He reached down next to his body and groped along the floor for the short sword he slept with every night. Searching inside his mind for his brother, he found Shan Lin lying a few feet away, still asleep.

  Shan Lin! Wake! He pathed, through the brothers’ mind-link.

  Shan Lin came awake instantly, crouching in a defensive position.

  Have the Horrd returned for another round? Shan Lin asked, all sleep instantaneously cleared from his mind.

  Vincent nearly laughed out loud.

  No. I think they’ve left one of their victims instead. Possibly trying to set a trap.

  The brothers both listened to a tapping sound against the door.

  Well, no reason to disappoint them brother mine. Let’s see what they’ve thrown at our feet.

  Getting up, Shan Lin walked cautiously to the shack’s door, Vincent trailing behind him silently.

  Ready whenever you are. Vincent heard his brother’s soft words in his mind. Vincent reached his hand out to the latch even as he continued to watch through the slit. As quick as he could, he jerked on the latch and the door slammed open into the room’s wall. A body fell through the opening onto the floor and emitted a torturous groan of pain.

  He knelt by the body and felt Shan Lin brush by him on his way out the door. He knew his brother would locate any enemies lurking in the shadows.

  Vincent ran his hands lightly over the figure on the floor, checking for traps. All he could find was blood and bits of flesh clinging to the person lying before him.

  Vincent started to stand, wiping the gore on his own clothing, when he heard a whisper.

  “What?” He bent closer, ready in case the blood, which covered the body, didn’t belong to the person lying on the floor.

  “Try again. I can barely hear you.” Bending closer, he cocked his ear toward the figure in an attempt to hear better.

  “Vin…Queen…kill Mit…Kri…get Warriorsssss…” The words trailed off into a hiss, then stopped altogether as the man sank into unconsciousness.

  Vincent looked down at the mess in front of him, recognition coming into his eyes, and swore softly.

  Shan Lin came back in just as Vincent gently picked the body up and placed it on a scarred table at the far side of the room.

  “What’s up with… What the freching Hellious is that?” Shan Lin gestured to the figure Vincent draped on the table.

  “Help me clean him up. I think I know who he is, and whatever he was babbling about has to do with the Queen, Mitch, Kristain, and death.” Even as he spoke, Vincent ran over to their supplies to dig for the emergency kit.

  “And if what I think has happened we’re going to need all the information he can give us.”

  Chapter One

  Shan Lin and Vincent Carrucci-Rayan crouched over the battered body of their fourth cousin on their father, Thaddeus’, side and listened to an incredulous tale of brutal torture and murder. The man telling it, Dorian Goeron, was showing every indication of being racked with an excruciating pain neither of the brothers thought he would survive.

  “The Old Crone…Riad. Queen Sara…she…dead.” Dorian’s voice broke as he stifled a moan. “Sara slit the old woman’s…” Dorian’s voice trailed away as he paused to swallow with difficulty, “throat as she climaxed.”

  Shan Lin watched a look of sheer terror spread across the young man’s face before Dorian squeezed his eyes closed and shuddered. A sudden groan of pain escaped from the wounded man’s mouth as Dorian tried to sit up. Failing utterly in his attempt, he began to weep softly.

  “You knew the Queen had been driven over the edge when it was announced Mitch and Kristain had found and married their bride. What possessed you to crawl into the woman’s bed?” Vincent asked while getting out the rations the brothers had packed in preparation for a siege.

  “I imagine it was his other personality guiding him, Vincent. I’m sure you remember what it was to be in your twenties and wanting to fuck anything and everything that moved.” Shan Lin reached out to staunch the flow of blood from a deep gash in Dorian’s temple.

  “And fucking some things that stood stationary,” Vincent quipped dead-pan.

  Shan Lin watched a pained smile slip across Dorian’s face before the inevitable whimper escaped.
/>   “Don’t.” The word hissed out of Dorian’s mouth as Shan Lin continued his limited first aid.

  “Try to relax.” Shan Lin spoke absently as he poured liquid “gut out” over the numerous wounds covering his cousin’s body.

  “Tell us exactly what happened.” Vincent spoke from behind his brother’s back before speaking into Shan Lin’s mind.

  It will distract him from the pain you’re going to have to inflict.

  “She nicknamed me Lovely. Like I was…a…Riad…pet.” Dorian sucked in a hissed breath as Shan Lin poured more “gut out” over a deep wound in the man’s thigh. Panting heavily, he breathed out the words more than he spoke.

  “She…she…called me into…her room and…demand…ed…I lie on the…bed. As a subject to the Queen, I never…questioned her. As her lover, I…became excited. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t asked…of me before.”

  Shan Lin nearly growled out his anger as he worked over Dorian’s, body. The destruction was extensive, and would have been fatal had Dorian not been able to reach someone with knowledge of medicines. His aunt was going to have much to answer for. But this… This was insane.

  Easy, Shani. Patch him up.

  The story continued to pour out of Dorian. As he spoke, his voice flowed more smoothly with the telling and there were fewer interruptions due to the pain. Vincent had been correct. The telling of his horrific time with the Queen was cathartic, even as terrifying as the story was.

  “She was screaming words at me I neither understood nor wanted to listen to. I couldn’t understand but one in maybe fifteen things she said, but the feeling I got when I heard her shrieking them…” He paused in the telling as a fine tremor began in his injured body.

  The silence went on unbroken for so long, Vincent finally spoke up.

  “Dorian,” Vincent called in an authoritative voice, but Dorian didn’t seem to hear him.

  “Dorian.” Vincent tried again with little success.

  “Dorian!” Vincent shouted, startling Dorian out of his own personal hell.

  The man looked toward his cousin with a mixed look of loathing and horror before blanking his face and answering.

  “Yes?”

  “Continue.” Vincent commanded.

  His body continuing to shake with tremors, Dorian did so.

  “When she had nearly finished whatever she was rambling, her climax nearly upon her, she leaned over and picked up what looked like a ceremonial dagger.” He stopped here in his recitation and a blush seeped into his cheeks.

  “Whatever it is, you’re among family,” Shan Lin said softly, never pausing in his first aid.

  An unhappy groan sounded before Dorian mumble out a reply.

  “It’s because you’re family I’m embarrassed. But still…” Taking a deep breath before continuing, Dorian’s face turned slightly redder.

  “The knife didn’t bother me so much… That is to say, a little pain with my sex… Erm…well, pain can be a good aphrodisiac if done correctly.”

  Dorian looked up at the brothers who both gave a short nod.

  “Well, anyway… She held the knife up, and I just kept slamming away at her and the next thing I know, she’s screaming in ecstasy as blood begins to flow all over me.” He paused, a far—away look coming into his eyes. “Whatever she had done had apparently felt good as I came at nearly the same time. If it hurt, or if I was injured anywhere, I can tell you I’d have died a happy man at that moment.”

  Dorian’s eyes stayed glassy as he seemed to be calming down significantly. When his words came now, they began to slur as if he was on the verge of sleep.

  “But it wasn’t my blood. Queen Sara had killed the old woman. The Crone… Her beloved companion of…the next thing I knew, I was being hauled out of the room and… She said I had done it. They took me to a torture chamber and…” Again a shudder racked his body.

  “Then the woman…came in and I hurt so bad. Pain was a constant companion…she dragged me out of that room, my chains… I think she pulled a spear and rod out of my back… She started talking about bones sticking out… Then I passed out. The next thing I…remember, I was here.”

  His words trailed away and his eyes closed heavily, the glassy-eyed look having taken over completely.

  “Dorian!” Vincent nearly shouted the name.

  Groggily, Dorian opened his eyes, mumbling a response.

  “What was the woman’s name?” Shan Lin asked gently.

  “Woman? What woman?” Dorian asked, his voice a thread of sound.

  “The woman who helped you escape?” Vincent asked.

  “Candice,” Dorian whispered before finally losing consciousness.

  * * * * *

  “Looks like we need to take a trip, brother mine,” Vincent murmured as Shan Lin finished sewing up the fifth slash wound on his cousin’s upper thighs.

  “Agreed. If what he says is true…” Shan Lin said.

  “Yes. If what he says is true, the freching bitch has finally slipped the bonds of reality and entered the realm of Try Nee Sinj.”

  “I would believe Try Nee Sinj if she had actually loved her husbands, but we saw her throughout her marriage and beyond. Now, over twenty years after her husbands’ deaths, she is just finally entering into a state of mourning over the loss of them?”

  Shan Lin shook his head.

  “I can’t believe it. I would more readily believe she is only reacting to the reality of losing the throne.”

  Vincent agreed.

  “Either way, we must find our Princes and warn them.”

  Vincent sighed heavily.

  “Yes, we must.”

  * * * * *

  It had taken quite a bit of talking to convince Queen Sara their time spent in the shack had been for naught, but finally their aunt had listened. An almost unheard of event when the news the messengers imparted was not to the Queen’s liking.

  Their orders for the mission they just returned from had been to observe the inhabitants of a little village called Driknan located on the outskirts of the Aranakian Mountains and report back any incidents of treason against the Queen. While the brothers had indeed encountered a few of the Horrdian soldiers who managed to slip over the Aranakian border, they could honestly tell their ruler no Aranakians were committing treason.

  Before Driknan, they had been sent to a remote camp on the outskirts of Aranak to settle some minor dispute happening on one of the Queen’s holdings, only to find the villagers surrounding the camp in an uproar over the Queen’s actions. Their grievances were valid. The Queen had been gathering their lands illegally over a long period of time and forcing out those villagers who wouldn’t comply with her edicts to hand over their land.

  Shan Lin and Vincent were left little choice but to follow the Queen’s orders and imprison the rowdy few who had incited the violence. That taken care of, the villagers dispersed, angry still, but finding they had little choice.

  After reporting to the Queen things were quiet in Driknan, Shan Lin and Vincent had asked if they could be allowed a bit of personal time. Queen Sara had actually given in and allowed them both to do as they pleased for a bit. Her exact words had been crude and left the men sickened.

  “Why don’t you take your leisure time here? Go and find your cousin Theresa, I’ll lend you the housekeeper, and you can show both of them a good time while I watch. It’ll be a study of youth versus experience I’ll enjoy, and you’ll get laid.”

  She had roared incessantly after her suggestion, and the idea had so appalled both men, they quickly took their leave.

  Knowing the term “a bit” could mean anywhere from an hour to a month, both men hurriedly made preparations for their journey to the Realm of Earth.

  “We haven’t any choice, Shan Lin. We’ve got to tell Mitch and Kristain what was done to Dorian and pray Theresa never finds out.”

  Shan Lin nodded his head. He knew Theresa, their cousin who also stood by their sides in the Queen’s Guard as a high-ranking Captain, would us
e her considerable skills to see Queen Sara dead for what she had done to Dorian.

  “I can’t believe the boy thought he’d move up in the court if he slept with that vindictive bitch! What the hell did he think she was going to do, give him a title and send him on his merry way?” Vincent raged as he sent his fist swinging into a nearby tree trunk.

  “You know what it’s like to come into money and be recognized by the Queen. The only way we escaped notice was because it suited her to send us as far from her as she could get us. We earned our cynicism the hard way.” Shan Lin spoke as he waited before the portal opening.

  “Besides, the information Dorian had to impart was priceless. It’s true, it isn’t quite the way I’d have gone about finding out what was going on in the Queen’s mind, but you have to admit it’s helped us put the final pieces together.”

  Vincent’s grunting answer made Shan Lin smile.

  “We’re going to take down the Queen and we have to do it before she destroys our home. We have to find the Princes and this is the only way it can be done secretly. Our cover story of going to find a bride is perfect. So much the better if we actually bring a woman home with us.”

  “Find a bride. Mustn’t forget to find a bride I don’t want,” Vincent snorted. “Look, I know we’re going to have to follow our Princes and tell them their mother is the scourge of our realm, but I don’t have to like it. I still think we could find a Tractow sorceress to impart the message to Mitch and Kristain.” Vincent grumbled as the brothers prepared to open the portal to Earth. “You know I hate it when this damn thing lands us so far from our intended destination! The last time it took us four days to cross a damn mountain only to find out later we could have gone through it in hours instead!”

  Shan Lin laid a consoling hand on his brother’s shoulder. “It’s all in the way you look at it, brother mine. The last time we were dropped in the middle of an unfamiliar area, we spent the night catering to one of the horniest women I have ever had the pleasure to meet in my life! The walk through the desert was worth damn near every scratch and bite she left on my body.” With a smile of reminiscence, Shan Lin gave his brother a friendly pat on the back before stepping toward the ever-widening misty portal. “Besides, we need to find out if it’s true.”