Read Avalyne Series 01: The Queen of Carleon for Free Online Page A

experience for all time.
    At the wedding of Dare and Arianne they regarded each other for the first time two millennia even though news of his return must have reached her ears through Arianne and Dare. He could have tried explaining himself, but she treated their past association as little more than an old friendship from long ago. Not once did she acknowledge that once upon a time, they had made each other burn beneath the light of the stars.
    *****
    ‘Mage,’ Lylea gazed down at him from her single throne, elevated on a raised platform, resting atop the wooden floor upon which he was presently standing. While she now had the appearance of a woman in forties, she was still no less dazzling than she had been as a young woman. Possessing the same mahogany hair as Arianne, Lylea wore hers up instead with delicate strands brushing her long slender neck. Her cheek bones were high and gave pronouncement to her elfin features as she stared at him with blue eyes lacking their usual warmth.
    Although her personal guards were present, there was no one else in the hall and the emptiness of it made him uneasy. There was too much unspoken between them and the substances of it lingered in the air, waiting to choke them at any moment. However, Tamsyn remembered he was here for a reason that had nothing to do with their turbulent history.
    ‘ My queen,’ he replied with a bow. ‘I am sorry to impose upon your realm but...’
    ‘ I have seen it too. I know that my daughter’s life is in danger.’ She cut him off abruptly, her voice hard, and he knew that it was not usual for her to speak this way for he noted one of her guards shifting his gaze subtly in their direction, noticing the difference.
    ‘ Then you have seen the portents.’ he said grimly, ignoring her aloofness when he knew she had cause for her hostility.
    ‘ Yes,’ Lylea nodded immediately thinking of the impending doom hurtling towards her youngest and perhaps most beloved child. ‘I have felt the growing malice coming from the north for some time now but its source is unclear. I had hoped would not manifest itself so soon after her marriage. It does not please me to tell my daughter that her happiest day may soon be her darkest.’
    ‘ Nor does it please me,’ Tamsyn spoke in sympathy, ‘both she and her husband are dear to me and this news will surely send them both into panic. However, we must make haste to Sandrine and tell her while we still have time.’
    ‘ We have less time than you think,’ she declared, rising from her throne and descending the steps to the floor. Approaching him, she held up her hand revealing letter gilt in gold. ‘The announcement has gone throughout the lands of the kingdom. It is what the Enemy has been waiting to hear.’
    ‘ I feared this,’ Tamsyn grimaced. ‘He has been waiting since Balfure’s end for this moment. It has allowed the people of Avalyne to grow complacent with peace.’
    ‘ And nothing puts the people more at ease than the arrival of a new prince,’ the queen reminded. ‘A mother to be should not be embarking on any quest, not so soon.’ She said unhappily.
    ‘ This is no mere quest,’ Tamsyn pointed out quickly. ‘To strike at the most vulnerable place there can be is evil of the foulest kind.’
    ‘ I know,’ Lylea turned away from him, not wishing to see just how much this pained her. With a human for her father, Arianne had chosen to take up the choice that none of her other children had done by giving up her immortality. While Lylea understood her daughter’s reasoning, she would never come to terms with the inevitable end that Arianne would face. However, this evil now threatened to take her daughter away even sooner than that. ‘I wish this did not have to be Arianne’s burden alone. She should share it with Dare.’
    Her pain made Tamsyn wish to offer her comfort, but painfully aware that any gesture he made towards the Queen would not be well received, instead he remained contented to