Read The Queen for Free Online

outside, yet its purpose is one of destruction. I
will not allow her to harm my child.
    Luana tightened her grip on the sword. “If
there is no other way.”
    “There isn’t, my love,” Baylin said, his
brow furrowed in an apologetic expression.
    “Isn’t there?” asked a voice from the
dark.
    Baylin spun, pulling his sword and tucking
Luana in tight behind him. “Who goes there?”
    Luana held her sword securely in her hands,
turning the knuckles a pearly shade of white in the moonlight.
“Baylin… What do… What do we do?” Her voice wavered as she
trembled, waiting for an attack to occur.
    “You need not fear me,” the voice stated,
coming from the darkness of the forest. “I am here to aid you, son
of Ashmur and daughter of the moon.”
    “Daughter of the moon?” Baylin repeated
softly. “What do you speak of? Show yourself.”
    The Elven King Rydel emerged from the trees
like an apparition in the moonlight. Luana sucked in a deep breath
and gripped the hilt of the sword.
    In the moonlight his hair seemed to glow,
sweeping around his handsome, angular face like sheets of snow. His
deep-set eyes glowed a pale shade of blue, like twin orbs floating
in the night. He wore a long pale green tunic that appeared to
shimmer in the night, billowing behind him in the wind as he walked
gracefully toward them.
    “Lord Rydel,” Baylin said, bowing his head.
“To what do we owe this honor?”
    “King Rydel?” Luana whispered through a
wavered breath. “He… But he is…”
    The elf glided up to the couple, placed his
hand over his heart and dipped his head elegantly. “I have come to
assist you, Luana, daughter of the moon.”
    Her heart began to race in her chest.
“Daughter of the moon? I… I don’t understand. What is going on? How
are you even here? I thought King Rydel was a myth… an elf King
that was said to have died hundreds of years ago.”
    The Elf-King looked up into her green eyes.
“Has no one told you of your heritage, my child?”
    Baylin stiffened, putting an arm in front of
Luana. “What do you mean? She is of Open Shaw, daughter of Hal-john
and Fersa. That is her heritage.”
    “Is it now?” Rydel raised an eyebrow and
showed the slightest upturn to the corner of his mouth. “I suppose
that is what you would remember, child. But has no one told you of
how you came to be in Open Shaw?”
    Luana pushed past Baylin to approach the
elf. “I was born of my mother, Fersa; that is how I came to be in
Open Shaw. She married my father, Hal-john, and they had me and my
sister, Lesta.”
    “Yes, child, they are who raised you.” King
Rydel’s eyes softened. “However, they are not who gave you
life.”
    Luana’s forehead wrinkled as she furrowed
her brow, turning to look at Baylin in confusion.
    The Prince reached out and pulled Luana into
his arms. “What is it that you speak of? Do you not see you are
upsetting her?”
    “My apologies,” the Elf-King said, bowing
his head. “I do not mean to give the girl any distress. I merely
desire to enlighten her. She has been kept in the dark for far too
long. It is my wish to show her the light.”
    “Then please, my Lord, explain,” Baylin
pleaded. A distant roll of thunder bellowed across the sky and the
breeze began to pick up, blowing the blades of grass so they bowed
at the King’s feet.
    “Luana, dear child. Do you ever see things
that have not yet come to pass?” the King asked. “Perhaps you have
been able to touch someone and see what could be their future?”
    Luana’s pulse raced in her chest. She
thought of the scene she saw when she had touched Isla in her
bedchamber. “I did… I have…” She looked up into Baylin’s eyes.
“When Isla was preparing to return to Grasmere. She came to the
chamber. She mocked me and went to slap me, but I caught her arm.
When I did, I saw something. It was like being in a dream. I saw
Isla with flames behind her as a forest burned. Then I saw a hooded
figure chanting over a tattered old