Havenstar (68 page)

‘What have we
here?’ he asked. Black eyes looked up at him solemnly from under a
shock of equally black hair and he found himself smiling under the
critical scrutiny.

‘This is
someone I’d like you to meet,’ Keris said, her voice husky. ‘Sent
by Meldor.’

‘Oh?’ Mildly
curious, he came over to the lad and knelt beside him. ‘My name’s
Davron Storre. What’s yours?’

The child
regarded him solemnly. ‘In the chantery they called me Avred. But
this lady says my daddy called me Staven. She says I’ll know my
daddy cos he’s got black eyes just like mine.’ His features
rearranged themselves into a picture of childish concentration.
‘
You’ve
got black eyes. Does that make you my daddy?’

He caught his
breath, the pain of memory and hope inextricably mixed as they
spasmed his insides. It seemed an aeon before he could clear his
throat and say with a semblance of calm, ‘Yes, I rather think it
must. If you’ll have me.’ He reached out to slide the boy on to his
knee and two chubby arms responded by wrapping themselves around
his neck. Davron, unable to say anything more, raised his gaze to
Keris over the top of the dark curls and reached for her hand.

Outside,
trumpets blared to mark the arrival of the Margraves of the Eight
Stabilities and the Anhedrin, but neither Keris nor Davron even
heard them. In a nearby anteroom, the Margrave of Havenstar,
waiting for the time to make his own grand entrance, schemed while
his manservant fussed about the set of his sleeves.

Yedron
,
he was thinking.
We really must find out what happened to
Yedron
…

~~~~~~~~

Glenda Larke
has nine other books traditionally published in print editions in
three distinct trilogies:

The Isles of
Glory

The Aware

Gilfeather

The Tainted

The Mirage
Makers

The Heart of
the Mirage

The Shadow of
Tyr

The Song of the
Shiver Barrens

The
Watergivers
(
Stormlord trilogy
)

The Last
Stormlord

Stormlord
Rising

Stormlord’s
Exile

Another trilogy
will be published soon, the first book of which is entitled:

The Lascar’s
Dagger.

Some of the
above are also available as ebooks. You can find out more about
Glenda and her books at her website here:
http://www.glendalarke.com
There is also a
better map of Havenstar available there. She also has a blog at
http://www.glendalarke.blogspot.com
Her
Twitter account is @glendalarke

The website of
the mapmaker, artist Perdita Phillips, can be found here:
http://perditaphillips.com