Rowena Cory Daniells - [King Rolens Kin 02] - The Uncrowned King.pdf - NEW EBOOKS - peterjackpeter

THE UNCROWNED KING

Book Two of the Chronicles of King Rolen's Kin

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Rowena Cory Daniells

First published 2010 by Solaris an imprint of Rebellion Publishing Ltd, Riverside House, Osney Mead,

Oxford, OX1 0ES, UK

www.solarisbooks.com

ISBN (.epub version): 978-1-84997-180-5

ISBN (.mobi version): 978-1-84997-181-2

Maps by Rowena Cory Daniells and Luke Preece

The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with

the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,

without the prior permission of the copyright owners.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Designed & typeset by Rebellion Publishing

Printed in the UK

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Chapter One

Byren's eyes burned from the piercing cold wind, and he could no longer feel his legs. He'd been skating

since late last night, since Dovecote's great hall was set alight, since Elina died in his arms. Since his twin

thrust him out of the hall, barred the doors and turned to hold off the enemy, trapping himself inside the

burning building.

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Grief, fuelled by fury, gripped him, driving him on. Byren had no tears, only a terrible determination. But

he clung to one hard kernel of satisfaction.

The old seer's prophecy had been proved wrong. He hadnot murdered his twin to gain the throne.

Despite their misunderstandings, despite Lence's pig-headed conviction that Byren meant to usurp him,

Byren had remained loyal to his older brother. And, in the end, Lence had chosen an honourable death.

Somehow, it made his loss easier to bear.

But it also made Byren the kingsheir against his wishes. After the lies his cousin Cobalt had told, his

father would never believe this.

No, the only way for him to prove his loyalty was to take word of the Merofynian invasion to the abbot.

Convince the old man to give him leadership of the abbey's standing army of warrior monks and march

against Rolencia's ancestral enemy, Merofynia. He had to save Rolencia, save his family.

Byren had skated through the long winter's night and the short day without rest, and now it was dusk.

But the time had not been wasted, for he'd planned his battle tactics.

Having met his enemy, Byren knew that Overlord Palatyne was a ruthless man, possibly even more

cunning than the Merofynian king he served. Palatyne was sure to have escaped the burning of

Dovecote's great hall. Even now the overlord would be regrouping his forces, calling for reinforcements

and making plans to spear-head through Rolencia's rich, unprepared valley to take King Rolen's castle

before Byren's father had time to gather his warriors.

His skates scissored over the ice, each stroke precise and powerful. His body ran on, thigh muscles

propelling him over the ice, while his mind ran on how to beat the Merofynians.

The problem was timing... it was late winter. His father's lords and their men were at home on their

estates, and the warlords had returned to their princedoms. Everyone was preparing for the spring

planting, not war. His father would be lucky if he had two hundred experienced warriors in the castle. He

might gather another five hundred eager, untrained men from the town, but even with them King Rolen

wasn't ready to face Palatyne.

There was but a glimmer of hope. The Merofynian overlord's supply chain was dangerously

overstretched. If Byren could retake Cockatrice Pass, then Palatyne and his warriors would be cut off

from reinforcements and supplies.

It all rested on Byren reaching the abbot in time, and convincing him to place the monks under his

command. The traitorous warlord who ruled Cockatrice Spar was dead and his men scattered, so

Palatyne could expect no help from that quarter.

Once Cockatrice Pass was secure, all Byren had to do was lead the warrior monks down into the

valley, force-march them to catch up with Palatyne's men and provoke a battle on his terms. He knew

the lay of the land, the overlord didn't. He'd make sure his warriors had the high ground.

Byren believed he could defeat Palatyne. At twenty, he'd been leading warriors against upstart warlords

for five years, and his father had saved Rolencia from a Merofynian invasion at eighteen. As Captain

Temor, his father's friend and advisor always said, the worth of a warrior was in his head and heart, not

in the years he'd lived or the strength of his arms.

Besides, he owed it to Lence. And he owed it to Elina. Her last words had not been words of love for

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