Duty, Obedience, and a Betrayer’s Dark Secret #DarkFantasy #Archaeology #MFRWhooks

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The Dark Secret

In the shadowy realms of Kellindahr, danger lurks beyond every mountain pass. As dawn breaks over Sammon Falls, two unlikely allies—bound by secrets and loyalty—face a perilous journey to the fabled Gates, harboring a dark secret.

We were up long before light and into the mountains as day broke. Sammon Falls, to the east of us, sent up its mist like smoke, luminous in the dawn. The river it emptied into stretched toward the north, a silver ribbon stitched against the green velvet of Kellindahr's rich farmlands. From the hills, I could see the bright arch of the Gates far to the west; at least another two days away, since we dared not use the roads. I pointed them out to Estria.

"Big." She cradled the babe closer. "Do we 'ave to go through 'em? Can't we just say we did?"

"Dahr said he'd die if he didn't. It offends the Faerii."

She scoffed at that. "Anything a Kellindahrii doesn't want to dirty her hands with is summat that offends the Faerii. The bleedin' Faerii don't give a lick about these Gates." But, I noticed, she did not discount the Faerii's existence.

I stopped and rose in the stirrups to look back. "Anyway, I gave her my word."

"I'd not let word to 'er keep me up at night." Her mouth set in a flat line. "I can tell you, she never stayed up worryin' about breakin' 'er own." She fussed with the blanket around Dahryc and put a finger in his mouth to break suction on her breast. "Lor' he's worse than 'is father." She shot me a look, her cheeks flushed.

She had to have gotten her milk by giving birth to someone's child. "Where's your son?" Dahr had told me Orix fathered boys.

"Farmed out somewhere. Her ladyship won't tell me where till we come back. Some dark secret."

"A dark secret? Hmm. Mayhap." But I knew my former lover too well not to have understood her earlier comment. "His father is King Orix, isn't he?"

She proceeded to dress me down for such a heinous accusation, reminding me in heated terms of our mutual lineage, although she called mine into question. I listened without comment, amused that all the women of my clan seemed to have inherited 'tongues of flame,' as Orix called it. When she'd finished mouth whipping me, she pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders, and tossed back her hair. So much for her image as a wisp of a girl.