Warrior's Heart (Book 1 of The Warrior Chronicles)

Chapter 16

The warmth came first. A nice comfortable heat that was accompanied by a gentle crackling. A fireplace? Leyla opened her eyes, blinking in confusion at what looked like the sky. Except the colours looked a little off... a little lifeless? Her stomach growled in hunger. She brought her hands up, intent on rubbing her eyes, when her memories kicked in. Sucking in a sharp breath Leyla rolled off what she now saw was a couch and shot up to her feet. Her hands grasped for her weapons and came up empty. Damn it.

"Don't be afraid."

The voice drew her eyes across the luxurious white couches to the slim brunette standing behind them. She looked to be in her early forties, wore silver stitched white robes and a silver band on her head that held a green gem between her eyes. The drop-shaped green stones that hung from her ears caught the light from the fireplace. From the way she carried herself, she seemed like a noble. Her slim frame suggested she wasn't a fighter, but after Gues's sneak attack Leyla would not underestimate her ability to do harm.

"I am the Book Keeper of the Land of Light." The woman spoke again in perfect Warrior dialect. "I am unarmed and I mean you no harm. I swear it."

"I see." Leyla kept her voice neutral as she looked around the room for anything she could use as a weapon. Her eyes landed on the poker beside the fireplace.

"You can take that, if it will make you feel more at ease." The Book Keeper came forward now and sat on the sofa opposite to the one Leyla had been lying on.

Leyla considered her surroundings once more, noting the windows to her left and right as possible escape routes before taking a seat.

"You don't want it?" The woman asked, surprised.

"This is the Land of Light, isn't it?"

"Yes." Her green stones dangled with her nod.

"So I've been asleep for four days?"

"Sixteen hours," the woman corrected. At Leyla's look of surprise, she smiled. "There are short cuts between our kingdoms."

Sixteen hours. It had been over a day then, since her last meal. No wonder she was ravenous.

"Why didn't you take the weapon?" The Book Keeper asked again.

"You shouldn't hold a weapon unless you intend to use it. If I use a weapon inside this castle, I might kill a few guards but I'll eventually end up dead. I won't take a life unless it is for survival." Leyla looked around again, noting the spots on the walls that that were lighter in colour. "I'm not staying long, am I?"

The Book Keeper blinked. "You've deduced that from the missing portraits?" Then a relieved smile spread across her face, "I understand now why he was so certain you would succeed."

Leyla frowned. She had been pushing down fear, since the moment Gues pointed his boney finger at her in the main hall of the Warrior Kingdom, but now she no longer needed to. Fear for her life was surpassed by a frustration that made her fingers curl. "I don't want to keep asking the obvious questions, but who are you talking about and succeed at what?"

"Leader said you were the only one who could save my son," the woman response was so straightforward, Leyla was taken aback.

"You're son? He is in danger?"

"He is in grave danger."

Leyla spun at the sound of the newcomer's voice, her gaze taking in his tall frame, night black hair and blue eyes. Unlike the Book Keeper, this man was in a military uniform. White coat, white trousers and dark blue pair of boots, he had a thin sword at his hip and had a strange triangular symbol on his breast. Like the woman, he wore a silver band on his head, but his gem shone a dark blue as he came around the back of the chair and sat next to the woman, pulling her hand into his. It didn't take much to deduce that he was the father of the lost boy.