Free The Nothing: A Book of the Between by Kerry Schafer Page B

ivory by a hand too skilled to be human. And her face—
    All of the Giants Jared had seen so far had roughhewn, often distorted features, while hers had been shaped with the same symmetry as her body. Golden hair, twined with red roses, cascaded down over her shoulders. Her eyes were dark sapphire, with stars behind them. Kraal fell to one knee and Jared followed his example and then bowed lower still, resting his forehead on grass unbelievably lush and smooth.
    “You are back so soon,” the Queen said. “The schools of the healers in Surmise were not to your liking?”
    Her voice finished Jared completely. It was the sound of crystal on the wind, he thought, light and musical and perfectly tuned, as if wind blew through the branches of a tree hung with crystal wind chimes.
    In contrast, Kraal’s voice was coarse and hard, a thing barely to be tolerated in the presence of such perfect beauty. “The schools were fine, Your Majesty. I have brought you information which seemed of greater import than my training as a healer.”
    “It looks as though you have brought me more than information.” Her eyes, her focus, all turned to Jared now, and he found he could barely breathe beneath the ecstasy of her attention. He was aware of every beat of his heart, of the blood traveling through his veins, of the vulnerability of his flesh.
    “I have pledged my life for his,” Kraal responded. “He has information. I have not brought him as a plaything.” There was an edge to the Giant’s voice that Jared wanted to reprimand. Surely it was not right to speak to the Queen in this way.
    “Stand up, stranger. Tell me your name and your errand.”
    Jared’s knees felt like jelly, but so strong was his desire to obey her slightest wish, he would have tried to fly if she had asked. He got to his feet and braced his legs, grateful all at once for the stiffness of the wounded leg.
    “Now, then. Come closer. I wish to look at you.
    Jared approached the throne, giddy with the hammering of his heart and an overpowering fragrance of flowers.
    The Queen leaned forward, as if to see better. “I have never seen eyes of such a shade of green. They are indeed lovely.”
    Blood rushed to his face, and for the first time in his life, Jared found himself tongue-tied. No woman had ever reduced him to such a state of confusion; no opponent in the courtroom had ever rendered him speechless. He didn’t know what to do, what to say to this.
    Her voice sank to a low caress. He could feel it move across his skin, stirring his body into arousal. “If I asked for your eyes, or your heart, would you give them to me?”
    “Anything,” he replied, one hand over his heart. “Whatever you ask of me, it is yours.”
    He felt as much as saw her smile. “Tell me why Kraal has brought you to me, if it is not, as he says, as a plaything.”
    Each   word rang pure and perfect inside his head, so that it was difficult to string them all together into sense.  
    “I—it’s about the Dreamshifter, I suppose. And the Warrior.” His lips felt numb and it was difficult to form them into the necessary shapes, which made him stutter and flush with shame. He must look like a total imbecile, groveling here in his cast-off clothes, stammering over the easiest words.
    The Queen’s clear brow darkened in a frown and the whole room seemed to dim. “This is already known. I’m certain Kraal didn’t bring me a half-wit, no matter how beautiful. Tell me something new or he dies for his insolence.”
    Not an idle threat. In case the exchange outside the palace doors hadn’t made that clear, two towering guards moved into position on either side of Kraal, each carrying a brutally spiked club.
    Jared’s brain lurched like a slow-moving beast, seeking a path to follow in this morass of love and politics. He needed time to think, a clue as to what she might want from him. Kraal had never indicated what, among all the things they had spoken of, he thought would be of such