Free The Queen of Thieves: The Line of Kings Trilogy Book Three by Craig R. Saunders, Craig Saunders

gurgle, where before he
had been crying.
                'Shh, Tarn, shh now,'
said Rena, and the babe returned her smile. In that moment she was utterly sure
that she was not going insane...her earlier mood had purely been an effect of
the Hierarch's dark magics. How could she be insane, to be filled with such
love with her child?
                'May I?' asked the
woman, the woman who had called down the fire and burned the creatures
surrounding Rena. The dreadful, stunning woman.
                Rena was by no means
an accomplished witch. Still a child, really, with her twentieth year still to
be lived. Yet she felt no malice or threat from the woman. And hadn't she saved
them?
                But that she could
switch in an instant from a cold killer of men to a cooing mother...that
troubled Rena. Did she trust her instincts enough to hand the only person she
loved to a cold hearted killer of men?
                She could, and she
did, because Tarn was reaching out for the woman, his fat fingers clutching at
the air. He wante d to go to her. Still in shock, almost in a daze, Rena
unslung the babe from her chest and passed him to the woman with a shy smile,
as though she were afraid the woman would see some fault in her. Why she should
care, she did not know. But she did understand that she never, ever wanted to
arouse this woman's ire.
                'So,' said the woman.
'This babe is what all the fuss is about?' She laughed, and it was a soft,
tinkling sound that in turn set Tarn to giggling. Tarn looked up at the woman
and smiled - beamed, if truth be told.
                The witch - if that's
what she was - kissed the babe on the cheek and handed him back.
                'Motherhood is denied
me, Rena child. Hold him dear. Trust me when I say I will do all in my power to
protect him.'
                'And power indeed,'
said Asram.
                The woman nodded.
'Rena, my name is Selana. These creatures...they are from beyond our shores.
They want the babe. Do you understand why?'
                Rena nodded. She was
mesmerised by Selana's beauty, and her allure. She had always thought that her
mother, Mia, was the most beautiful woman in the world, but Selana
was...stunning. Simply stunning.
                She stood in a
revealing dress in the middle of a scene of carnage, and snow had begun to fall
again, yet she gave no indication that the cold affected her at all. She
radiated power, more than even Tulathia, the oldest and wisest witch that Rena
had ever known.
                'I understand,' she
said, and understood something else, too. This witch was more than mortal. She
was something else, entirely beyond understanding. Remorse for killing those
creatures was no issue for one such as her. They were beneath her. Everything
was less than she was.
                And yet she held the
babe with such a tenderness that she could not be evil. She could not.
                'Then trust in me,
child,' said Selana.  'Asram,' she said, turning her attention to the huntsman,
who shifted his gaze, as though afraid to look upon Selana would burn him up. Maybe
it would.
                'My Lady?' he said.
                'You are to meet a
man on the road north, at a wayside tavern called the Pickled Hare. From there
on out you will travel only at night. He will protect you...but have a care,
Asram. He is an asset against...' she indicated the burning wizard among their
attackers, '...his kind.'
                'A dangerous man?'
                'The most,
perhaps...but an ally. I do not trust him, but you need him. Be watchful, aye?'
                'Aye, my Lady.'
                'Then I go,' she
said, and unbidden kissed both on the cheek. In a blink, she was gone. There
could be no doubt that she had been there a moment before, though. The