Free The Griffin's War (Fallen Moon Trilogy) by K. J. Taylor Page B

went into labour one day while she was working. There was no time to take her anywhere, so she lay on the altar. That’s where I was born. At the stroke of noon, just as the sun touched her. I came out into sunlight. That’s what my grandmother used to say. Came into life, into sunlight. A gift from Gryphus.”
    Elkin’s eyes had widened. “Great sun. Is all that true?”
    “That’s what my grandparents told me. My mother—she didn’t survive. She died as I was born. But when I found out where I was born, and how, I thought it meant something special. I started going to the temple more, to pray. I believed it was all a message—a sign. That’s why I never gave up, why I went all the way to Eagleholm to become a griffiner. I knew it was what Gryphus had always meant to happen. And now—now this. A Dark Lord. A special weapon. It’s destiny, Elkin, I know it is.” Erian smiled beatifically.
    Elkin smiled back, uncertainly. “That’s . . . an amazing story. And maybe it will be better for all of us if you’re right. But you know that isn’t why I asked you to come here.”
    Erian looked at her properly for the first time in a while. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have talked so much . . . I suppose I got carried away.”
    Elkin coughed. Her hands, resting on the table in front of her, played compulsively with her spoon. “I asked you to come here mostly because I felt I owed you an apology.”
    “An apology? For what?”
    “Just a few days ago, you confessed something to me and I ignored it. I was cruel, and I haven’t stopped regretting it since.”
    Erian’s heart paused its beating. “I don’t understand,” he lied.
    For almost the first time since they had met, Lady Elkin, Eyrie Mistress, looked utterly lost—even afraid. “You said you loved me,” she said. “And I pretended not to hear. I made you think I didn’t care, but the truth is that I didn’t know what to say.” She gave him a weak smile. “I am very clever. I know three languages, I’ve memorised the names of every town and village in my territory, I can tell you who invented the woodcut—but feelings are something that have always been a puzzle to me. I can analyse your emotions like they were a book, but my own are confusing sometimes, a riddle I can’t solve.”
    To Erian, nothing that had happened that day could be as terrifying or as magical as this. For once, he didn’t try to say anything.
    “I have had more marriage proposals than years on this earth,” Elkin went on matter-of-factly. “But I turned them down, every last one. Some people think it’s because I don’t want to risk sharing my power with a husband, but the truth is simpler. All those men who wanted me didn’t want me at all—they wanted other things. My money, my power, my beautiful Eyrie. Even access to my magnificent partner. But you’re different. I know you well enough now. You don’t want power or money or status. You only want my love. Don’t you?” she added, suddenly forceful. “Isn’t that the truth, Lord Erian Rannagonson?”
    A great weight seemed to press down on him at that moment, heavy as the hand of Gryphus himself. When he opened his mouth to reply, the words nearly stuck in his throat; he all but choked them out. “Yes. I don’t want you because you’re an Eyrie Mistress; I want you because you’re you. I always have.”
    “Why?” she demanded. “ Why? Why me?” Her face was almost angry.
    “Because—because—because you’re beautiful and clever and kind and graceful and everything I’m not, and when I’m with you I—” Erian’s babble spluttered to a halt as suddenly as it had begun. “I feel . . . alive . When you’re there. But”—he bowed his head—“I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m just a stupid bastard peasant, and I’ll never be good enough for you. I should have left it alone.”
    “We both should,” Elkin said softly. She glanced toward Kraal. “Chaos is coming. War, most likely. I can