The Prince of Lies: Night's Masque - Book 3 (54 page)

“No. But I had to surrender to Erishen, for the healing of our souls to work. For those first few hours he had free rein, and I could only stand by and listen.”

“You were possessed.”

“I suppose that’s one way to describe it.”

“And now?”

“Now… Now I know what Sandy meant. He is part of me.” He took her hand again. “He is part of me, not I part of him.”

“Sandy, or Erishen?”

“Both. But mostly Erishen. Sandy is gone, all but a few memories.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too. But it was the only way to defeat the guisers.”

“And now they’re gone, you’ll stay.” It was not a question.

“Aye, I’ll stay.” He sighed. “For a long time I hoped the skraylings would take us back, Kiiren and me. But I fear they will not. Not me, at any rate. Kiiren was an innocent in all this, and he is still young, with many lifetimes ahead of him.”

“You can put aside your dearest companion so easily?”

Mal scanned her face, trying to read her thoughts without invading her mind. Was she talking about Kiiren still, or herself?

“I may not give him the choice,” he said. “But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, eh?”

He held out his free arm, and she lay down on the bed at his side, head pillowed on his chest. After a moment she leaned up and kissed him, tentatively, like she was afraid he might disappear again. He hesitated, expecting Erishen’s memories to overwhelm him as they had on the journey to Venice, but the taste of her lips brought back newer and more joyous memories of his own and he returned her kiss at last with a passion he scarcely had strength for.

“Ssh, you need to rest,” she said at last, and pulled him down so that she could lay her head upon his shoulder.

He watched the western sky darken from turquoise to cobalt to deep lapis blue. Rest now, but afterwards? He and his family might enjoy a respite for months, even years, but the guisers would be back; he would wager his soul on it.

The truth was, he could hardly wait.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The masque is over, the leftover sweetmeats sent down to the servants' hall, and it's time to say farewell to Mal and friends - but not without thanking everyone who made his final adventure possible.

Once again I sought professional help with my Latin. The sentences and phrases in the classroom scenes in Part Two were created with the patient assistance of Mark Davies, ARC Research Associate (Classics) in the School of Humanities at the University of Adelaide. Any errors introduced during the writing process are mine.

It's not just the academic stuff that needs researching for these books, though. As an armchair adventuress, I don't have hands-on experience of all the practical skills my characters possess, particularly the more dangerous ones! In particular, I would like to thank fellow author Courtney Schafer for all her help with the climbing scene in Chapter XIII. I can't climb for toffee, so I had no idea what was really practical with the technology of the period.

I mustn't forget the yeoman warders (aka Beefeaters) at the Tower of London, who answered my slightly odd questions about how to get into and out of the Bloody Tower, and more crucially didn't arrest me when I ignored the armoury displays in the White Tower in favour of sketching the castle layout. OK, so maybe I
was
planning an act of terrorism - just not in this century!

As with previous books, my beta-readers Laura Lam and Alex Beecroft were invaluable in giving a fresh perspective on the story, which always difficult when you know the series inside-out yourself. On that same front, I'd like to thank my editor Marc Gascoigne for his professional insight in catching the areas where I tend to have blind-spots. And speaking of Marc, I'd like to thank everyone at Angry Robot - it's been a pleasure working with you guys for the past three years.

Last but not least, thank you again to all you readers who have stuck with Mal through his adventures and expressed your appreciation via Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, etc. I can't promise there will be any more - I'm working on a completely new setting for my next project - but you never know...

Anne Lyle

Cambridge, August 2013

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anne Lyle was born in what is known to the tourist industry in the UK as “Robin Hood Country”, and grew up fascinated by English history, folklore, and swashbuckling heroes. Unfortunately there was little demand in 1970s Nottingham for diminutive swordswomen, so she studied sensible subjects like science and languages instead.

It appears that although you can take the girl out of Sherwood Forest, you can’t take Sherwood Forest out of the girl. She now spends every spare hour writing (or at least planning) fantasy fiction about spies, actors, outlaws and other folk on the fringes of society.

Anne lives in Cambridge, a city full of medieval and Tudor buildings where cattle graze on the common land much as they did in Shakespeare’s London. She prides herself on being able to ride a horse (badly), sew a sampler and cut a quill pen but hasn’t the least idea how to drive one of those new-fangled automobile thingies.

www.annelyle.com
 
 

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Last chances

An Angry Robot paperback original 2013

Copyright © Anne Lyle 2013

Cover art by Argh! Oxford

Distributed in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York.

All rights reserved.

Angry Robot is a registered trademark, and the Angry Robot icon a trademark of Angry Robot Ltd.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

0 0 1 115 656 Osprey Publishing 5 1 770 14.0 96

1. Title Page
   
2. Part One
   
3. Chapter I
   
4. Chapter II
   
5. Chapter III
   
6. Chapter IV
   
7. Chapter V
   
8. Chapter VI
   
9. Chapter VII
   
10. Chapter VIII
    
11. Chapter IX
    
12. Chapter X
    
13. Chapter XI
    
14. Chapter XII
    
15. Chapter XIII
    
16. Chapter XIV
    
17. Chapter XV
    
18. Chapter XVI
    
19. Chapter XVII
    
20. Chapter XVIII
    
21. Chapter XIX
    
22. Part Two
    
23. Chapter XX
    
24. Chapter XXI
    
25. Chapter XXII
    
26. Chapter XXIII
    
27. Chapter XXIV
    
28. Chapter XXV
    
29. Chapter XXVI
    
30. Chapter XXVII
    
31. Chapter XXVIII
    
32. Chapter XXIX
    
33. Chapter XXX
    
34. Chapter XXXI
    
35. Chapter XXXII
    
36. Chapter XXXIII
    
37. Chapter XXXIV
    
38. Chapter XXXV
    
39. Chapter XXXVI
    
40. Chapter XXXVII
    
41. Chapter XXXVIII
    
42. Epilogue
    
43. Acknowledgments
    
44. About the Author
    
45. Imprint