A Pride of Gryphons

By Kristen S. Walker

Gryphons are deadly in small numbers. When wyld magic calls them to attack in great force, they could be strong enough to level a nation. And now they’re coming for Kyratia.

Korinna saved her city from a dangerous cult and became the new duchess of Kyratia. But ruling brings a whole new set of challenges and this time, she won’t be able to fight her way through.

Monsters are attacking Kyratia again, but her husband Galenos warns that the law forces all rulers to retire from fighting so they can’t join the battle. Korinna is frustrated by the slowness of politics, but riding her marewing could threaten her new pregnancy.

A sinister power lurks behind the monster attacks, calling gryphons to swarm the countryside in greater numbers than there have ever been. Korinna will have to find a power of her own to confront them, or everything she’s won so far could be destroyed.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kristen S. Walker
• Release date: Oct 30, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370838011

Kristen S. Walker

Fantasy author Kristen S. Walker dreams of being a pirate mermaid who can talk to sharks, but she settles for writing stories for teens and adults. She's proudly bisexual, Wiccan, a liberal feminist, and lives in northern California with her family and two rescued pets. To find out more about her stories, please visit kristenwalker.net.

Book preview

1

Korinna I

The wind tugged at Korinna’s hair, pulling strands loose from her braid and whipping them around her face. She breathed in the salty tang of the sea air and laughed. Below her, the city of Kyratia spread out in concentric circles, the many districts running into one another like patchwork on a quilt. From up in the air, it all seemed so small, with the people no more than ants to her crawling on the ground. Up here she felt free.

She took one hand off the reins and laid it on Sungold’s shoulder. Beneath her touch, the marewing’s muscles rippled as she continued to glide over the city. Her pale gold coat gleamed in the early morning sunlight and her white mane reflected pink and orange of the dawn.

It was strange to think that only a year ago, Korinna had had her first glimpse of this city from the same position—aloft on another marewing, her first time flying. She’d never imagined that she’d be on a marewing’s back every day or enjoy it so much. At the time, she’d been afraid of the size of the capital and of Galenos, the rider at her back, then a mercenary commander and a stranger to her. Now she and Galenos had been married for four months, and together they were duke and duchess, rulers of the city and all the land surrounding it. The people below her were relying on her to protect and guide them.

She’d been born to rule, as the late duke’s only living child, although not by either of his unfortunate wives. Becoming a marewing rider wasn’t supposed to be part of that—but when her father’s old Council had denied her inheritance, they’d had to take the city back by force. It had seemed to her that if Galenos was a marewing rider and a fighter who liberated the city from the usurpers, she’d have to become one too if she ever wanted to be his equal, instead of just the noble-born woman he married to legitimize his claim to the title.

So Korinna had learned to fight and beat the odds by capturing Sungold to become a marewing rider. She’d played her part in saving the city from the mismanagement of the Council. Now that she was a duchess, she didn’t need to patrol the city’s walls—there were guards for that. But a marewing needed daily exercise, and truth be told, it was far more entertaining to fly than to sit in a boring Council meeting and listen to reports about the state of the harvest or whatever was on the agenda today.

She stroked Sungold’s neck and smiled. Their morning flights were her favorite part of the day, and she was always reluctant to end them. The two of them moved like one through the sky—at the slightest signal from her, the marewing would turn or climb higher, as if she could read Korinna’s thoughts. Perhaps one day they would drift up into the clouds together and never come down.

Bells clanged harshly in the city below. Korinna looked down in surprise. Was it that late already? The Council meeting was already starting, and Galenos would be angry if she wasn’t there.

Well, at least she could get to City Hall quickly. Korinna leaned forward on Sungold’s neck, gripping onto the high-pommeled saddle designed to keep a rider in place for aerial maneuvers, and pointed the marewing down directly toward the courtyard of the Government District.

Sungold folded her bat-like wings back and dropped like a stone. The wind rushed past so quickly that Korinna’s eyes watered, blurring her vision. An old coin, hung around her neck on a chain, slipped loose from her leather flight jacket and swung up to hit her in the face, but she barely felt it strike her cheek. For a long moment she was weightless, free falling, unaware if she was still in the saddle or if she would plummet to her death on the cobblestones below.

She couldn’t see to give the signal, but Sungold acted on her own, snapping her wings back out at the last moment and buffeting them back up from the ground. After a few powerful beats of the leathery wings to slow their movement, she landed neatly in the courtyard, just in front of City Hall’s steps.

A hearty cheer went up around them. Korinna looked up, blinking to clear her vision, and realized that they’d attracted a crowd with their stunt.

Hurrah for the duchess! one man cried out, and others took up the call. Hurrah for our Duchess Korinna!

Korinna raised her hand and waved to them shyly. Her people had celebrated her as a hero when she liberated the city, but she still wasn’t used to all of the attention she received when she went out in public. She should have realized that landing here with Sungold, who was very recognizable, would attract at least some notice from those who were going about their daily business.

Fortunately, there were guards posted in front of City Hall to protect all of the government officials, and they stepped forward to keep the crowd from getting too close to her and Sungold. That was good, because a marewing was still a monster. She trusted Korinna, and under her rider’s touch she stayed calm enough around strangers, but she would attack anyone else who came within reach.

Korinna swung down from Sungold’s back and turned around to see Galenos storming down the hall’s steps toward her.

Galenos was born in foreign Khazeem, and even dressed in a formal tunic and draped in an embroidered kattar, he was an imposing figure towering over everyone else, even the guards. The locals in Kyratia tended to be short, stocky, and brown; Galenos was darker than the most tanned farm worker, taller than any other man she’d seen, with broad shoulders and broad, flat features. His black eyes locked on her with an angry glower.

When he stood in front of her, tiny Korinna didn’t even come up to his shoulder. But she’d learned by now not to be intimidated by her husband. She looked back up at him calmly. I’m sorry I’m late, she said, hoping to ward off the lecture with her apology. I lost track of time in the air.

He leaned down closer to her level. It’s not just your tardiness, he said in a low tone that still carried his heavy disapproval. What is this demonstration in front of the building? It’s not safe to bring your marewing here, and your attire is completely inappropriate for the meeting. He gestured to her flight leathers.

Korinna smoothed back her disheveled hair and tugged her jacket in an attempt to straighten it. Well, if I’d landed and changed at the paddock, and then I had to walk back here, I would have been even more late. She gestured to the hall behind him. Why don’t we build some kind of paddock close to here where we could land? Then maybe you could make some more time for flying, too. You’ve barely seen Nightshade in days.

Galenos stiffened at the name of his own marewing, but he shook his head. It’s far too dangerous to bring marewings into the middle of the city. He pointed at Sungold. You need to get her out of here now. I’ll see you inside.

She opened her mouth to protest, but he turned away and went back up the steps inside before she had the chance. Perhaps it was better if they didn’t argue in front of such a public audience. So she busied herself with taking off Sungold’s tack, then sent the marewing back into the air to join the other marewings in the military compound on the outskirts of the city.

There was no place to hang the tack, so she slung the saddle over her shoulder and carried it all with her into City Hall. She’d stuff it somewhere in the office she shared with her husband, do her best to make herself presentable, and deal with it after the meeting. It was going to be a long morning.

When Korinna came into the Council’s meeting room, the Councilors had already started the meeting without her. She did her best to take her seat next to Galenos at the head of the table without making too much disruptive noise.

Galenos didn’t look in her direction, but one of the Councilors, an older man named Diokles who represented the House of Lords and Ladies and was an old friend of her late father, nodded to her from further down the table. She smiled and nodded back. Then she sat up straight, trying to look attentive and regal as a duchess despite her unconventional appearance. She’d managed to tie her hair up in a knot so it was out of her face and took off her flight jacket, but she was still wearing her tunic and leggings, looking more like a mercenary than a duchess.

Each Councilor took turns reporting on various issues with the city and the surrounding state. Most of the problems still had to deal with repairing damage caused by the previous Council’s short but destructive rule and the battle within the city walls to end their reign. For power, they’d joined the rebellious Cult of Varula, who claimed they could control wyld magic—but the magic had run out of their control, infecting a significant portion of the populace with choreomania, the dancing madness, and spreading an overgrowth of stranglevine which destroyed buildings and roads throughout the city. Although it had happened months ago, rebuilding took time and money and planning out their priorities over which things should be fixed first.

Galenos kept his own notes during the discussions, balancing columns of numbers against each other in an attempt to make them even out. He tapped a nearby report with his quill pen. At least we have extra room in the budget this year, he announced. Since the fighting was confined to the city, there was no damage to our fields, and they have been fortunate. The harvest is already shaping up to be one of the best in the past decade. We can sell the excess for a tidy sum.

The other Councilors murmured their approval, but Korinna cleared her throat and spoke up for the first time. We should save the food.

Sixteen Councilors and Galenos all turned to stare at her.

Of course we’ll put some food aside for our emergency stores, Galenos explained patiently. He tapped one of the columns on his paper. That’s already been accounted for. This is extra. Why wouldn’t we sell it to someone else who needs it?

Korinna’s hand flew up to touch the coin at her throat. I don’t think we have enough food in our stores. We should save everything that we can, just in case.

Her husband frowned. But we need this money for many other things. We don’t have extra metal from the mines and the craftsmen in the city have been less productive than usual with all of the chaos that happened, so this is where we can make up the deficit. He pushed the preliminary budget list across the table to her. Unless you think there’s some other place where we can cut spending?

She skimmed the columns, but she didn’t know what most of the notes meant anyway. I don’t know, she said with a shrug. I just think it’s important that if we have extra food, we should save it, and encourage the farmers to do the same. We should all be saving more food in case of future shortages.

The others didn’t look convinced, but Galenos agreed to write down the suggestion for consideration when they finalized their spending plan. It wasn’t a win, but Korinna was happy that they seemed to listen to her, at least a little.

That would give her time to craft a better argument, maybe when Galenos had calmed down and she had the chance to speak with him in private. She’d had a hard experience with a food shortage once, the first year that she was in charge of running her own farming estate after the death of her mother. Only weeks before the grain had ripened for the harvest, a chimaera had attacked the farm and burned down nearly all of her fields. To feed her people, Korinna had sold everything of value from her own belongings and those left behind by her mother.

The only thing she kept from that dark time was a single coin, the one she wore around her neck. It was reminder to always prepare for the worst. She hoped they wouldn’t need the food—but what if they did? She would feel better with that insurance.

Moving on to elective projects, Galenos said, his deep voice calling them all back to attention. Some months ago, I installed two mages, Omalia and Ameyron, as the new administrators of our local mage academy in Sacrimas, which was largely neglected for years. They’ve assessed the facilities and are ready to plan improvements, but they need funds to work with. How much should we invest in them to start?

Korinna perked up with sudden interest. She’d only met Omalia and Ameyron a few times, but she was fascinated by their unorthodox research into monsters and wyld magic. How are they going to improve the school?

Galenos opened a letter and read off items from a list. Hiring more teachers, expanding the living quarters for staff and students, constructing new research facilities—these are the major items. They are focusing on expanding the school and bringing it up to date with similar academies throughout Seirenia.

Charis, a portly middle-aged man chosen to represent the Merchant Guild after Pelagia’s betrayal, made a scoffing noise. Why do we need our own mage academy? It would take a considerable investment to compete with the one in Petropouli or practically anywhere else. We can hire the ones who’ve already been trained.

We’re not trying to copy the one in Petropouli, Korinna said, leaning forward to the edge of her seat. The mages want to study different things. No other academy has a research program devoted to wyld magic—

Diokles looked at her sharply. Wyld magic is too dangerous! He waved a finger warningly at her. Don’t forget what got us into this mess in the first place. Those cultists were meddling with forces they couldn’t control.

Others began to echo him, raising their voices in protest.

Galenos held up his hand for silence. Calm down and listen before you judge. These mages aren’t trying to use wyld magic themselves, but to better understand its nature, so we can guard against it and prevent its use against us. He cupped his hand to his forehead, invoking Deyos the Allfather. All due respect to the Temple, but their prayers failed to protect this city from the cultists, and our own magic barrier didn’t prevent wyld magic from attacking us like it should have. We need to know why so we can stop it in the future.

Charis tapped a finger against his chin, mulling over the new information. So would this be considered part of the defense budget, then? There are fewer mercenaries in your company after that battle, so we could divert the extra pay to this academy for now. If their research is useful, we can always increase the money later.

Korinna saw her husband grow tense at the suggestion. It was only a slight change, the tendons in his arms and neck standing out a little more beneath his dark skin, but she knew him well enough now to spot the reaction that he hid from most people. He didn’t call himself a mercenary anymore, but he had felt the loss of each one of his soldiers personally when they fell under his command, and she also felt the sting of Charis’s casual dismissal of their lives.

Galenos stared down the Councilor. The Storm Petrels are my brother’s company, he began in clipped tones. We still need their protection, too, because we have many enemies who are watching Kyratia at this very moment, just looking for the opportunity to destroy us. If we show any sign of weakness, they won’t hesitate to attack. We need to replenish their numbers to full strength.

He didn’t raise his voice or lift a finger toward Charis, but the merchant felt the duke’s cold rebuke all the same. He shrank down into his seat and didn’t raise any other protests.

Galenos turned and looked at Korinna, leveling that same withering stare at her. So you see why we need even more money than before. Spending money is another show of strength, he said, not for the first time. Rebuilding this city even better than before, innovating a new school, any other projects we can manage to show our wealth—perhaps a palace, he added, his voice softening to encouragement. Have you met with an architect to begin the plans for our palace?

Korinna resisted the urge to taunt him like a child. He would go on about a palace! Her father, the late duke, had once had a lavish mansion for hosting parties and showing off to ambassadors from other cities, but the crystalbell bug infestation there had been so bad that they had to tear it down. When they were married, Galenos had bought them a modest house with only a handful of servants. She was comfortable there, but he kept insisting that it wasn’t fitting for their stature as duke and duchess.

Honestly, it felt like he was trying to just find a distraction for her, a fluff project for her to handle while he dealt with all of the real responsibilities of ruling. She was supposed to be his equal partner, but she knew he thought her too young and inexperienced to do much. She didn’t want to put her effort into picking out a style of pillars or selecting roof tiles when there was important work to be done. She might find these meetings boring, but she knew the decisions they made affected the lives of thousands of people. If she could just find a project that interested her—like building an emergency store of food—she could make better contributions as duchess.

I’m meeting with an architect tomorrow, Korinna said to placate him. She didn’t have an appointment yet, but she did have a list of architects from him, and surely one of them would jump at the chance to see the duchess even on short notice. But if you’re looking for money, don’t we have that trial coming up for the traitors who took over the city? We could punish them by seizing their assets—especially the ones who are already dead.

Around the table, some of the Councilors exchanged nervous looks and shifted uncomfortably. Most of them were newly appointed because the previous Councilors were arrested for treason or died in the same battle to free the city from wyld magic. They were eager to prove their loyalty to the new duke, but they also enjoyed a certain amount of wealth from their positions in representing the city’s Guilds. If a Councilor retired or was removed from office, they usually kept their money, or it stayed with their families when they died. To have the former Councilors’ families punished by losing their money must seem harsh to them.

But like Korinna, Galenos wanted harsh punishments for the traitors so no one would want to betray them again. He leaned back in his chair with a smile. That’s an interesting suggestion. I’ll have to discuss it with our legal counsel to see if we’re entitled to their estates, but it seems like a fitting punishment.

Korinna nodded. It’s the same thing they did to me, after all. When you and I defied the last Council, they seized my land and money, even though they’d said earlier that I was entitled to keep my father’s gifts. It was just one more thing she blamed Pelagia and the other traitors for. She’d wanted to give her old estate, Anoberesovo, back to the people who lived there so they could run the farm for themselves—and she had finally done that, once they wrested it back from the Council. Her old steward and mentor, Myron, made the major decisions for the estate, but the profits were shared among all of the families who worked the land.

Very good, then. Galenos made another note in his ledger. If we can fine the traitors, then we’ll see how much money that nets us and we can reconsider the budget at that time.

The Council meeting wore on late into the day, with discussions continuing during the noon meal without a break. By the time they were finished, Korinna was exhausted from talking and listening to so many mundane details. She wondered, fondly, if she might have time for another flight with Sungold before the sun went down. But Galenos picked up her saddle from their office and offered to carry it home for her, and she realized that she didn’t have the energy to think of lugging it all the way back to the military compound herself.

Despite their earlier arguments, she had to smile at the sight of him in his fancy tunic and kattar with a dirty saddle on his shoulder, leaving oil stains behind on the fine fabrics. That’s sweet of you. She stood up on tiptoe so she could kiss his cheek.

Galenos smiled and caught her with his free hand, pulling her into another kiss. I thought I owed you a favor after losing my temper this morning, he murmured in the soft tone he used only when they were alone. I confess that I was surprised when I heard cheering outside and thought you must have arrived by parade or some other ridiculous fanfare. Did you mean to attract such a crowd?

She shook her head. No, I was just trying to get here as quickly as I could, and I didn’t stop to think what reaction it might spark outside. I felt guilty for making you wait. She laughed at herself. I won’t be making that mistake again.

He offered her his arm and she accepted it, letting him escort her out of the building. The guards nodded to them at the door and they nodded back, but no one followed them, and only a few commoners in the courtyard outside even turned their heads to look. Of course, they stood out on the streets—Khazeem were a rarity, especially one dressed as nicely as Galenos, and Korinna was still in her mercenary uniform—but although most people recognized them as the duke and duchess, they walked home every evening without being disturbed. When it was just the two of them, without a retinue of clerks to do their bidding or petitioners asking for favors, she could imagine them as normal people going home to supper after a long day of work.

She liked him best when they were alone. The weight of leadership lifted from his shoulders, making him a little less serious. Now that they were used to each other’s presence, he relaxed around her and showed more of his emotions. A year ago when they first met, she thought he was cold and unfeeling as a stone, but she’d come to realize that he guarded his inner thoughts out of fear of being hurt. She was learning to recognize the subtle signs of how he really felt hidden underneath his stern exterior.

She could tell now by the way his eyebrows furrowed together that he still had something on his mind. She leaned her head against his arm and looked up at him. What is still bothering you?

He tilted his head back to gaze up into the darkening sky. Nightshade. The name came out like a sigh of regret. You’re right, I don’t spend enough time with her. With everything else going on, I’ve let her fall by the wayside.

Do you want to go see her now? she asked hopefully. Perhaps she could muster up the energy for a short flight after all.

But he shook his head. No, it’s late. He looked down at her and smiled. I know you’re tired and hungry, so we’ll get back and see what supper Egina has ready for us. But first thing tomorrow, I’ll go flying with you, and I’ll make an effort to join you more often. He raised his eyebrows. Does that seem fair?

She squeezed his arm happily. I can’t wait. Nightshade will be glad to see you, too. Sometimes Nightshade flew alongside Sungold on their morning flights, but no one could tend to or ride her except Galenos, and Korinna could see her disappointment every day when there was no sign of her rider.

They talked about inconsequential things the rest of the way home, leaving behind the problems of government for the evening. When they came to their small two-story house in a modest neighborhood, the smells of a home-cooked meal drifted out through the open windows. With summer fast approaching, the days were getting hot, and it was nice to have a breeze through the house to cool it down in the evening.

Inside the front door, Korinna paused and knelt in the alcove which held the ancestor shrine. After a moment’s hesitation, Galenos joined her, bowing his head in prayer. She lit two candles at the altar—one in front of the death mask for her father, Duke Basileos, and one for her mother, Pherenia.

Their prayers appeased the spirits of the dead in the Dry Lands of the afterlife. In the troubled months after his death, Korinna’s father had appeared to her several times, a silent reminder that he could not rest until Kyratia’s future was secured. When Korinna and Galenos had finally liberated the city and taken control, Basileos’s ghost was satisfied, and she hadn’t seen him again. She thought that her parents might still be watching over her from afar, but she mostly hoped that they were happy together now as they had never been able to be in life.

When they were finished, Galenos offered her a hand up and led her the rest of the way into the house. Like most houses in Kyratia, it was built in a rectangle of rooms opening into a central courtyard with no roof, filled with a flourishing garden and a patio for relaxation. The front of the house was nicer, with bedrooms on the second floor for both of them, while the servants lived in the back of the house, but all of them had nice views of the courtyard. During the winter storms the courtyard had been too wet to enjoy, but now at the end of the year with the weather drying up, they’d moved the furniture back outside. There was a round table in the middle of the patio, surrounded by chairs, and couches for lounging among the flowering plants and trees of the garden.

Children buzzed around the table, bringing dishes out from the kitchen in the back of the house. Egina, the cook and housekeeper, wasn’t in sight so she was probably still putting the finishing touches on the food, but her children were the rest of the household staff and they knew what to do without direction. The oldest boy, Hermippos, at fifteen and almost a man, carried the biggest dish, a heavy tray with roasted chicken and garlic; the youngest one, Tithon, who at four years old was barely tall enough to reach the table, still had his own task of setting out the silverware. The other three were just as busy with their work.

Galenos and Korinna stopped at the edge of the patio to stay out of their way. Aristia, the younger girl who was almost twelve, looked up when she saw them enter and skipped over to meet them. She cocked her head to one side as she habitually did so her good ear was tilted up toward them. Will you want to change before dinner, m’lady? she asked Korinna.

Korinna knew that the proper thing to do would be to get out of her flight leathers, but now that they were alone in their own home, she didn’t really care about looking proper. She laughed and shook her head. No, I’m too hungry to wait. This all smells so good!

Galenos set the saddle down on the ground and looked at his own stained clothes ruefully, but he shrugged it off. We might as well sit down before this food gets cold.

Hermippos hurried over and picked the saddle up off the ground. I’ll get that for you, m’lord. Shall I take it up to the lady’s room?

Korinna nodded. Yes, you can just leave it on the floor somewhere that it won’t get tripped over. I will tend to it later. Along with her wardrobe of fine clothes that suited a duchess, she kept her riding tack hanging in her room along with her old uniform and other loose outfits that she could wear for exercising. She tended to get restless when she couldn’t stay active.

Hermippos nodded and carried the saddle upstairs, the heavy weight barely slowing him down. With his strength, he could make a fine soldier in a year’s time if he wanted to join. Korinna thought they had more than enough help in such a small house, and without schooling or an apprenticeship, there weren’t many opportunities for a boy like him. Most soldiers were driven to the life because they had nothing else. But she wouldn’t suggest that path to him, since she knew how most of society looked down on mercenaries. They could afford to keep paying him if he wanted to stay as a servant with the rest of his family.

Galenos pulled out a chair for Korinna to sit down, then took his own place beside her. The children finished setting out the food and Egina emerged from the kitchen, wiping her face with the corner of her apron.

Welcome home, m’lord, m’lady, she said, ducking her head politely. She took her seat next to Korinna. That was the signal for the children to sit down, too, filling the rest of the seats at the table.

In Anoberesovo, Korinna had grown up eating with her household staff as if they were her own family, and she didn’t see the need to change once she was living in the city as a duchess. Galenos had gradually warmed up to the idea and now, months later, they were all comfortable sitting and talking together around one table.

Egina and her older daughter, thirteen-year-old Xenia, were the most talkative along with Korinna. They discussed the day’s events: Korinna’s flight with Sungold and the crowd she’d drawn when she landed in front of City Hall, Egina’s trip to the market, gossip Xenia had heard from servant girls she’d befriended in the neighbors’ houses.

Galenos ate quietly for most of the meal, savoring the food. Along with the chicken, there was flatbread, mixed green salad with cucumber and crumbled goat cheese, cured olives, and fig turnovers for dessert. Some of it came from their own vegetable garden in the back, and all of it was simple fare like Korinna had grown up eating in the country. Galenos still encouraged her to try exotic foods from time to time, and she’d come to like some of the spices and other strange things he favored, but Egina was a Kyratian cook who didn’t know anything else. Korinna appreciated the comfort of familiar food in her own home.

When they were finished eating and the children started to clear the dishes away, Galenos reached for her hand under the table and gave it a squeeze. You must be tired, he said gently, but his eyes questioned her.

She smiled and squeezed his hand back encouragingly. Not too tired, my dear, she said with a wink. The food had rejuvenated her, and she was happy to say yes to his unspoken question.

They stood up and his arm snaked around her waist, slipping under her tunic to find the bare skin of her stomach. If you’re sure, he said, bending his face down to her. We’ll have to get up extra early in the morning if I’m going to have time to fly with you. There’s no council meeting tomorrow, but I do have other appointments to keep.

She stroked his cheek, always smooth although she’d never seen him shave, unlike Seirenian men who grew heavy hair on their faces and most other parts of their bodies. I’m sure, she whispered. She wanted to kiss him, but they preferred not to be too demonstrative in front of others. She’d wait until they were in private.

He kept his arm around her as they went up the stairs. His bedroom was at the top of the stairs and hers was farther down the hall, and he was always respectful of her personal space, never coming to join her unless she invited him. But she invited him often. He wasn’t the first man she’d ever been with—in the three years of womanhood before she’d met him, she’d had a few other lovers—but there was a new excitement in living with someone, to falling asleep in his arms and waking up next to him in the morning. And Galenos was attentive, taking time to learn what she enjoyed, so their connection had only deepened over the months.

Maybe it was only the eagerness of newlyweds that kept drawing them together, but Korinna was happy to indulge while it lasted. And she knew, although they hadn’t spoken of it yet, that there was another responsibility they had to their people. The last duke’s reign had ended in chaos because there was no clear heir to take his place. Korinna hoped that Galenos and she would have many children to carry on their legacy.

She waited until