"Lady Alys, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I must say that Lord Baulder did not do you justice with his description."
I smiled politely and curtsied as I had been instructed while butterflies stirred uneasily in my belly. His compliment was ignored and I knew my mother would lecture me at the first opportunity for the oversight. "Lord Dagin. It is good to finally meet you. What news do you bring from Tarris?"
"Tarris? Come now, Lady. Surely we have better things to discuss? Our impending marriage, for one. Why else do you think we have been left alone without the watchful gaze of your chaperons? It is my wish to get to know you better. Much better, in fact."
He pressed his suit with a confident smile, imposing on my personal space as he reached for my hand. He was handsome enough, well dressed, too, but there was something about his eyes that had an objection springing to my tongue. I tried to step back but he was quicker and more practiced in this dance than I. He captured my hand while I gaped at him uselessly and a cold chill moved over the back of my neck.
The last conscious thought I remember was how soft his hand felt, almost like a woman's. Then the world was upended and set spinning like a child's top, colors swirling into an indistinct frenzy of motion.
Dagin sneered at me with a face that lined and worn with age. His thick black hair was almost all gray and his belly hung ponderously over his sword belt. "Stupid bitch! Only your ties to Amber have kept you alive this long or I would squeeze the life from you with my own hands."
He slapped me then, hard enough to set my ears ringing while pain blossomed bright and hot through my cheekbone. I did not cry out and he hit me again, forcing me to my knees to keep from falling over. My body ached and I knew this was not the first time he had struck me. "Forgive me, husband. It was not my wish to offend…"
I could hardly recognize my own voice, so soft and timid now, no spark left at all of the girl that had once slain dragons single handed. But the abuse was not finished and he cut me off with another harsh slap, knocking me to the floor while he continued to rage at me. "Forgive you? Forgive you!?! Curse you, woman! You are naught but demon spawn, unfit to be mother to my children. They are mine, not yours! I will do with them as I please and you will fill their heads with no more of this nonsense, do you hear me? Traitorous wretches! I will have the boy whipped until the flesh peels from his back and the girl…"
The blood in my veins turned to ice and understanding dawned. I had seen the looks he had given our daughter when he thought no one else was watching. I lifted my head to stare at him, seeing him with eyes that had been clouded for too long. "No, you can't. I will take them away from here, back to Rivon…"
This time he did not strike me. His hands closed around my throat, cutting off sounds of protest along with my breath. I struggled and clawed at him, fighting desperately not for my life, but for the lives of my children. As my vision blurred I remembered the sword at his waist.
A shrill, terrified scream filled my ears and I blinked once, uncertain what might have caused the sound. Maylee, one of the servants, stood staring at me from the doorway with a look of horror on her face. I felt something warm seeping through the satin of my slipper and looked down to find a pool of blood spreading out from a headless body laying on the floor. More blood splattered my dress and arms, but what was truly distressing was that in one hand I held Dagin's bloody sword and in the other his severed head.
The guards, alerted by the servant's scream, found me still standing there with a curiously calm expression.