The Destined Queen Read online

  Praise for

  The Wizard’s Ward by

  DEBORAH HALE

  “The characters’ journeys of self-discovery provide an extra dimension to this adventure/romance.”

  —Storyteller Magazine

  “Deborah Hale’s debut as a fantasy writer is one of my top picks of the year—a wonderful, sweet romance you can lose yourself in…Ms. Hale’s historical fans won’t be disappointed and I think fantasy fans will find a new author to cherish. I’ll certainly be standing in line to buy the sequel when it’s ready.”

  —Romancejunkies.com

  “Deborah Hale has written a delightful, exciting and memorable romantic fantasy about a heroine who believes in all the old legends and a hero who believes only in himself.”

  —Harriet Klausner

  “Hale’s first foray into the realm of fantasy pleases on many levels, and her voice and characterization stand out and immediately pull readers into this fantastical tale…. Fans of Deborah Hale are sure to enjoy The Wizard’s Ward, and I have no doubt that lovers of fantasy romance will eagerly accept Ms. Hale into their fold!”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “In her first crossover foray into fantasy, romance writer Hale (Beauty and the Baron) nicely blends the two genres in an upbeat, feel-good story.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Although Hale is renowned for her works of historical romance, she has succeeded in writing a very readable high fantasy with powerful romantic undercurrents. Fast-paced and emotionally riveting, The Wizard’s Ward will appeal not only to Hale’s throngs of romance followers but also to fans of Patricia A. McKillip’s and Juliet Marillier’s folklore-powered fantasy novels.”

  —Paul Goat Allen, Barnes & Noble

  “Another wonderful fantasy has hit the shelf from LUNA. Deborah Hale has already proven that she can write great historical stories. Now, she amazes us with her ability to touch our hearts in the realm of fantasy as well. The Wizard’s Ward is an incredible journey of faith and love.”

  —ARomanceReview.com

  the Destined Queen

  DEBORAH HALE

  www.LUNA-Books.com

  First edition August 2005

  THE DESTINED QUEEN

  ISBN 1-55254-350-1

  Copyright ©2005 by Deborah M. Hale

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the editorial office, Worldwide Library, 233 Broadway, New York, NY 10279 U.S.A.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

  ® and TM are trademarks of Harlequin Books S.A., used under license. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  www.LUNA-Books.com

  To my mother, Marion MacDonald, with gratitude and love. I never could have finished this book without you.

  Deborah Hale

  After writing more than ten award-winning historical romances for Harlequin Historical, Deborah Hale now also writes otherworld fantasies for LUNA Books. Deborah likes to think of her word processor as a magic carpet that can whisk readers away to enchanted times and places. She hopes they enjoy the ride! Deborah lives with her own personal hero and their four children in Nova Scotia, Canada -- a place steeped in history, romance and magic. Deborah invites you to become better acquainted with her by visiting her personal website www.deborahhale.com or by chatting with her in the eHarlequin Community (www.eharlequin.com).

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Maura Woodbury—a young enchantress

  Rath Talward—her outlaw escort

  Langbard of Westborne—Maura’s wizard guardian

  King Elzaban—the Waiting King; legendary warrior of old

  Abrielle—Elzaban’s beloved; a powerful enchantress who put a spell of immortal sleep upon the Waiting King

  Captain Gull—a pirate of the Dusk Coast

  Lord Idrygon—member of the Vestan Council of Sages

  Delyon—Idrygon’s brother; a scholar of the Elderways

  Dame Diotta—a Vestan enchantress

  Madame Verise—member of the Vestan Council of Sages

  Trochard—member of the Vestan Council of Sages

  The Oracle of Margyle—a famous Vestan seer, said to be centuries old

  Brandel Woodbury—late patriarch of a noble Vestan family

  Sorsha Swinley—Maura’s best friend

  Newlyn Swinley—Sorsha’s husband; an escaped prisoner from the Blood Moon mines

  Vaylen—Prince of Tarsha; once betrothed to Maura’s mother

  Songrid—a Hanish woman

  Kez—a Hanish sentry

  Vang Spear of Heaven—an outlaw chief

  Boyd Tanner—a citizen of Prum

  Snake—a young orphan thief befriended by Maura

  Master Starbow—a shopkeeper in Windleford

  THE KINGDOM OF UMBRIA

  Contents

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  COMING NEXT MONTH

  1

  S tirring in her sleep, Maura Woodbury felt her lover’s strong arms about her. Snuggling deeper into his embrace, she had never felt happier…or more frightened.

  Her movement startled Rath Talward awake, his big, hard body gripped with a taut wariness. His right hand groped for a weapon. When it found only the soft flesh of his beloved, the tension bled out of him and he pressed his lips to her forehead.

  “Can this be real?” he whispered, tightening his hold on her. “Or did I dream it all?”

  Maura gave a husky chuckle. “This place does seem too wonderful to be true, doesn’t it?”

  For some hours they had slept on the grass in the Secret Glade. Over the tops of the trees, the rising sun now kissed the first blush of dawn into the eastern face of the sky. The luminous midsummer moon was fading, having revealed to the lovers a sweet and terrible marvel.

  “For most of my life I’ve slept on the ground.” Rath flexed his lean, muscular frame. “But it never felt like this before.”

  Maura nodded, her tumble of curls rubbing against his shoulder in a caress. Since beginning the quest that had led them here, she, too, had passed many a restless night on the cold, hard ground. The thick grass beneath them now felt more comfortable than any proper bed she’d ever slept in. The soft, warm earth yielded to the shapes of their bodies, cradling them in perfect repose.

  Not even the faintest chill of night had nipped their bare skin while they slept. Instead, the darkness had wrapped around them, warm yet weightless. No queen and king could have asked for a more luxuriou
s resting place…or trysting place.

  That thought sent a muted shiver up Maura’s back, making the fine hairs on her nape prickle. Many weeks ago, she had set out on her quest to find and waken the Waiting King—a legendary warrior destined to liberate her people…and be her husband. The murder of her wizard guardian had forced her to rely on Rath for protection.

  At first she had been as suspicious of the ruthless outlaw as he was of her modest magical powers. But each day of their journey, each new challenge or peril overcome, had forged a stronger bond of trust and respect between them. And fueled their forbidden desire for one another.

  “Are you cold, love?” Rath pressed his cheek to the crown of Maura’s head and passed his large, warm hand down her arm to rest over her hip. “Shall I pull my cloak over us?”

  Maura shook her head, wishing it had been nothing more than a cool breeze that made her shiver. “Just hold me closer.”

  “I’m not sure I can without hurting you.”

  “You did last night.” Maura slid her hand down to graze his thigh. “Though you warned me it might hurt, it brought me a great deal of pleasure.”

  They had entered the Secret Glade at sunset, resolved to rouse the Waiting King, even though it would doom their unspoken love. Instead, the kind moon had revealed that Rath was the Waiting King, whose true nobility Maura had wakened during their journey. In a daze of delight, they had lost no time consummating their love.

  Now Maura wondered if part of their haste had not been a bid to evade a host of troubling questions about their future. It had worked, though, and worked well. As doubts threatened to ambush her again, she sought assurance and happiness, however fleeting, in the one place she knew she would always find it.

  “Again?” Rath’s dusky eyes shimmered with desire. “So soon?”

  She wriggled against him, lofting a teasing glance through her lashes. “Too soon for you, is it?”

  Rath threw back his head and his whole powerful body quaked with laughter. “If you cannot feel the truth of that, with all your wanton squirming, then you are not half as clever as I gave you credit for!”

  So they made love again, of a different kind than they had the night before. This time the soft glow of daybreak let them see one another as they touched and kissed and explored. The hushed, earnest endearments of the night gave way to lusty banter. Soon their love play took fire and consumed them both.

  In the drowsy warmth that followed, Maura’s mind wandered, then shrank from what it encountered. She could not stifle an anxious sigh.

  “I do not know,” Rath murmured his answer to the question she had dreaded asking aloud—“What do we do now?”

  She had come to love him with all her heart and she could not have asked for a more precious gift than this sign that destiny had meant them for one another. Yet for all he had proven himself clever and brave and resourceful…even grudgingly compassionate, Rath Talward was not the superhuman warrior she had expected the Waiting King to be. He had no powerful magical weapons with which to fight the Han. No enchanted army to oust those cruel conquerors from the shores of Umbria.

  “Where do we even begin?” Maura whispered, scarcely aware she was giving voice to her thoughts. “You liberated one of those horrible mines, which was an amazing feat for a single man and his prisoner comrades. But to free the whole kingdom…”

  “We had help, don’t forget.” Gratitude for that aid and admiration for her courage warmed Rath’s words. Then his arms tightened around her once again, and his voice took on a harsh edge. “And you barely escaped with your life.”

  How Maura wished she could forget. Forget the seductive poison with which the death-mage had enticed her. Forget the suffocating darkness into which she’d descended after defying him. One victory had not tempered her fear of the Echtroi, and their death magic.

  With gentle restraint, Rath disengaged himself from her embrace and sat up. He nodded toward the giant wooden font that stood in the middle of the glade. “Are you certain of what you thought you saw in there last night?”

  Gathering up his discarded clothing, he began to dress.

  With his arms no longer about her, Maura felt truly naked for the first time since she’d woken. “As certain as I have been about anything in this whole baffling business.”

  She plucked up her shift from the grass and pulled it over her head. “And yet, now that I think back on last night, it all seems like a dream.”

  “Perhaps that’s what it was.” Rath reached for her hand. “A dream, a trick of the moonlight.”

  How much easier her life would be if she could believe that!

  “I am no king.” With his other hand, Rath pointed to the pale scars that laced the tanned flesh of his body. “Though I once bore his high-flown name, I did not reign over Umbria a thousand years ago. I did not lie in an enchanted sleep after I took my death blow. I did not do any of the brave deeds you told me of King Elzaban. I am just an ignorant outlaw who has done a great many things he is not proud of to keep himself alive.”

  When he tried to let go of Maura’s hand, she clung to it. “You have also done a great many things you should be proud of to keep others alive, or help them in some way.”

  Rath’s full brow creased into a scowl that could not conceal the flicker of satisfaction in his deep-set dark eyes. “And thought myself a daft fool for doing them. I cannot pretend it comes natural to me looking out for other folks.”

  “No one could have done better looking out for me these past weeks.” Maura’s gaze ranged over his rugged features as she relished the freedom to indulge in such loving looks.

  Rath’s mock scowl deepened, but the twinkle in his eyes glinted brighter. “You did not make it easy—always trying to help everyone who crossed your path, no matter how much trouble it might land you in.”

  He brushed his knuckles against her chin. “I would defend you to my last drop of blood. But to look out for the welfare of a whole kingdom, and one in such deep trouble, it is beyond me.”

  Scooping up his shirt from the grass, Rath pulled it on.

  “I know how you feel,” said Maura.

  When he cast her a dubious glance, she insisted, “I do! The day Langbard told me it was my destiny to seek out the Waiting King, I could not believe it—did not want to believe it. How could a simple country girl who’d never stepped five miles from home search the breadth of the kingdom to find…a legend?”

  As Rath donned his vest of black padded leather, he pulled a wry face, perhaps at the thought of himself as a “legend.”

  “I did it, just the same.” A sweeping motion of Maura’s arm took in the whole enchanted glade, ringed with slender whitebark trees, straight and regular as the columns of any palace. “I reached here in time for the full moon of Solsticetide, in spite of a good many obstacles, too.”

  “Obstacles?” Rath gave a snort of laughter as he shoved his feet into his boots. “I would call Vang Spear of Heaven, the lankwolves in the Waste, Raynor’s Rift and all the rest more than obstacles.”

  Just thinking back on them made Maura shudder. She pulled on her gown, but no amount of clothing could warm her against the chill of fear. “Whatever you call them, if I’d had any notion such dangers awaited me on my quest, I would have hidden under my bed and never come out again. But I have learned to trust in the Giver’s providence. And I have come to believe in my destiny.”

  “I don’t want a destiny!” Rath leaped to his feet. “Not this one, at any rate!”

  Maura shrank back. It seemed like a long time since Rath had spoken to her in such a hostile tone. Back then, she’d scarcely cared, for she had feared him almost as much as any of the unknown dangers she’d faced.

  As quickly as he’d lashed out, Rath repented and gathered her into his arms, “Your pardon! I am not angry with you, I swear. Last night, I was the happiest fellow in the world to find that I need not yield you to another man. I could think of nothing beyond that. This morning…”

  “I know.” M
aura passed her hand over his shaggy mane of tawny brown hair in a reassuring caress, as she might have done to a troubled child.

  This morning Rath had woken to discover the vast bride price he must pay to claim her. Did he regret having given in last night to their long-suppressed desire? She could hardly blame him if he did.

  “Poor lass!” Rath held her close, still not trusting his right to do it. “You left behind everything you ever knew or cared for to travel all this way, facing dangers that would make a hardened outlaw flinch. All to find the mighty hero who would deliver your people. Look what you found instead.”

  Him. A man who, until a few days ago, had despised the whole legend of the Waiting King. A man who’d just begun to have faith in the Giver. A man who had only lately come to care for anyone or anything beyond his own survival. She must wonder if the Giver had played some kind of cruel trick on her. If only he could be certain she had given herself to him, body and heart, because of who he was…not what he was destined to become.

  “Look what I found!” Maura tilted her head to gaze at him with her luminous green eyes and perhaps to invite his kiss. “That the man I have come to love and admire was meant to be my partner in the greatest adventure of Umbrian history.”

  The fond tone of her voice and the hopeful springtime glow in her eyes might convince Rath, if he let them. But the life he’d lived had cultivated a bone-deep wariness of anything that seemed too good—like the possibility of happiness with Maura. With a great effort, he willed himself to put those doubts aside, and to kiss her the way he’d so often longed to during their journey.