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Back A Burning Sea
Chapters (54)
  1. CAST OF CHARACTERS
  2. PART ONE
  3. CHAPTER ONE
  4. CHAPTER TWO
  5. CHAPTER THREE
  6. CHAPTER FOUR
  7. CHAPTER FIVE
  8. CHAPTER SIX
  9. CHAPTER SEVEN
  10. CHAPTER EIGHT
  11. CHAPTER NINE
  12. CHAPTER TEN
  13. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  14. CHAPTER TWELVE
  15. PART TWO
  16. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  17. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  18. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  19. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  20. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  21. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  22. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  23. CHAPTER TWENTY
  24. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  25. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  26. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  30. PART THREE
  31. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  34. CHAPTER THIRTY
  35. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  36. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  37. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. PART FOUR
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  45. CHAPTER FORTY
  46. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  47. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  48. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
  53. HISTORICAL NOTE
  54. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

‘I gave myself away to another once,’ he said in a quiet voice. ‘All of myself. And when she was lost, I was lost with her.’ He shook his head. ‘If we return to the north, I know I shall have to lose you again. You’re a queen. You need a king beside you. And who am I? I am nothing. No one. You will have to choose another.’

‘No. No,’ she insisted. ‘Can you not see how your fate calls you to it again and again?’

‘To what?’

‘Kingship. Your fate calls you higher. And every time, you destroy it and run away.’

‘It is not I who destroys it,’ he said, his voice turning bitter. ‘I came here seeking the king of kings. I believed if I did I would find freedom. And I was wrong. I believed a lie.’ He shook his head. ‘An impossibility. I am still under the curse.’

‘Curse? What are you talking about?’

He expelled a long sigh. ‘When I came for you. . . in Niflagard. I drank the Witch King’s blood. He is in me, just as Vargalf said he was. . . and somehow I’m bound to him. It is he who thwarts my fate.’

She was, for a moment, bewildered by this answer. But the more she thought of it the more dissatisfied she became. ‘I know nothing of that,’ she said softly. ‘I see on you a greater curse. It’s your own words that bind you. Your own oaths.’ She shook her head sadly. ‘You can’t even speak your true name. . .’

She drifted over to the window to stare out at the distant blue hills shining in the spring sun. Behind her, Erlan sank into a chair and hung his head, the silence between them as vast as an ocean.

After a long while, he began to speak.

‘I was born in northern Jutland.’

She turned.

‘My father was lord of my folk. I loved. . . a girl. . . She was forbidden to me. And because of me, she is dead. I could not stay. And I can never go back.’

She stared at him. ‘Is that what your wandering is about? This is all to punish yourself?’

He didn’t answer, he couldn’t even look up, and looking at him, seeing him so wretched, she felt her heart soften. She went to him and slipped her hands into his, running her thumbs over his hard knuckles. ‘It’s not your fault.’ She saw tears falling on their hands.

‘You don’t know that,’ he murmured.

‘It’s not your fault,’ she said again. He sank forward onto his knees. She clasped his head close to her, his face buried in the folds of her robe against her stomach. ‘It’s not your fault.’

They stayed like that for a long time.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Illustration