The Crown's Game (The Crown's Game, #1)

by Evelyn Skye

“No. Were you not listening? I was never dead. I was merely not living. But I have returned, and I want my boy. Where is he? Is he out shepherding or hunting with the men?” “He . . .” “Is he out shepherding or hunting with the men?” Aizhana asked again, the screech of her voice rising. Damira’s eyes widened. “I . . . We haven’t seen him in eleven years. He left the village.” Aizhana scraped her fingernails against her papery temple. They rasped like claws against molted snakeskin. “He could not have left on his own at age seven. What did you do?” Damira sniveled. The other women held one another, as if something so simple would protect them. “Where is he? What did you do?” Aizhana snarled. “A Russian aristocrat came. She wanted him. You have to understand, he was too much for us. We didn’t know what to do with his power—” “You lived with me among you all those years. How could a boy be any different?” “He was. He was different!” Damira said. “You were a healer. You made people better. You were a force of good. He was . . .” “Like a demon,” another woman, Tazagul, said. Her face glowed in the light of the fire. “He had too much power. It came from somewhere other than the people who needed to be healed. He wasn’t like you.” “My son is not a demon!” Aizhana howled, and her shriek nearly drew blood from the women’s ears. But if he wasn’t a healer, then what was he? Could he be an enchanter? It would make sense, the way Damira and Tazagul described him. Healers utilized small ...