MERCENARIES AND MAIDENS
By Kathryn Le Veque
Copyright © 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 by Kathryn Le Veque
Kindle Edition
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Text copyright 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 by Kathryn Le Veque
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Kathryn Le Veque Novels
Medieval Romance:
The de Russe Legacy:
The White Lord of Wellesbourne
The Dark One: Dark Knight
Beast
Lord of War: Black Angel
The Iron Knight
The de Lohr Dynasty:
While Angels Slept (Lords of East Anglia)
Godspeed (Lords of East Anglia)
Rise of the Defender
Steelheart
Spectre of the Sword
Archangel
Unending Love
Shadowmoor
Silversword
Great Lords of le Bec:
Great Protector
To the Lady Born (House of de Royans)
Lord of Winter (Lords of de Royans)
Lords of Eire:
The Darkland (Master Knights of Connaught)
Black Sword
Echoes of Ancient Dreams (time travel)
De Wolfe Pack Series:
Warwolfe
The Wolfe
Nighthawk
ShadowWolfe
DarkWolfe
A Joyous de Wolfe Christmas
Serpent
A Wolfe Among Dragons
Scorpion
Dark Destroyer
The Lion of the North
Walls of Babylon
Ancient Kings of Anglecynn:
The Whispering Night
Netherworld
Battle Lords of de Velt:
The Dark Lord
Devil’s Dominion
Reign of the House of de Winter:
Lespada
Swords and Shields (also related to The Questing, While Angels Slept)
De Reyne Domination:
Guardian of Darkness
The Fallen One (part of Dragonblade Series)
With Dreams Only of You
House of d’Vant:
Tender is the Knight (House of d’Vant)
The Red Fury (House of d’Vant)
The Dragonblade Series: (Great Marcher Lords of de Lara)
Dragonblade
Island of Glass (House of St. Hever)
The Savage Curtain (Lords of Pembury)
The Fallen One (De Reyne Domination)
Fragments of Grace (House of St. Hever)
Lord of the Shadows
Queen of Lost Stars (House of St. Hever)
Lords of Thunder: The de Shera Brotherhood Trilogy
The Thunder Lord
The Thunder Warrior
The Thunder Knight
The Great Knights of de Moray:
Shield of Kronos
The Gorgon
Highland Warriors of Munro:
The Red Lion
Deep Into Darkness
The House of Ashbourne:
Upon a Midnight Dream
The House of D’Aurilliac:
Valiant Chaos
The House of De Nerra:
The Falls of Erith
Vestiges of Valor
Realm of Angels
The House of De Dere:
Of Love and Legend
St. John and de Gare Clans:
The Warrior Poet
The House of de Garr:
Lord of Light
Realm of Angels
The House of de Bretagne:
The Questing (also related to Swords and Shields)
The House of Summerlin:
The Legend
The Kingdom of Hendocia:
Kingdom by the Sea
Time Travel Romance: (Saxon Lords of Hage)
The Crusader
Kingdom Come
Contemporary Romance:
Kathlyn Trent/Marcus Burton Series:
Valley of the Shadow
The Eden Factor
Canyon of the Sphinx
The American Heroes Series:
The Lucius Robe
Fires of Autumn
Evenshade
Sea of Dreams
Purgatory
Other Contemporary Romance:
Lady of Heaven
Darkling, I Listen
In the Dreaming Hour
Sons of Poseidon:
The Immortal Sea
Pirates of Britannia Series (with Eliza Knight):
Savage of the Sea by Eliza Knight
Leader of Titans by Kathryn Le Veque
The Sea Devil by Eliza Knight
Sea Wolfe by Kathryn Le Veque
Kindle Worlds (Kathryn Le Veque World of de Wolfe Pack):
River’s End
The Wedding Fountain (Bella Andre’s Kindle World)
Note: All Kathryn’s novels are designed to be read as stand-alones, although many have cross-over characters or cross-over family groups. Novels that are grouped together have related characters or family groups.
Series are clearly marked. All series contain the same characters or family groups except the American Heroes Series, which is an anthology with unrelated characters.
There is NO particular chronological order for any of the novels because they can all be read as stand-alones, even the series.
For more information, find it in A Reader’s Guide to the Medieval World of Le Veque.
Contents
The Red Fury
The Dark Lord
Queen of Lost Stars
The Falls of Erith
Bonus book: Kingdom by the Sea
THE RED FURY
A Medieval Romance
By Kathryn Le Veque
Author’s Note
Welcome to the very first historical romance I ever wrote – long-hand!
Those were the days before computers – at least, readily accessible home computers. I believe I started this book around 1988 or so. I have dozens of notebooks I wrote “practice run” books on, learning my craft, and this is a version of the very first historical romance I ever wrote.
I say version because this one went through a few iterations. There were at least three, and each one was a little different. This version was the last one, and the most complete (and the one that was actually really good), so it’s really exciting to me to finally see these characters come to life after so many years. For so long, they were just words on a spiral notebook that I never thought would be published.
A few fun/interesting things to note about this story because it’s gone through an evolution. This book was originally set in 1378 A.D., but because Andrew made an
appearance in The Wolfe (simply because I wanted to use the character), I had to move the original date of his book back by over one hundred years. This book also contained the original Bose de Moray, who was the captain of the guard for the Scottish king. Well, I thought Bose was pretty darn cool, so I gave him his own novel but set it back a century, too. So, Bose had to become someone else – Ridge de Reyne, whose family had a lot of activity in Scotland on or before this time. Ridge is a grandson of Creed de Reyne (GUARDIAN OF DARKNESS) and will have his own novel next year, a story called THE BLACK STORM.
A few other things had to change – locations, some names, things like that, either because I used them in other books or given my current research, they simply didn’t work. In fact, the leading lady’s name was originally Jeniver – a name I liked so much that I used it in the Lords of Thunder series. So, “Jeniver” became “Josephine” (although I briefly toyed with calling her Elizabel). Why Josephine? Because I like it, and also because it belonged to a tiny old woman, who died many years ago, and she was one of the strongest women I’d ever known. But, as you can see, I cannibalized a lot of this book and used characters and names in other stories, thinking this story would never see the light of day. Boy, was I wrong!
You’re also going to notice that the “Scots Speak” in this book isn’t very heavy. It’s very minimal because we’re talking about the border areas where some regions had more of an English accent than a Scots one. Much of this book is set near Ayr, which is far south as far as Scotland goes.
But foremost, I need to thank my assistant, Kris Newberger, for her skill and patience in typing out dozens of hand-written spiral notebooks (that I’d very poorly put in order!) to make sense out of this story. The woman has the patience of Job. She went to a huge effort to put this book together, including the places where there were plot holes so I could fill them in. Without her, this book probably would have never seen publication and I am extremely grateful for her diligence. This book is really for her – she has begged me to finish it so, for her, I have done just that.
Now, this book is pretty much in its original form, although it has been heavily edited by me to bring it up to par. Still, I didn’t do any massive rewrites (unless it badly needed it), because I’m a firm believer in presenting stories as they were meant to be read. This is a fast-paced story that moves very quickly, which is good – nothing to drag down the storyline. However – my writing style has changed dramatically and you will see that within these pages. This book is more along the lines of THE WOLFE and the other early novels I wrote. It’s definitely a time capsule of Le Veque history.
But I will say this – this book was probably the most difficult one I’ve ever had to work on because of the missing gaps in the storyline. Since I wrote it long-hand on spiral notebooks, over the years, some of those notebooks have gone missing. It was a very big story that was literally a puzzle to piece together, as I mentioned, and very labor intensive. But, for Andrew and Josephine, I think it was well worth the effort. I hope you think so, too.
Get ready to fall in love with The Red Fury…
Hugs,
Kathryn
Dedication
I don’t normally do dedications because, with the number of books I have published, I would soon run out of people to dedicate my books to. I’d be dedicating them to the homeless guy on the corner or the mail man. In any case, this book is a little different in that I must dedicate it to my assistant, Kris Newberger, who did something truly remarkable for this novel.
There have been few people in my life other than close family that I could depend on as much as Kris. She’s my biggest fan, my biggest critic, and the most efficient, skilled assistant anyone could ever ask for. Without her, I probably wouldn’t have published books like The Wolfe, Rise of the Defender, or The Dark One: Dark Knight because she not only typed up those manuscripts from very old hard copies, but she was the one who said they were good enough to publish.
I’m so glad I listened to her.
So, it is to Kris that I dedicate this novel, with the deepest affection and gratitude.
*
And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him.
Revelation 6:8
PROLOGUE
“Run, Andrew, run!”
It was dark as he heard the cry. Heart pumping, his breath caught in his throat as he tried to run, but he was boxed in by tall walls with tiny windows. There were walls everywhere he looked, big gray stone blocking him as he tried to run.
There was nowhere for him to go except for a long corridor that stretched out in front of him. It seemed to be twisting and undulating. Even as he tried to run, the floor was moving as he struggled to keep his footing. He heard someone screaming to him, telling him to run faster. Over and over – run faster, Andrew! He was trying – God help him – he was trying, but the shifting corridor and rolling floor made it so very difficult.
Light!
He saw light at the end of the corridor and he ran for it, propelling himself out of the building that was jerking and rolling. As he landed heavily on the dirt beyond the corridor, he turned to see that that building he was in – the one with the twisting corridor – was breaking into a million pieces, shattering as he watched.
He couldn’t even stop to breathe. Stones were being thrown at him as the building collapsed, giant stones hurling at his head. He no longer heard the voice telling him to run, but he didn’t need to. He continued to run, as fast as he could go. He had no idea where he was going, only that he had to break free of the disaster that was trying to swallow him up.
Around him, everything was distorted by the storm raging overhead and disaster happening around him. He was so scared. God, he’d never known such fear. Something – someone – was trying to kill him. He knew that.
He had to run for his very life.
Sinister laughing now filled the air. He could hear it behind him, a booming sound, like thunder. In fact, it rolled like thunder. The sound undulated, almost as if it were coming from under water. Overhead, lightning crashed and that crazy laughter could be heard again. It was terrifying.
He was trying to pick up speed. As the ground lurched beneath his feet, he could see a gateway of some kind ahead. If only he could make it. But then the laughter came, louder than before, making him feel as if it were right behind him. In a panic, he turned to see if the threat was upon him and that’s when he saw her…
Mother….
He came to an unsteady halt. His mother was simply standing there, smiling at him. But it wasn’t a normal smile – there was fear in her eyes. He took a step in her direction, to go to her, but, suddenly, she screamed at him.
Run, Andrew, run!
The cries had been coming from her. Behind her, a dark figure rose up, as if bursting forth from the very ground. A shadow of extreme size enveloped her and she began screaming again as the shadow swallowed her up.
In the midst of that murky shadow, he caught a glimpse of black, wicked eyes.
God, he knew those eyes.
He turned on his heel and began to run again, running as fast as he possibly could while the wicked laughter rang out behind him and his mother’s screams were drowned out. Grief swamped him; why didn’t he try harder to get to her? He’d left her to die and by the time he reached the gate he’d been striving for, he was gasping with agony.
His mother… his sweet, gentle mother had been consumed by the monster and he couldn’t save her. Just as he reached the gate, the twisting and trembling gate, the entire thing collapsed and everything went black.
… nothingness…
With a start, Andrew d’Vant suddenly sat straight up in bed, sweating profusely, feeling as if he’d just had the fright of his life. Taking a deep breath, he struggled to calm himself. He was in his familiar tent, with his familiar possessions around him, trunks of valuables, fine furnishings, coinage, and plate.
It was dark and damp this n
ight, with the moon periodically hidden behind dark clouds that were blowing across the glittering sky. It gave the illusion of a curtain being lowered and raised as the light from behind his tent flickered and undulated.
Somewhere in the distance, thunder rolled. A storm had blown through, perhaps feeding that terrible dream. But the truth was that he’d been having that dream for as long as he could remember, ever since being chased from his home at a young age and left to fend for himself. Those days were long gone now, and he’d made a success of his life.
Even if his brother had tried to kill him.
But his mother… he’d had this dream so many times and he’d never been able to save her. Perhaps it was that sense of loss, of failure, that fed his drive and made him what he was today – a sword for hire. He was paid to fight other men’s wars, proving himself the most powerful mercenary the world had ever seen. He always had to be better, stronger, and more intelligent than everyone else because, long ago, he’d been powerless to prevent the incident that had shaped his entire life.
In a sense, every sword stroke, every victory, was a victory he’d wished he’d had those years ago when he hadn’t been victorious, not saving his mother. He’d failed when she’d needed him the most.
He didn’t fail any longer.
Wiping his hand over his sweaty face, he happened to see a half-open missive lying on the table next to his bed. The candle was burning very low, barely illuminating the missive he’d received from yet another man who wanted him to fight his war for him. Only this missive hadn’t come from a man. It had come from a woman, and she was begging for his services to save her family home.
Torridon…
That’s what made this missive different from the others he’d received over the years. A woman was asking for his help, and that was unheard of. But, somehow, it meant more to him than any other missive he’d ever received. His mother had asked for help once, and he hadn’t been able to help her. But this woman… he could help her. He had to. Because maybe in some small part, it was a victory struck for his mother from those years ago.