The Red Fury Read online

  THE RED FURY

  A Medieval Romance

  By Kathryn Le Veque

  © Copyright 2017 by Kathryn Le Veque Novels, Inc. DBA Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.

  Kindle Edition

  Text by Kathryn Le Veque

  Cover by Kim Killion

  Reproduction of any kind except where it pertains to short quotes in relation to advertising or promotion is strictly prohibited.

  All Rights Reserved.

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

  License Notes

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it or borrow it, or it was not purchased for you and given as a gift for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. If this book was purchased on any unauthorized platform, then it is a pirated and/or unauthorized copy and violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Do not purchase or accept pirated copies. Thank you for respecting the author’s hard work.

  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)

  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:

  The Wolfe

  Serpent

  Scorpion (Saxon Lords of Hage – Also related to The Questing)

  The Lion of the North

  Walls of Babylon

  Dark Destroyer

  Nighthawk

  Warwolfe

  ShadowWolfe

  DarkWolfe

  A Joyous de Wolfe Christmas

  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)

  Unrelated characters or family groups:

  The Gorgon (Also related to Lords of Thunder)

  The Warrior Poet (St. John and de Gare)

  Lord of Light

  The Questing (related to The Dark Lord, Scorpion)

  The Legend (House of Summerlin)

  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

  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

  The House of De Dere:

  Of Love and Legend

  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):

  Lady of the Moon

  Savage of the Sea

  Leader of Titans

  Multi-author Collections/Anthologies:

  Sirens of the Northern Seas (Viking romance)

  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.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Kathryn Le Veque Novels

  Author’s Note

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Prologue

  Part One: Torridon

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Part Two: Nemo Me Impune Lacessit

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Part Three: Edinburgh

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Part Four: And Hell Followed with Him

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four


  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Epilogue

  About 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 what 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 night, 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.