Lord of the Sky (The Executioner Knights Book 6) Read online

  Lord of the Sky

  A Medieval Romance

  By Kathryn Le Veque

  The Executioner Knights Series

  © Copyright 2020 by Kathryn Le Veque Novels, Inc.

  Kindle Edition

  Text by Kathryn Le Veque

  Cover by Kim Killion

  Edited by Scott Moreland

  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, once purchased, 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 an 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.

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  1217 A. D. – Executioner Knight Kevin de Lara finally has his moment to shine.

  Kevin breaks out from under his powerful brother’s shadow (Sean de Lara from Lord of the Shadows) and becomes a great knight on his own. But there’s just one problem… the woman he loves may very well cause his downfall…

  Since reconciling with his brother, Kevin has become a powerful garrison commander along the Welsh Marches for the de Lara empire. As an agent of William Marshal, his directive is to keep the local Welsh barons under control at all costs, and Kevin becomes a diplomat.

  But the Welsh lords only tell him what he wants to hear. Secretly, they are planning a rebellion to gain back de Lara properties they believe belong to the Welsh.

  Juliandra ferch Gethin is a daughter of two worlds – a Welsh father, an English mother.

  Juliandra’s father has committed an offense against the de Lara empire and has consequently been jailed. When Juliandra disguises herself as a servant and sneaks into the castle to free her father, she can’t get past Kevin. When he discovers her true identity, he formulates a plan to marry her simply to keep her father and his allies under control. It’s a tactic and nothing more.

  Or so he thinks.

  Sometimes the arrogance of a man is only exceeded by his love for a woman, and when one small lie could jeopardize it all.

  Join Kevin and Juliandra on their journey of rebellion, redemption, and the realization of a love that cannot be denied. Kevin married Juliandra to control the Welsh, but it’s very possible that she may be the one controlling the English… through him.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  Welcome to Kevin’s tale!

  We first met Kevin de Lara in Archangel as he served David de Lohr. What we didn’t know was that he was an agent for William Marshal – that knowledge came later. Since the de Lohrs are tight with William Marshal, it makes sense that they kind of share knights around – Gart, Bric, Dashiell, Cullen, and all the other Executioner Knights you’ve read about. They kind of migrate to serve bigger lords in William Marshal’s network, but ultimately, it’s The Marshal they really serve. The list of knights keeps growing – and it will grow further still!

  Kevin wasn’t originally supposed to have his own story, but I’m thrilled that he made it to the “A” list. He was always supposed to just be a secondary character, but the more I wrote about him, the more I saw that he was unique among the Executioner Knights – he didn’t go to The Levant with most of them, and he’s not a cold-blooded killer like some. Kevin is, essentially, their conscience. That’s Kevin’s superpower. He isn’t morally ambiguous when it comes to wars and battles, deception and intrigue – he definitely knows what is right and what is wrong, and those lines don’t cross. That’s a difficult position for an Executioner Knight. They all cross lines at some point.

  Kevin is about to cross his.

  More than anything, this novel is about the growth of a man. Watch Kevin as he goes from a follower to a leader. He has always been a follower – a big gun in the arsenal of William Marshal, and then his brother, but now he’s not a follower any longer. In a lot of ways, he’s still Sean de Lara’s little brother. He has lived in the shadow of his great brother for so long that his mindset is a little difficult to change.

  But it will definitely change. You can’t help cheering for him.

  Something else to note – I now have two heroes with the same name – Kevin. There is Kevin Hage from Scorpion and now Kevin de Lara. This is because Kevin de Lara really wasn’t ever meant to have his own story, and neither was Kevin Hage. But, as they say – stuff happens!

  You’ll also see a mention of languages here because we’re on the Welsh Marches. At this period in time, Welsh spoke Welsh, Scots spoke Gaelic, and the language of choice of the English court was French. Interestingly enough, French was the mother tongue of every English monarch from the Duke of Normandy to Henry IV. Even Richard the Lionheart and his brother, John, spoke French as their preferred language. It was the language of the elite, although English was spoken as well, though more informally. Therefore, the nobles of this era, including the knights, were tri-lingual (French, English, and Latin – the language of the church). For my purposes, and for ease with the readers, my knights speak English.

  As usual, the usual pronunciation guide! A few of these I have already explained in other books, but here’s a refresher:

  De Llion: The double-L sound in Welsh is not found in the English language. It’s the equivalent of putting the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and blowing air out from the sides. For our (Norman conquest) purposes, however, we don’t use Welsh pronunciation. De Llion is pronounced duh lee-OWN.

  Juliandra: Julie-ON-dra

  Aeron: Like Aeron

  Luc: Like Luke. This is the French spelling.

  Sean de Lara has a secondary role in this novel and I always love to write about Sean, but I realized as I was doing a little research into his marriage with Sheridan that I never named the children they had, and they had nine of them. So, for the benefit of those who love to see the offspring (and I will add it to an updated edition of Lord of the Shadows), here are Sean and Sheridan’s children:

  Olivia & Ophelia

  Ronan

  Matthew

  Nicolas

  Tristan

  Gavin

  Alexandra

  Rhory

  Lastly – this novel picks up from the very last chapter (not the Epilogue, but the last chapter) of Lord of the Shadows and expands on it, so if you haven’t read Lord of the Shadows yet, you’re going to have to after this to get the full picture. I felt it was only appropriate that Kevin’s story picked up where his brother’s left off, so it’s really cool to see what happened to Sean between the battle at the Tower of London and the Epilogue of his novel.

  Enjoy this VERY different and emotional tale!

  Hugs,

  Contents

 
Title Page

  Copyright Page

  About the Book

  Author’s Note

  Epigraph

  Preface

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Epilogue

  Kathryn Le Veque Novels

  About Kathryn Le Veque

  DE LARA FAMILY MOTTO

  Semper Vigilantium

  Always Vigilant

  PREFACE

  From the last chapter of the novel “Lord of the Shadows”:

  Just as Sean was pulled halfway to his feet, an armored figure suddenly materialized before them.

  William Marshal’s face was grim as he beheld his mighty Shadow Lord. It seemed that beyond his shock he looked rather ill, but he steeled himself admirably. He, too, had entered the breach in the Bell Tower and had, in fact, gone searching for de Lara to congratulate him on a task well done. The Tower had fallen just as they had planned. But he found sorrow instead.

  In truth, he was not surprised; disappointed, but not surprised. He shoved the old physic out of the way and took hold of Sean’s right arm.

  “We must get him out of here,” The Marshal said gravely. “Where are you planning on taking him?”

  Gilby, the physic, gestured to the buildings off to his right. “Back to his apartments.”

  The Marshal shifted Sean’s weight, putting Sean’s enormous arm over his shoulders. “’Tis not safe, Gilby,” he snapped softly. “We must get him out of the Tower.”

  Gilby looked at The Marshal, a man he had served for many years. “He’ll not survive a drastic move,” he told him plainly. “He has lost too much blood.”

  “He will die if he stays here.”

  “He will die if we transport him any lengthy distance.”

  By this time, Sheridan was sobbing softly. She was next to Guy, trying to help support her husband’s weight, but the argument between Gilby and The Marshal was too much for her to take. Sean, scarcely conscious, tried to touch her with the big arm slung across Guy’s shoulders.

  “’Tis all right, sweetling,” he mumbled thickly. “Do not weep.”

  Sheridan struggled to stop, wiping at her damp cheeks. The group of them managed to half-carry, half-drag Sean for several feet when Gilby suddenly came to a halt. This caused William to bash into him, an irritable snap on his lips. But it died in his throat when he saw the look on Gilby’s face. The old man was looking up at the White Tower.

  Several of the king’s guards were pouring from the south entry on the second floor, descending the stairs with weapons drawn. Behind them, delineated in the moonlight, came the small, cloaked figure of the king. The man was surrounded by soldiers and a pair of knights. It was apparent that they had chosen this moment to remove the king from the Tower. The Marshal hissed at Father Simon.

  “Get Lady de Lara out of here,” he commanded quietly, authoritatively. “If he sees her, he will take her. Guy, go with them. Remove the lady and her sister now!”

  Guy didn’t hesitate. He moved from Sean’s side and grabbed Sheridan, who started to struggle. But one word from her husband stopped her.

  “Sheridan.” His voice suddenly sounded strong and controlled. “Go with the Guy, sweetling. Go wherever he takes you. I will come for you as soon as I am able.”

  She panicked. “But…!”

  “Do this for my sake. Please, sweetling. Do it for me.”

  Sheridan could see the men coming down from the Tower and she realized that there was no time for her to plead. Not this time. Too many lives depended on her cooperation. The time for separation had come and she was anguished with the thought. Turning swiftly to Sean, she put her hands on his face, convinced that this was to be her last look of the man for all time. No one would have guessed by looking at her that her heart had just exploded into a million painful little pieces.

  “I will go,” she murmured. “Remember how much I love you.”

  “And I love you,” he whispered.

  “Promise we will be together again.”

  “You are my angel and I will be with you, and no other, in this life and beyond.”

  “Come on, Sheridan,” Guy was tugging at her urgently. “We must go now.”

  She knew that. With a final look to sustain her, she kissed him again and was gone. Sean watched her fade into the shadows near the Flint Tower with her sister, de Braose and the priest.

  This time, it was Sean who wept.

  And the story continues…

  PROLOGUE

  Year of Our Lord 1215

  Siege on the Tower of London

  They were nearing the Flint Tower.

  The breach of the Tower of London had thrown everything into chaos and the agents of William Marshal had followed their liege into the bailey on the hunt for one of their own.

  Sean de Lara, who had made all things possible.

  It had been Sean’s work for nine long years that had culminated in this moment – the breach of the Tower of London. But in doing so, word had come back to The Marshal that de Lara’s position had finally been compromised and that his role as a spy had been discovered. King John was fighting a losing battle against his barons and the Executioner Knights had moved with their armies to shore up the Tower and force the king into compliance.

  But first, they had to find de Lara before John’s assassins did.

  None of them was more aware of that than Kevin de Lara. It was his brother they were hunting for on this inky night, when friend and foe was so difficult to see because of the moonless sky. There were torches all over the grounds of the Tower of London to stave off the darkness, but it was still difficult.

  Kevin was in a panic.

  He was looking at every face, every figure, in the hunt for his brother. Around him, his friends and colleagues, were doing the same thing – searching, hunting, for the greatest spy in The Marshal’s stable. Somewhere in the process, they had lost sight of The Marshal himself, for the man seemed to have disappeared.

  “This way!” Bric MacRohan, the big Irish knight who commanded the de Winter armies, was waving his arm. “To the White Tower! The king’s men are coming from the White Tower!”

  He was shouting to the group behind him – Kevin as well as fellow elite knights. And what a group it was – seasoned, powerful, deadly. Men who had been fighting for more than twenty years in some cases. A few had even been to The Levant with King Richard and had learned the more deadlier, deceitful art of warfare.

  The names hunting for Sean were some of the most feared and respected in England.

  Dashiell du Reims, Cullen de Nerra, Maxton of Loxbeare, Kress de Rhydian, Achilles de Dere, and Caius d’Avignon were part of the group. These were the commanders of The Marshal’s stable of agents, but there were also secondary commanders with them – Morgan de Wolfe, Gareth de Llion, and even Peter de Lohr.

  Peter’s father and uncle, Christopher and David de Lohr, had the largest combined army currently in battle. As the Earl of Hereford and Worcester, and the Earl of Canterbury respectively, Christopher and David had led the bulk of the attack that night.

  Even now, Christopher was holding the Byward Tower entrance and David and his men were covering the Traitor’s Gate access point. They were joined by Sir Gart Forbes and his son, Romney de Moyon, Baron Buckland, and a contingent of war-hungry soldiers from Dunster Castle. In fact, it had been Gart and Romney who had first breached the Traitor’s Gate to gain entrance.
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  After that, everything had been madness.

  There were so many allies, so many men involved, that it was like a gathering of the clans. Everyone was at the White Tower this night to ensure it fell into the hands of the barons who had been struggling against the injustice of John for the past several years. This was a hard-fought battle in a hard-fought war that had seen strife and casualties on both sides.

  Years of missions, death, and triumph had come down to this moment.

  The Marshal’s agents were leading a group of about five hundred men from the de Winter army, their mission to find Sean and to secure the White Tower. But they weren’t moving with confidence – there was too much uncertainty for them to do that. They carried heavily smoking torches with them, but there were shadows in every corner, at every turn. On this moonless night, every movement was dangerous.

  Men were dying everywhere.

  They were over by the Tower now, that enormous structure of stone and wood, soaring into the night sky. As they were running towards it, a woman and two men fled past them. The woman was weeping, in between the men, who were practically dragging her away. As she was shuffled off into the shadows, Kevin and Bric kept leading their group towards the entry to the Tower, but that came to an abrupt halt when they saw men running out of the darkness towards them. It took them a moment to realize it was William Marshal and another man dragging a massive body between them.

  It was Sean.

  Kevin thought he might have let out a gasp of panic. He couldn’t be sure. All he knew was that he recognized his brother’s limp form, even in the darkness, and he ran towards them. Reaching out, he grasped for his brother, but he didn’t have a chance to speak before The Marshal was barking commands.

  “John is coming from the White Tower behind us,” he said. “Bric, move your men over to the entry immediately. Prevent them from following us. They want de Lara and the man has been mortally wounded.”