Blood Storm Chapter 1

Copyright (c) Rhiannon Hart 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

BLOOD storm
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Copyright (c) Rhiannon Hart 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

A Random House book
Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd
Level 3, 100 Pacific Highway, North Sydney NSW 2060
www.randomhouse.com.au
First published by Random House Australia in 2012
Copyright (c) Rhiannon Hart 2012
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
(except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian
Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and
retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House
Australia.
Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at
www.randomhouse.com.au/offices.
National Library of Australia
Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry
Author: Hart, Rhiannon
Title: Blood Storm / Rhiannon Hart
ISBN: 978 1 74275 478 9 (pbk.)
Series: Hart, Rhiannon. Lharmell; bk 2
Target audience: For young adults
Dewey number: A823.4
Photograph of girl by Ana Gremard
Other images (c) iStockphoto/DavidMSchrader;
MO:SES/Shutterstock.com; Nadya Korobkova/Shutterstock.com and
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Cover design by Design Cherry
Internal design by Midland Typesetters, Australia
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Random House Australia uses papers that are natural, renewable and
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The logging and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the
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Copyright (c) Rhiannon Hart 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

BLOOD storm
THE SECOND BOOK OF LHARMELL
Rhiannon Hart
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Copyright (c) Rhiannon Hart 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

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Copyright (c) Rhiannon Hart 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

ONE
I spied the harming from two hundred yards off.
A hooded cloak concealed its features, but I
could picture its black hair, its icy blue eyes - eyes
that mirrored my own. I am a harming, but I am
un-Turned. With great hardship and pain I have
resisted the pull of the tors, the chanting that calls
those with Lharmellin blood northwards, home to
Lharmell.
I raised the crossbow with my right hand and dug
my heels into the horse's sides. `Yah!' I cried, leaning
forward, eager for the kill. We galloped across the
dusty expanse of ground. I gripped the horse with
my knees, steadying myself for the shot. I wasn't
adept at firing a crossbow. My weapon of choice
is a traditional bow but that has its disadvantages.
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Copyright (c) Rhiannon Hart 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

To start, you can't fire one-handed, so it's difficult
to make a kill while on the move.
I aimed at the harming's chest, the expanse
between us closing fast. At thirty yards I fired. The
bolt thudded into a tree, yards wide of its mark.
`Blast!' I pulled my horse around and reached for
another bolt.
The thunder of hooves bearing down on us made
my horse scream in panic. Rodden was hot on our
heels. He aimed his crossbow and fired, severing
the rope that suspended the dummy from the tree
branch. It landed on the ground with a thump and
straw fell out from inside the cloak. Rodden wheeled
his horse to face me. His white-blue eyes flashed.
`Lucky I'm here, or else you'd be dead.'
I swiped sweat from my upper lip with the back
of my hand. `Thank you, Rodden. Thank you for
saving me from the nasty bundle of straw. How will
I ever repay you?'
The sarcasm was completely lost on him. `You
can repay me by learning to fire your weapon. You're
an absolutely terrible shot.'
That was rubbish and he knew it. `Who wiped the
floor with you at an archery tournament five months
ago? In front of the whole court? Oh, that's right. It
was me.' There was no way I would have lost that
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Copyright (c) Rhiannon Hart 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

tournament, not when losing meant that I would've
had to marry him, the stuck-up, arrogant jerk. I'd
rather be Turned.
`By the barest fraction of an inch, Zeraphina. And
clearly your skill doesn't go far. It's all very well firing
at a stationary plank of wood at twenty paces, but
how useful will that be when we're being ambushed
by harmings? And if you can't fire from horseback,
how will you manage from a brant?'
I turned my horse and trotted back to the other
end of the field. `Do you have to lecture me?' I called
over my shoulder.
The sun was blazing overheard and my feet felt
like they were cooking inside my dusty riding boots.
Goodness knows why we had to train right in the
heat of the day. It was particularly sadistic of him.
My skin was becoming tanned and freckled in the
Pergamian summer sun. Coming from the southern
queendom of Amentia, where in places the ice never
thaws, I wasn't used to such heat. I was thankful
for the airy trousers and shirt that had become
my uniform of late. If my mother, Queen Renata,
could see me now she'd have an apoplexy. Even she
wouldn't wear corsets in this heat, but she would
be firmly against a princess of Amentia wearing
trousers, and would be wild with rage at the sight of
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Copyright (c) Rhiannon Hart 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

me straddling a horse. Young ladies, I could hear her
saying, ride side-saddle only. Thank goodness she was
safely in Amentia and I could get on with things.
At the edge of the field I turned and watched
Rodden string up the harming dummy. Then he
rode away with a flourish of his arm, giving the
dummy a wide berth - too wide, in fact. I wasn't
that bad a shot. It was testament to our partnership
that he could needle me at two hundred paces and
without saying a word.
Concentrate, came his thought-pattern, more
feeling than word, but I caught the sentiment. I
flung up my wall to block him out.
Not far off, Leap lay beneath a tree, watching us
with half-closed eyes. Leap was my cat, and a very
clever one. He came from the sewers of Verapine
and his silvery fur was slick like an otter's. With
his luminous green eyes he could see even better in
the dark than me. Griffin was circling overhead in
thermals rising from the heated ground, her eagle-
eyes scanning the landscape for furry morsels. These
two were the only creatures in the world who knew
the real me, had seen my darkest moments, and still
loved me unconditionally. Rodden knew my true
nature, and I his, but all that was between us was
a grudging respect. Once I had wondered if there
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Copyright (c) Rhiannon Hart 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

could be something more, but I had been mistaking
the intimacy of thought-patterns for true intimacy.
I knew better now. Plus, the danger we were in was
hardly conducive to romance. We lived in constant
dread of the Lharmellins just across the Straits of
Unctium, not to mention our own volatile natures.
It was difficult to trust another when you could
barely trust yourself. I had succumbed to the pull of
the tors of Lharmell once and nearly paid the price
with my life.
I galloped at the stuffed harming. This time my
bolt stuck in the thing's arm - not a fatal shot with
regular arrows, but if this had been a real harming and
the bolt was tipped with yelbar, an alloy poisonous
to those with Lharmellin blood, it would eventually
cause death.
Rodden gave me a curt nod and said, `Let's call it
a day.' We turned our horses towards the stables and
let them set their own pace back. On my wrist was a
leather gauntlet, and I held my arm aloft as I called
Griffin down with my mind. She alighted in a flash
of golden feathers, her sharp talons digging into the
leather. Griffin was not only a deadly hunter and a
sharp lookout, she'd been known to attack harmings
with her razor-sharp beak and claws. Leap followed
behind us.
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Copyright (c) Rhiannon Hart 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written
permission of the publisher.

As I dismantled my crossbow and put away the
bolts, I considered what Rodden had said about
firing from brant-back. Neither of us had talked
about what would happen next. I had spent the
whole spring at the palace. A long time, it was true,
but not so surprising considering my sister Lilith was
newly married to Prince Amis and my home was so
far away. But I hadn't been idle. I'd been reading
everything I could on Lharmell, and quizzing Rodden
too. He was generous with his knowledge, but as
soon as I asked details about himself, especially his
past, he clammed up. I'd been hesitant to speculate
out loud about the future, lest he suggest I was better
off at my own palace, but I'd been thinking hard. I
suspected he had been too, but he wasn't the most
forthcoming of men. He'd never even told me how
he became a harming.
I felt a tightness in my chest, a smarting that
radiated down my arms and up the back of my throat:
I was thirsty. I thought of the rabbits Rodden kept in
his room, and my mouth watered. Blood was life and
ambrosia to harmings. It made us hum with vibrancy
and power, gave our bodies unnatural strength and
honed our senses like a knife edge. I would die
without blood, but for me the act of feeding was
laced with guilt and revulsion - afterwards at least.
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