Page 103 of A War of Crowns

A chorus of, “Yes, Father,” and, “Aye, boss,” along with a few, “Yes, Your Highness,” rang out from the twelve of them, though still Aldric wasn’t placated. His mood remained dark even as Kyn finished unbuckling his jerkin, leaving him free to tug off his own ruined undershirt so his medic could get a better view of the latest damage to his torso.

“What are you doing?” the queen whispered, clearly scandalized.

She was not the only one. A series of gasps escaped from some onlookers at the sight of him baring himself from the waist up right there in the courtyard. Heignored them all.

All save for one.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” he snapped to the queen without bothering to look her way.

It didn’t take long for Kyn to complete his initial inspection. “None are too deep, Your Highness, but we need to get them cleaned and bandaged.”

Aldric grunted. “Well, we wouldn’t have to do this in the open if we had rooms prepared,” he taunted his bride in an aside. But when he next looked her way, it was to find she had already fled. He watched her hurry to the Baron of Crestley’s side, where she offered some quiet words to the man.

From his place at his shoulder, Rakon rumbled, “We’re not doing a great job so far of making friends, boss.”

A soft usuru cry was all the warning Aldric received before Soot was suddenly upon him as well. The sinuous beast wound its way up his right arm in a glide of dark scales and a flutter of wings.

Aldric breathed out a sigh through his nose and stroked a finger against the back of Soot’s head. “We’re not here to make friends, Rakon,” he warned his Son. His gaze remained fixed on the queen as he spoke, though. He watched her as she moved off again until the moment she disappeared back into her marble palace.

In her absence, his gaze wandered back toward where the Baron of Crestley now stood again with his peers. Hatred openly boiled on the other man’s face when their eyes briefly met.

Aldric’s jaw hardened at the sight. “In fact, I wager we’ll make many more enemies here before we’re through.”

Chapter twenty-nine

Seraphina

Darkness fell before she had a moment to sit down and relax after her long voyage. The hour grew late. Exhaustion weighed heavily on her.

But at least she could finally speak with Olivia in peace.

“Remind me why we proposed to this Crow first?” Olivia asked. With deft fingers, her friend shuffled their deck of Sovereign cards.

“Remind me why I agreed to letyoudeal the cards?” Seraphina countered, squinting at the other woman’s hands. By the light of the single candle illuminating the table within her bedchamber, it was difficult to see just what Olivia was doing over there.

Olivia cracked a grin. “You trust me with your life, but not with your Sovereign cards. Typical.” The other woman stretched out her left leg and propped it atop the stool Seraphina kept beneath the table just for that purpose. “But my question still stands.”

Seraphina sighed and accepted the cards Olivia dealt. She frowned when she noticed her friend had given her all Queens, though. “Because if I didn’t set the terms of the arrangement first, Edmund was intending to declare I had to marry his brotherandname him king before he would mobilize troops to Mysai.”

“You still agreed to name him king, though. At some point,” Olivia was quick to point out.

Seraphina looked away. “It was the one concession Edmund demanded,” she softly explained as her gaze sought Alyx’s dark silhouette. The usuru already rested for the night, coiled atop the bed. For a moment, she envied the creature. There she lay, not a care in the world. “We’ll just cross that bridge when we get there.”

Olivia played her first card facedown and suggested with all her usual joviality, “We could always toss him off the bridge first.” In the wake of those words, her friend chuckled.

But Seraphina could only frown.

“Be serious,” she commanded, not in the mood for Olivia’s inappropriate jests. She knew her friend couldn’t help it. But it made it no less uncomfortable when they were discussing something so weighty as a man losing his life. When she looked back Olivia’s way, though, it was to find her Spymaster no longer smiling.

By the light of the candle, Olivia looked rather solemn while whispering, “And what if Iambeing serious?”

Seraphina stared at the other woman, waiting for the inevitable giggle that was sure to follow. She searched her friend’s eyes in the darkness, hunting for the usual sparkle hinting at a jest lurking beneath her words.

But the giggle never came. The sparkle was absent.

“You can’t truly be suggesting we murder a man?” Seraphina asked, slamming her entire hand of cards facedown on the table.

Olivia ticked those cards a look. “It’s your turn to play, you know.”

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