Page 48 of A War of Crowns

Seraphina

“And you’re quite certain?” her godfather asked again. “You wish to go through with it?”

Seraphina sipped her summer wine. Sitting at the high table with her godparents and the other members of her Privy Council, she gazed out at the glittering splendor of her court feasting within the great hall. They toasted to her pending journey, to her health, to all the well wishes the lords and ladies of Goldreach could conjure.

In the morning, she would set sail for Nerina Reef. For the first time in her life, she would leave Elmoria’s shores.

She could only pray she might return, as her brother never had.

“I’ve made up my mind,” she reminded Duke Percival. “I want the letters of marque delivered to the gaol tonight. The pirate lords will be released in the morning, before we depart.”

“No,” her godfather huffed. “Notthat.” A deep frown etched itself into the lines of his face when he muttered, “I mean this business with appointing a Steward.”

Seraphina swallowed and set aside her goblet. The very mention of the word Steward was enough to sour the wine already coursing down her throat. “What other choice is there? Who else can we possibly trust?”

“Command me to stay behind and I will do so,” Duke Percival whispered. “You need only say the word and I will hold Elmoria in your absence.”

The idea of forging into the unknown without her Lord Chancellor at her side seized her heart in an iron vice. “No. No, I couldn’t possibly do that.”

“Whatareyou two whispering about?” Duchess Edith suddenly asked as she leaned in close from where she sat on her husband’s opposite side.

“Nothing,” Duke Percival answered at once. “Nothing at all, dearest.”

Duchess Edith slanted him a look. “You are aterribleliar.”

Seraphina tried to dredge up a smile for her godmother, but even that small gesture was utterly exhausting. There was still so much to do.

And each item on her to-do list weighed more heavily than the last.

There was the business of the pirates currently imprisoned in the gaol. She wanted them conscripted, released, and then on their way to Mysai before she herself left for Nerina Reef.

Just in case.

Then there was the matter of a Steward. Who could she possibly trust to sit Elmoria’s throne in her absence beyond Duke Percival or Duchess Edith? There was only one true answer. But it was an answer her court would never accept.

Olivia.

Seraphina worried her fingers atop her lap and fought to keep some semblance of a smile pinned to her lips. She couldn’t possibly name Olivia. The peerage would never accept a common-born woman without so much as a family name as their Steward. She would have to choose the only other option left to her.

Andthen, after all that, she would have to speak to Lord Tiberius and finally give him her answer.

She didn’t want to. She wished she could just slip away to Nerina Reef in the middle of the night and leave that entire uncomfortable conversation unsaid. But it had to happen.

She owed him that much, after all their long years of friendship.

“His Grace is simply fretting again,” Seraphina explained to her godmother. “Despite the fact that there’s no need.” Turning her attention back to Duke Percival, she slowly reiterated, “I’ve already made up my mind.”

“I’m hardly fretting,” Duke Percival scoffed.

But Duchess Edith spoke around him to observe, “He does not seem to be the only one fretting. What is troubling you?”

“It’s nothing,” Seraphina reassured with another attempt at a smile. “I am simply…thinking about all I must do. And then there is the voyage itself.”

Duchess Edith hummed knowingly and reached across Duke Percival to pat her arm. “All will be well. We will have Oracle Tsukiko with us for the first crossing. No harm will befall us.”

“Speaking of,” Duke Percival rumbled while squinting at those gathered within the great hall. “Where is our honored guest?”

“At the cathedral with Father Perero,” Seraphina answered. “She is gifting blessings to the people before we set sail.”

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