Page 57 of A War of Crowns

She could decide how she felt about it all later.

“Yes,” the viscount further confirmed. “It seems His Majesty has named his brother a Prince of Drakmor once more.”

“What?” Duke Percival and Duchess Edith asked in unison.

But Seraphina had a more pressing question upon her tongue. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” Arlund hastily whispered. “Forgive me, Your Majesty, but I didn’t exactly ask. I was more preoccupied with finding him and his men a place to stay—”

“His men?” Seraphina asked, a growing unease settling heavily in her stomach. She realized she was several points behind in a game of Sovereign when she had yet to even discern who her opponent truly was.

“Yes, Your Majesty, His Highness has twelve fighting men with him—”

“This is utterly outrageous,” Duke Percival snarled, stamping his cane harmlessly against the sand as he did so. “Twelve fighting men. A reinstated prince. His Majesty is trying to catch us off guard with something, and I don’t like it.”

Seraphina lifted a hand to her throat to stroke a finger against Alyx’s familiar form in her usual fidget…until she remembered her usuru had abandoned her some time ago.

Frowning, she squinted against the harsh rays of the sun and chanced a glance upward. In the distance, she saw her wayward companion winging through the air alongside another usuru. A black-scaled one.

She hadn’t even realized wild usuri made their home on Nerina Reef.

“Nor I,” Seraphina finally admitted on a murmur. But an even deeper frown tugged at her lips when she demanded of her godparents, “But I would like forsomeoneto explain to me why I have been led to believe for fifteen years that this man was dead.”

Duke Percival made a face at that—his expression caught somewhere between guilt and an emotion she couldn’t quite place. “Well, for all intents and purposes, Your Majesty, hehasbeen dead.”

“You were so young, then,” Duchess Edith gently added in a clear attempt to placate her growing irritation.

But she was entirely too hot at that point to be placated. Sweat pooled in the most uncomfortable places beneath her gown.

“I was fifteen,” Seraphina reminded her godparents without hesitation. Fifteen was absolutely old enough to understand the difference between dead and disowned. And why had this man never been mentioned again since? “All of this is utterly absurd,” she finally decided. She even shot a look to the viscount to include him in her current agitation.

It was Tsukiko who finally cut through the growing tension when she softly observed, “Though the west has forgotten the manwho would have been king, Aldric Hargrave has lived on in the minds of many others these past fifteen years.”

“Yes,” Shield Ichiro hissed from beneath his helm. “The one they call Crow is quite infamous within the borders of our homeland.”

There was something about the way the Oracle’s Shield voiced those words, something in the way he spoke with such disdain about the once Crown Prince of Drakmor, that made Seraphina’s skin crawl.

Before she could press for details, Duchess Edith interjected, “Forgive me, Your Majesty, but might we move beneath the shade? I’m likely to melt if we linger here much longer.”

Seraphina drew in a breath and snapped a look toward her Master of Ceremonies. “Well. Shall we continue on, my lord?”

The viscount bobbed into a bow. “Of course, Your Majesty, of course.” He led their large party away from the beach at last. “I would be delighted to show you to your pavilion, Your Majesty, Oracle Tsukiko, Your Graces. We will have dinner prepared for you all shortly and then tomorrow’s festivities will begin with the tourney, followed by a ball later in the evening.”

Seraphina fanned herself with a hand while they moved, her mind whirring. So many questions still lingered.

What had Aldric Hargrave been doing all these years? Where had he been? Why was he being put back into play now?

One question in particular saw her wrinkling her nose when she whispered in an aside to her godparents, “Willsomeonealso please explain to me how I did not know Aldric Hargrave is a dwarf?”She cut a look toward Duke Percival in particular when she added, “In the official records of the Hargrave lineage, it is simply noted he was always small for his age.”

From his place walking behind her with her other guards, Sir Tristan quietly quipped, “I suppose that’s a technically accurate observation, Your Majesty.”

But she was in no mood for jests.

Duke Percival shook his head. “If the man is a dwarf, this is news to me. We never received his portrait when we first entered negotiations for the marriage alliance, though we sent yours along to Drakmor at once. I always thought it an odd thing we received no portrait in exchange, but King Warwick always had some excuse.” Her godfather twisted his lips to the side. “I suppose I can now seewhy.”

Silence descended the moment they entered the jungle and passed beneath the cool shade cast by the trees. But in that silence, Seraphina remembered Shield Ichiro’s words. She stepped away from her godparents’ side and sidled toward the Oracle and her Redguard.

Tsukiko reached out a hand and linked her arm through Seraphina’s own when she drew near, as if they were the oldest and dearest of friends. It certainly felt like they were. The presence of the Oracle at her side was so natural and so comforting, she might have believed they had known each other for many years rather than a mere few weeks.

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