Page 15 of A War of Crowns

“All right, darling,” she called out to her pet Elmorian harlequin viper, Minerva, who was curled up within her cage just next to the narrow slab Olivia liked to call a bed. “Mommy’s off to work now. You behave.”

People thought her mad for keeping the most poisonous snake in the entirety of Avirel for a pet. But that was simply because harlequin vipers were also the most misunderstood snakes in all the world.

In the wild, one never encountered a harlequin viper on their own. One always encountered a nest. And therein lay the truedanger. With so much viper venom coursing through one’s veins, they would be dead in seconds. But to be bitten by only one viper? A person had at least a good half hour before their heart exploded.

Which was more than enough time to grab the antidote.

It was easy enough locating the queen and her entourage a short time later. Seraphina—bless her—had always been a terribly predictable creature.

Nibbling on a piece of bacon she'd nicked from the kitchens for a late breakfast, Olivia limped along through the darkness of a hidden passageway and tracked her oldest friend through the stone walls.

The walls of the palace were riddled with such passageways, and yet so few people knew it.

A shame for them. A boon for her.

It was her preferred mode of navigating the palace when she didn’t want to bother with people. Which was a near-daily occurrence.

But bother with people she still must.

Drawing in a deep breath and masking her limp as best she could, Olivia expertly slipped through the sliding wall of her current passage and stepped out into the brightness of the marble corridor beyond. She joined the queen’s entourage without missing a single beat.

On any other day, Olivia would have delighted in walking along with them in silence, waiting to see how long it would take anyone at all to notice her presence. She might have even tried to convince the one who finally spotted her she had been there all along.

But she was already late and didn’t have time for such nonsense.

Positioning herself just behind Percy Umberly, the Duke of Varoa, she whispered down to the elderly man, “Hello, Father,” in hushed greeting.

The man let loose with an alarmed shout, which sent the queen’s entire entourage screeching to a halt. “Olivia! By the Light, I wish you would stop doing that.”

Of course, Percival Umberly wasn’t hertruefather. But it never ceased to amuse her to claim he was.

Whirling on a heel, the Lord Chancellor scowled up at her and vehemently denied, “I didnotsire you, woman.” To the entourage at large, he added, “I do not claim this child!”

Olivia happily reminded ol’ Percy, “I’m thirty-five, you know. Hardly a child these days.”

Duchess Edith chuckled and shook her head at the two of them. “You do not need to be blood to be family,” the queen’s godmother chided her husband before she looked her way and warmly declared, “Iwill always claim you, Olivia dear.”

At that, the Lord Chancellor’s scowl deepened. “You were always fond of your stray cats.”

“Olivia?” Seraphina softly prompted.

Olivia clearedher throat and looked toward the queen at last. Her oldest friend frowned at her. But, of course, shewouldbe frowning.

She was so terribly, terribly late.

“Apologies, Your Majesty,” Olivia offered while sketching a bow. “I have those reports, of course. Though”—she flashed a look about the corridor they currently occupied—“perhaps it’s a conversation best saved for once we reach your quarters.”

Seraphina’s gaze pinched with clear worry when she asked, “But, areyouall right? It’s not like you to miss a meeting.”

Ah. Right.

Olivia waved a hand, trying to brush aside the queen’s concerns as if they were little more than tendrils of smoke. “I’m perfectly fine. Nothing to worry about.”

Seraphina narrowed her eyes, clearly not convinced.

Olivia made a face at the other woman. “More importantly, I have reports! Updates on the war and all that. Very important news.”

Duchess Edith stepped in close and kissed her cheek in belated greeting. “More like bad news, it sounds like.”

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