Page 47 of Queen's Griffon

An annoyed Avera glared. “Maybe if you didn’t feed me garbage and keep me in a cage, I’d have more of an appetite. Why have you taken me?”

“I’d say that’s obvious. You’re worth a lot of coin.”

“Selling people is wrong,” was her lame reply.

“Wrong, but very lucrative,” he countered.

“Benoit is just as likely to kill you as pay you. After all, he had no issue ordering the murder of my siblings and his wife, Queen Voxspira.”

“You’re assuming he’s offering the largest sum,” the sly captain stated.

“Who else would be interested?” Asked, and yet she had a sinking feeling she knew. The captain, after all, sailed under Merisuan colors.

“The emperor has offered a generous payment to whoever brings you to him alive, which is better for you, considering Benoit would prefer your corpse.”

“Why would the emperor want me?”

“To combine the once mighty Voxspira blood with his own. Felicitations on your impending marriage,” Koonis declared with a leer.

“I’d rather die than marry him.” She’d heard enough rumors of the aging Emperor—and the fates of his previous wives—to realize the peril.

“Speaking of death, before I deliver you to the emperor, you have another task to perform. Congratulations, you’re getting your wish and going to Verlora.”

Avera’s stomach tightened. “Why?”

“Aren’t you going to thank me?” he mocked. “I thought you wanted to go.”

“I do, but why have you changed your mind? You were quite insistent on not going near the continent.”

“What else could I say with all those scurvy scoundrels listening to our conversation? Suffice it to say, going to Verlora was always the plan. The emperor wishes for you to retrieve some special rocks. He claims you’ll know which ones he speaks of.”

“What does he know of the stones?” She approached the bars of her cage and clung to them.

The captain shrugged. “I wouldn’t have the slightest clue. I am simply relaying what he ordered.”

“How can you have gotten any orders from him? It’s only been a few weeks since I left Daerva, and Merisu is in the opposite direction of Saarpira.”

“You’d have to ask his witches how they do it. All I know is I have a notebook that displays messages from his eminence. If I write in the book, he can see my reply and respond in kind.”

“Magic,” she breathed.

“Obviously.” The captain cocked his head. “What are these rocks? Jewels of some kind? A rare metal ore?”

“I don’t know.”

“But they are why you’ve been desperately seeking to go to Verlora.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

She lost nothing telling the truth. Perhaps this captain would see the importance of her mission. “The stones act as a lock to keep a very bad entity imprisoned. Without them, it will escape and eradicate life on our world.”

The captain stared at her without blinking, then guffawed. “That’s funny. A royal with a sense of humor.”

“I am not joking. It is imperative I find those stones and return them to Daerva before Zhos escapes.”

“Once you find them, they’re going straight to the emperor.”

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