Page 13 of The Threadbare Queen

“Wear the crown when you meet the Grimwaldians.” The general nodded to her aunt’s crown, set on a stand on the desk.

Ava grimaced. She had worn it twice, at the two formal meetings they’d had so far with the nobles and city elders.

It was uncomfortable.

Luc lifted it up and she took a step closer so he could set it on her head.

It was filigree, not too heavy, but her aunt’s head was a little smaller than her own, so it pressed into her temples.

She stepped out into the corridor.

“Don’t look so put out about playing queen.” Raun-Tu grinned at her.

He used to be her commanding officer, back when she’d been pretending to be a Venyatux soldier, and he still hadn’t gotten used to her being the queen of Kassia.

She hadn’t, either, to be honest.

She smoothed her expression to something neutral and unreadable. “Better?”

Raun-Tu’s grin deepened, and he held out the two scrolls she’d requested he find for her. “You wanted these?”

“I’ll take them.” Luc reached for them and lifted his brows. “We’re going hard with them?”

General Ru had been fussing in the study, and she stepped out as Luc spoke, her eyes going wide at the sight of the scrolls. “I see. No quarter given, I take it?”

“We could pretend we don’t know about these, but that’s just more game playing. I want to confront them with the missives, and see their reaction.” She didn’t know if this was the right way, if there was a better strategy, but the honesty of it appealed to her. She couldn’t very well play games anyway if she wanted to ask them where Tomas and Velda were being held.

The scrolls contained offers and promises from the Speaker of the Grimwalt Court to her aunt, the former queen of Kassia, which made it clear the Speaker was on her aunt’s side in the conflict with the Rising Wave, even though at the time, Grimwalt’s border had been closed to Kassia.

The Speaker’s cooperation, however, had been contingent on money and influence. The scrolls laid bare an ugly streak of greed and hubris.

And if she, Luc and the general had intercepted the scrolls en route to her aunt and changed the wording a little to insult the queen and make her less likely to cooperate with the Speaker . . . well, that didn’t negate the original intention of the missives.

“I agree. No games.” Luc tucked the scrolls under an arm and held out his other to her. She slipped her hand through the crook of his elbow and let him lead the way to the throne room.

When she was seated on the ornate throne her aunt had used, with Luc on one side of her, the general on the other, the doors to the chamber were opened and the Grimwaldians walked through.

The room was clad in peach marble, veined with cream and gold, and the back of the throne was carved into a cresting wave.

Every time Ava sat on it, she had to admit she felt a sense of satisfaction at the symbolism.

Her aunt had been brought down by an army calling themselves the Rising Wave. She had asked Luc if his mother had told him about the carvings in the throne from the one time she had been received by the queen and that is why he had given his army the name that he had. He had looked at the throne thoughtfully and shaken his head.

“I can’t remember,” he’d said. “But maybe. Maybe it lodged in some corner of my mind.”

No torches or lanterns were necessary in the throne room, even though the afternoon was winding down to dusk.

The windows were long and wide and caught the sun as it sank, orange and fat, so that the marble glowed and the room seemed to shimmer with golden air.

The Grimwaldians traversed the long carpet from the door to the foot of the dais, where they came to a halt. Raun-Tu and the three guards he had assigned to stand with him, one Cervantes, one Venyatux and one Funabi, drew themselves straighter as the envoy approached, and Raun-Tu moved subtly, making it clear they would go no further.

“Your highness.” The leader of the delegation was familiar to Ava.

She’d anticipated some of the group would be.

She’d spent years in and out of the Grimwalt court. Not long enough to form close ties, but enough to form acquaintances.

She couldn’t quite place the man who addressed her, but she knew she had seen him before.

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