Page 36 of What Fury Brings
“If I ever decide I want to have this conversation with you, Daneryn, it will be in private. Not near a breakfast table where all can hear. Do not accost me like this again or I won’t be so lenient. Do you understand?”
His head fell. “Yes, Princess. My humblest apologies. Is there any way I might serve you today?”
Andrastus looked sickened now. Daneryn’s submissiveness was truly abhorrent to him.
It would have pleased any other woman, but Olerra knew Danerynwas a social climber. The second he found out about her lack of goddess-given power, he would tell the highest bidder. Andrastus might do the same thing, except she held his freedom over him like a knife. He was the better choice.
“No, Daneryn. You are dismissed. Do not seek me out again.”
The man walked off, his shoulders drooping with disappointment.
“What the hell was that?” Andrastus asked.
“Nothing,” Olerra said. Then she hooked her arm around one of his and began to lead him in a slow walk around the grand table. Olerra didn’t stop until they came upon four older women, conveniently seated together.
While the entirety of the nobility held Olerra’s future in their hands, it was really only four individuals whose favor she had to garner, as they held the most sway over the rest. The first was a lost cause, being that she was Glenaerys’s mother. Shaelwyn obviously wanted her daughter to be queen. As the richest woman in Amarra, she had huge sway over the nobility and their votes.
The second was Enadra, who was the former general over Amarra’s armies. Being older than many of the other nobles, she garnered respect from the masses. She’d trained and fought with Olerra her whole life, and so Olerra already had her vote.
Then there were the two wild cards. Cyssia, who was childhood best friends with the three royal siblings: the queen, Olerra’s mother, and Glen’s father. Having an attachment to all of them meant that she wasn’t swayed to either cousin’s side yet.
Finally there was Usstra, who had her hand in a lot of pockets. There wasn’t a soul in Amarra she didn’t know. Aside from being well-connected, she was also a great source of information to the spy networks. How Usstra knew what she did, no one knew. Nor did anyone know which of the cousins she was favoring.
Olerra tried to gauge their reactions to Andrastus. Shaelwyn’s sneer was to be expected. The others were considering. Good. There was still time to win more of them over.
She winked at Shaelwyn, because she knew it would irritate her. To the others, she said, “I’ll catch you for breakfast another time. For today, the queen has first rights to meet him.”
And they continued on.
Sanos knew he was being shown off. There was no other reason to circle the room. Olerra wasn’t taking him anywhere. No, she paused when women oohed at him and adjusted him as she liked. Moving his arms to flex his muscles. Changing the angle of his neck. Giving everyone in the room a spectacle. No one halted their conversation, but they were all riveted.
When they stopped at the head of the table, before the woman who must be the queen, Olerra took his chin in one hand and tipped it up.
He couldn’t take it anymore. Sanos jerked from her grip and tried to step back.
Olerra responded by pinching his nipple. Hard.
He felt that pressure travel all the way down his body. It made him both shiver and frown at her. Hehatedthe way this woman affected him.
“Soften your brow.” She placed a finger over the V between his eyes.
“Stop fucking touching me.”
“We’re almost done.Behave.”
Oh, but heloathedthe way she barked orders at him. He felt his temper sweep over him and push aside all sense of self-preservation. Sanos took a swing at her, trying to connect the hard metal at his wrist with her jaw.
She ducked so quickly that he lost sight of her. And then pain shot through his groin; it was so acute that it drove him to the floor.
As he struggled to breathe, Sanos realized thatshe’d punched him. There!
Women giggled as she dragged him by the chains around his ankles, but Sanos could barely register that, as the pain was all-consuming. When water stopped forming at his eyes, he saw her wave away a handful of eunuchs who tried to step forward to help.
She let go of the shackles and bent to be at his level. “Are you done?”
“I will never stop fighting you,” he barked.
She reached behind herself, grabbed a knife from the breakfast table, and leveled it at his neck.
