Page 23 of The Forgotten Queen
Kase straightened. “There’s a rumor going around that you’re getting married today.”
“I wish it were a rumor,” Marx said, closing his eyes.
“I never thought I would see the day that the lazy king would get married,” Warren laughed. “I assumed marriage would be too much effort for you.”
Marx didn’t like the term lazyor what it implied. He wasn’tlazy. He was indifferent. He had to be. The second Marx allowed himself to feel or get invested in his kingdom, his father would do something to take it all away. That’s how it had been his entire life. Things were easier this way.
“It’s not a real marriage, though.” Marx heard the teasing in Kase’s voice and opened his eyes in time to catch his mocking smile. “Or is it?”
He gave him a pointed stare. “No. It’s not a real marriage, just some political move my father conjured up.”
“It doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun with your wife, assuming she’s attractive,” Warren joked.
Marx nodded half-heartedly. Why exactly was he friends with these guys? The reasons were getting less and less apparent the older he got.
Kase reached his hand out to help him up. “So who is she? The daughter of a High Ruler or a relative of another monarch?”
Marx took the outstretched hand and pulled his body up to a stand. His muscles ached and protested with the movement. “I don’t know who she is.” And, at this point, Marx didn’t care. He would live his life, and the woman would live hers. Their lives would be parallel to each other, intersecting just enough to keep his father off his back.
Commander Stoddard
Stoddard paced back and forth in front of Doctor Von’s cottage, waiting for the transporter from Cristole Castle to arrive. Marrying Princess Seran off to King Marx was working out better than he’d expected. The princess was pliable and easy to manipulate. It hadn’t taken much to get her to agree. Her submissiveness was a welcome change from all the years he’d had to deal with Princess Myka in Tolsten.
Once they arrived at Cristole Castle, Stoddard would turn Seran over to King McKane, who, in return, would hand him a large sum of money. Doctor Von and nurse Edmay would get their cut, enough to ensure that they kept their silence about the situation. But the rest of the money would go to him. He was the one who deserved it.
There were times that Stoddard doubted the money would be enough. He’d wanted so much more for himself. He’d wanted to take over all the kingdoms, to show the conceited rulers that they weren’t better than him, that he could toy with their lives and their emotions just for the fun of it. He had wanted to be a part of the dramatic moment when they all realized Princess Seran was still alive, see the shock on their faces, but he had to alter his plans now that he didn’t have Tolsten’s weapons. Things had to change after Queen Myka had destroyed the cache of weapons. Stoddard had narrowly escaped that night with a drugged Seran with Von and Edmay to care for her. Now, the Council of Essentials were chasing after him. Handing Princess Seran over to Cristole in exchange for money, was the best option he could think of. It would be his consolation prize. Money instead of power; but using the money to continue hiding would have to be good enough.
Doctor Von stepped outside, shutting the door behind him. “She’s almost ready,” he said.
“Did you give her enough supply of the medicine?”
“I gave her everything I had. It should last her several months. And with the money that we’re getting from McKane, I’ll be able to make more.”
Beads of sweat collected at the base of Stoddard’s neck, trickling down the cavity of his back. “Are you sure she’ll continue taking the medicine?” Her memory loss was crucial to McKane’s plan.
“I don’t see why she wouldn’t. I’ve told her that the medicine is the only thing that’s helping her stay alive, helping her heart keep regular, rhythmic beats.”
“If she were to stop taking it, how long before her memory would come back?”
Von paused as if he were calculating something in his head. “There would be some side effects to going off the medication. I imagine it would only take a couple of weeks before everything would come back completely.”
The sweat dripping down his back seemed to intensify. After today, Stoddard would be long gone with his money. If the princess stopped taking her medicine and remembered who she was, she’d be King McKane’s problem, not his.
Sydria
“Do you have everything you need?”Aunt Edmay asked as Sydria walked into the front room. A small bag hung down from her hands, resting against her thighs. She nodded at Edmay’s question. She didn’t own anything so packing for a life-changing event was relatively easy. She wondered where all her belongings went after the carriage accident. Surely Sydria hadn’t traveled from Northland to Cristole without a suitcase, but when she’d asked her aunt about it, she’d shrugged the question away.
There were no traces of her past life, no letters from her mother addressed to Edmay, no belongings that she could associate with the story they’d told her. There was no evidence to support anything. It was almost as if Sydria had appeared out of thin air or had been plucked out of the ocean.
“Well, good luck now.” Aunt Edmay pulled her into a quick hug, then stepped back. “I hope everything works out for you.”
Sydria raised her brows. “You’re not coming with me?”
“No, my job is done. I’ve done all I was supposed to do.”
Her job was done?
Was Edmay no longer her aunt? Did she no longer consider herself the sole person Sydria could count on? She had so many questions for the woman standing before her, her only blood relative, but her aunt avoided her stare. Edmay didn’t even care enough to see her own niece to Cristole Castle and watch the wedding she was forcing her to go through with. Unless she wasn’t really her niece.
