Page 62 of The Queen's Crown
Axel chuckled, the sound deep and throaty. “That so?”
“Rainer is here,” Anton said, nodding inside.
The three of them made their way into the dining room.
“Did you see what Sabine did to Lottie?” Axel said to Rainer as he sat down.
Rainer’s eyes narrowed. “Is she drunk?” he asked with disbelief.
“I’m fine,” Lottie moaned. “I just went to Sabine’steaparty.”
“At any minute she is going to start snoring,” Anton mumbled.
“Tea must mean something different in Bakley,” Axel said, a grin on his face. “And here I thought all those tea parties your kingdom had were a total bore.”
Sabine ignored them and took her seat, wondering why Rainer had insisted they all have supper together.
The servants brought in a dozen or so trays of food and then left.
“Eat something,” Rainer commanded Lottie. “I need you alert for this conversation.”
Lottie rolled her eyes and sat up, grabbing a tray of food and pulling it closer so she could load her plate with chicken and rice. When she finished, Sabine did the same.
“What’s going on?” Axel asked.
“What I say right now remains in this room with the five of us. Understood?” Rainer looked at everyone, waiting for each to acknowledge and agree. “A delegation from Avoni is on their way here.”
He’d mentioned that to Sabine before, so she didn’t think too much about it as she shoved a spoonful of rice in her mouth.
“Whatever for?” Lottie asked. “People from Avoni are so weird.”
Sabine didn’t know much about Avoni, so she had no opinion whether they acted or behaved strangely or not. According to Lottie, people from Bakley were probably odd, too.
“A member of the League will be traveling with them,” Rainer said. “This person will be the deciding vote as to whether my marriage to Sabine can take place or not.”
Sabine almost choked on her mouthful of food.Deciding vote?
“The tiebreaker vote?” Axel said.
“Yes.” Rainer leaned back on his chair.
“Besides swapping out princesses, what else changed?” Axel inquired.
Sabine nodded, wanting to know as well.
“King Franz asked for an additional five hundred soldiers. I agreed.”
If her father had asked for more soldiers, it was for good reason. They needed to get their border secure. When her mouth was empty, she said, “I don’t understand why anyone else has a say in what we do.”
The siblings all looked at her as if she were daft. Now was probably not a good time to admit she didn’t even know what the League was.
“Father did warn you the other kingdoms would be testing you once he died,” Axel said, his voice soft. “Maybe this is their way of doing it by seeing how you handle the situation.”
“Why would anyone test King Rainer?” Sabine asked. “Everyone knows Lynk has a huge army.” To go up against them would be suicide. And just because he was the youngest ruling king on the continent didn’t mean he wasn’t qualified for the job.
“That could be why someone assassinated Princess Alina,” Anton said. “It’s a way to test our king without using an army. One simple assassin. What will the king of Lynk do?”
This entire time, Sabine had assumed her sister’s assassination had to do with preventing a wedding, not testing a king.
