Total pages in book: 33
Estimated words: 32461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32461 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 162(@200wpm)___ 130(@250wpm)___ 108(@300wpm)
“I will permit no such thing,” Eudora ordered.
“They are refusing a command from the crown,” the council member argued.
“I will deal with that refusal, but I will not fill my cells with men because they repeated something someone whispered in their ears.”
The council member continued to disagree. “They are questioning your right to the throne.”
“All the more reason not to behave like a woman terrified someone might believe them,” Eudora said, with a raised and distinctly firm tone.
The councilman sat back.
Wilford spoke up. “Your grandmother would have had the men responsible brought here first and decided what to do with them afterward.”
“That sounds more like her but… I am not my grandmother,” she said sternly.
Wilford bowed his head respectfully.
Eudora looked at Bradan. “You said two more villages. How many altogether?”
“Five.”
Five. Three days ago, there had been only one. The rumors were no longer simply spreading. They were taking hold.
“What else has been heard?” Eudora asked, though a firm command remained in her tone.
One of her advisers cleared his throat. “A merchant caravan arriving from the northern road yesterday reported hearing the same questions in two villages beyond our border.”
Eudora's eyes narrowed. “Outside Morra Mist?”
“Aye.”
That troubled her more than she cared to admit. Discontent within her kingdom was dangerous enough. If neighboring lands began questioning the stability of her crown, ambitious men might start wondering whether Morra Mist was vulnerable.
And Morra Mist had much that ambitious men would want.
“Have you discovered where the rumors began?” Eudora asked.
Bradan shook his head. “Not yet.”
Eudora kept her disappointment from showing. Agnes had followed the whispers farther than any of the men sitting around this table, but even she had been unable to discover who had first set them loose. More troubling were the names Agnes had begun to hear attached to those whispers. Names that Eudora had no intention of sharing with anyone in this room. At least not yet.
Eudora looked from one face to another. “No one? Not one of you can tell me how this rumor got started?”
Braden defended the council. “It is not for lack of searching, your majesty.”
“It has been weeks,” she reminded firmly.
“And whoever is behind this is covering his tracks well,” Bradan said.
“Uncover them,” she commanded.
Bradan paused to take a breath, then nodded. “Aye, Your Majesty.”
Wilford leaned back in his chair. “You're assuming there is someone behind it.”
Eudora turned to him. “You don't?”
“I think there probably is. But we shouldn't ignore the possibility that one foolish remark found fertile ground and grew without anyone tending it.”
Eudora disagreed. “Five villages refusing men for training isn't a foolish remark.”
“Nay. But neither is it rebellion.”
“Not yet,” Bradan said.
Wilford's gaze shifted to him.
That single word settled heavily over the table.
Eudora rose.
The others immediately followed.
Eudora’s chin went up just a bit. “I will not give whoever started this the one thing they clearly want.”
“And what is that?” Bradan asked.
“For me to appear afraid and act foolish.” She looked around the table. “Training will continue. Taxes will be collected. Trade will continue through our ports, and every person who comes before me will see the same queen sitting on the throne who was sitting there before these whispers began.”
Wilford studied her. “And while you're sitting there?”
“The search for this culprit will continue in earnest, and I will have answers.” Eudora met the eyes of every council member there. “Do not fail me.”
She headed for the door.
Wilford fell into step beside her. “You still have petitions to hear.”
“I know.”
“There are quite a few.”
Eudora stopped and looked at him. “How many?”
Wilford's expression was entirely too innocent. “Quite a few.”
Eudora sighed and continued walking. Perhaps waiting for three legendary warriors wasn't going to be the most trying part of her day after all.
Chapter Fourteen
Legion, Torden, Creagan & the Queen
Creagan had been waiting nearly an hour for his turn to speak with the queen. He wasn't particularly bothered by it. However—
“We could simply tell the guard we're here to see her,” Torden said, moving impatiently from foot to foot.
“And miss all this?” Creagan asked with a teasing grin.
Legion stood on Creagan's other side, arms folded across his chest as he watched two farmers arguing before the queen. “He has a point.”
Torden glared at him.
Legion shrugged. “It's entertaining.”
The three of them stood among those waiting along one side of the Great Hall, attracting an occasional curious glance but little more. That suited Creagan. He'd already learned a great deal simply by listening to the people around him while they waited.
He'd also had ample opportunity to study the woman they'd come to see… Queen Eudora.
She sat straight and tall in the carved chair upon the raised dais, her dark hair intricately braided and secured at the back of her head, the front drawn smoothly away from her face. The severe arrangement left nothing to soften the regal features or the unusual violet eyes presently fixed on the two men standing before her.