“Yes, Mistress,” one of the men rumbled. It was the last thing he heard before a boot slammed into his face. Unbidden, Sera’s face flashed through his mind.
Then, darkness.
Chapter forty-eight
Seraphina
Her fingers trembled around the letter clasped in her hands. Again, she read the words there, though the ink soon blurred from the tears threatening to mist her vision.
Lord Tiberius craned his head, cheekily trying to read the missive over her shoulder. “Good news? Bad news?”
She swatted him away and folded the letter once more. “Good news.”At last. News from Dawnspire—that the first of the refugees from Mysai had arrived. Safe and whole. They would be safe there in her family’s old stronghold. Warm. Fed.
At least something was going right.
Though one would never know it from how Alyx had been acting all morning. Hissing at the slightest provocation. Battingher wings at every shadow. Now, the usuru fluttered overhead in tight circles as she wandered the corridors with only Lord Tiberius and her Queensguard for company.
It seemed like everyone else was busy today—her godfather overseeing preparations just in case Goldreach was besieged, Olivia decoding letters from Arlund, her godmother distributing alms to the poor alongside Father Perero.
Perhaps her winged serpent was just as restless as she was.
“Very well, keep your secrets.” Lord Tiberius smiled, seemingly unbothered by the lack of details she offered. “Shall we go play another round of cards, then? Or we can visit the library, and you can tell me all about your latest book while I pretend to care?”
A half-hearted smile pulled at the corner of her lips. Delicately, she turned the letter over in her hands. “Perhaps later,” she finally decided, her voice soft. “I think I should go and speak with His Grace. My godfather,” she clarified. “No doubt he will want to hear this news.”
Things between her and Duke Percival were still a little…uncertain. As if there were now a wall between them, holding him at bay. Her heart ached every time she thought about it.
Worst of all was that she didn’t know if it was a wall of her own making.
Or his.
The baron sighed. “How dull—”
Seraphina stopped mid-stride and laid a hand on his arm to silence him. Overhead, Alyx hissed again. But still, she heard it. In the distance—bells.
The cathedral bells were ringing.
Confusion drew her to the nearest window, though she could not see much from her current vantage point. Only the palace grounds. The walls in the distance. “What do you think is happening?”
Her guards exchanged glances, frowning.
But Lord Tiberius merely shrugged, as unbothered as he liked to pretend to be about every little thing. Unless it was his reputation on the line. “Perhaps someone has just been married?”
“Nonsense,” Seraphina whispered. “Father Perero would never ring the bells for something so trivial.”
“Your Majesty!” a man called out to her, his voice echoing down the hall.
When she turned her head and found the Count of Wellane hurrying toward her, a flicker of relief eased the knot of anxiety tightening in her stomach. “My lord! Is something the matter?”
Her Lord Exchequer drew to a pause before her. Pulling a handkerchief from his sleeve, he mopped at his brow. “I do not know, Your Majesty,” he whispered, his tone urgent. “But the Lord Chancellor has just received word from the harbor. There is some new development. He wishes to see you in the council chamber.”
Seraphina nodded and started that way. “Good. I had wished to speak with him, at any rate—”
The count stepped in front of her, his expression apologetic as he blocked her path. “Alone, Your Majesty. His Grace specified we come alone.” Wellane’s gaze ticked toward Lord Tiberius and her Queensguard in turn. “It is…a matter of State, he said.”
Alone? She frowned. Some days, Duke Percival was as paranoid as Olivia was. And was it not he who had ordered her guard to be quadrupled in the first place?
Her instinct was to say no. To keep at least one Queensguard at her side. But if her godfather insisted on “alone,” it must have been serious.
