Piper (Queen's Birds of Prey #4) - Kathi S. Barton Page 0,8

want them to be seaworthy again. It might well be the thing that got her people killed. Even in the future, the bits and pieces she could see, the ships would only cause people to look harder for her remains and perhaps run into New Town, where her people lived. That, she knew, would be a danger to all.

“Mother? Are you here?” She turned to look at her son. Duncan had been coming to her of late to get more lessons and her thoughts on things, as well as how to manage a vast kingdom such as the one she was leaving him. “I thought for sure you’d be here. I have a favor to ask of you. ‘Tis a small one, but one I think you can give me. I should like to spend the night here, within these walls, once with you. I have spoken to Mary about it, and she thinks you will grant me this one wish. It will be the first and last time the two of us will be able to be under the same roof since I was born.”

“I should like that. Very much.” He nodded and smiled at her. “There is so much to tell you, and so much more, I think I have forgotten to pass on to you. But for this night, I shall not speak of the king coming here. Nor of my life ending. You are aware of it, my child. This, I know. But to have you here with me this last night? It is more than I could have asked for.”

They made their plans to sleep on the same ticking she’d been resting on since her bed had been taken away. As they curled up under a thick blanket, the two of them talked more than they rested. Tears were shed, of course. There was no way to avoid such a thing. But there was laughter too, much more of it than tears.

“I shan’t be here tomorrow when you are set. I cannot be of sound mind when I know what is to happen to you. I will tell you, Mother, that there couldn’t have been a better person to raise me. Nor one that has loved me as well as you have.” She kissed him on the forehead as he spoke again. “For so long as I live, Mother dear, I will keep you in my heart, along with the birds that will be mine as well. I love you—much more than I think any child could their parent. You are the best there is. I shall kill anyone that says differently.”

She had no words to give him after that. Her heart, already tender, was breaking more. It might well have done her better not to have spent the night with her son. But it would have been harder on her, she thought, to not have this time with him with no others around.

Finally, when she could speak without tearing up, even more, Dante told her son that she loved him. That he’d be a better king than she had been a queen. After saying that, they both settled into their thoughts until the sun came rising up from the seas that surrounded them.

Today, she knew, would be her last day to breathe in the air and take in food for her belly, and the very last time she’d order her birds to do something she knew they’d hate her for.

Chapter 1

Glad that the holidays were over, Piper resigned herself to the fact that she would still have to travel a great deal, as well as work. It wasn’t that she was getting bored with what she was doing—she loved making art from pieces of metal and other things more than she did most of the things she’d done in her life. What she was having issues with was twofold. She didn’t want to work, and she didn’t want to travel.

“You don’t have to do either. I know you’re well aware of that.” Piper glared at her sister Remi. “Well, you don’t. Just take some time off and do nothing for a while. You’d be surprised at how invigorating it can be.”

“Oh yeah? When was the last time you took time off to lay about? I can tell you. Never. You’re a bigger workaholic than I am.” She looked at the piece she was working on. It was going to be beautiful if she did say so herself. However, that wasn’t the issue, either.

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