A Queen of Gilded Horns (A River of Royal Blood #2) - Amanda Joy Page 0,11

courtyard. In the nightmare, sackcloth bags covered their heads, but I knew who swung beside me: my guards. One body had the scaled feet of a lizard.

The dream was a warning. Any mistakes I made now would have deadly consequences. And this time I wasn’t gambling with just my life.

I kissed Aketo’s cheek, daring a nip at his chin. “I am too. But if this search for my family is to yield nothing, then let us be done with it and move on.”

“And do you have a plan if there is no one inside?”

I did. One I should have shared with him and Anali when we first set off from Ternain. But the final truth left unspoken between us stilled my tongue. Beyond our first conversation about why he’d come to Ternain, I had not questioned Aketo about how he came to know my father so well.

Aketo’s and my father’s conspicuous lack of explanation made me certain I would not like the answer.

I had a feeling that if no one here could tell me about my father’s intentions, Aketo’s mother might be the next best chance at understanding what Papa wanted.

I eased away from Aketo. “Tonight after we make our plans, can we talk?”

His fingers laced through mine, nimbly avoiding the sharp points of my nails. “We can talk now.”

I did not miss the hesitation in his voice. “We shouldn’t leave Isa alone any longer.”

He offered a relieved smile. “Shall I unchain her? You know Isadore loves your walks.”

I snorted and Aketo’s broad laughter sent a pulse of warmth through me. Yesterday she’d told him, just loud enough for me to overhear, that our forced time together was tantamount to torture.

“No, finish your game.” I turned my attention back to my bags and fished out the sword gifted to me by my father. The bone hilt was now wrapped in leather, but I could still feel the hum of energy beneath. “I need to think.”

Aketo gave my hand a final squeeze and left the tent.

And though I sensed his attention when I followed a few moments later, sword strapped across my back, I kept my eyes to the ground as I walked toward the edge of camp.

Soon, though, I caught one of the guards following me at a respectable distance. It was Kelis, my tail and personal guard since we left Ternain. She was tall and bronze-skinned with an unruly mane of copper waves and wide-set umber eyes. She was like a wolf, equally quick to offer a fanged grin as to growl in reproach.

When we first set off, Mirabel had asked Kelis if she would serve as my body servant while we were away, should circumstance demand it. Kelis agreed, despite my objections, that weeks on the run from my mother would offer few opportunities to pretty me. It seemed that she had been given an additional task by her Captain—to protect me.

All a waste of her time. The only threat to me was chained to a stake in the middle of camp. I often dreamed of the night Isa and I had stood before the Court while two Sorceryn wrapped us in shining ribbons of magick, binding our souls in a terrible alliance. It was not quite the cruelty I once believed it was. It had saved Isa’s life and cut down my list of potentially murderous enemies to one. For once, I felt safe.

Though I had been wrong about that before and didn’t doubt I would be again. I mourned my old surety, born of growing up largely insulated from my own poor judgment and the harsh realities of a common life. Even at Asrodei I’d been waited on hand and foot since I was an infant.

And yet here I was asking my guards to trust me now.

Every soldier who remained loyal to me after they’d seen my true form—fifteen guards, plus Aketo, Falun, and Anali—had likely already been named traitors to the crown. The punishment for which was public hanging, like the ones in my dreams.

I very much doubted my khimaer magick had come with a gift of clairvoyance. The only khimaer known to wield that power were long-dead Godlings.

No, I was not concerned with omens, but the fact that if we were caught, my friends would die alongside me. I’d let them place their trust in me, while I was still reckoning with the impossibility of what I wanted. How would I gain the throne when I refused to kill my sister, as the law