A Queen of Gilded Horns (A River of Royal Blood #2) - Amanda Joy Page 0,115

when my voice quavered, explaining the magick that had emerged from my skin. “I’m sorry, Princess.”

Baccha was pleased to learn I hadn’t considered killing my sister, which shocked me. I’d expected him to be as pragmatic as Anali when it came to the Rival Heir contest. When I asked him about it, he’d simply shrugged and said that hurting my sister would make me unhappy.

“Remind me again, Princess, how many soldiers are under your command?” Baccha asked.

When I did not answer, because I’d already told the bastard during my story of the rebellion, he answered himself: “Right. Not very many. Didn’t you say the Queen is heading here?”

I was doing something about that, at least. I had written dozens of letters. I started with the Generals on Mateen’s list, detailing the events of my nameday, why I’d fled Ternain, and why I’d helped liberate Sher n’Cai. I explained that I now believed the Queen had accused the Dracolan King of orchestrating my father’s murder to distract from her own treachery, and that I did not expect the Queen would honor the time-honored Rival Heir tradition, in the event of my victory against my sister. I wrote to every noble House with lands near the mountains, calling for them to travel to Sher n’Cai and witness what would happen whenever the Queen arrived here.

It might have been futile, but it made me feel a bit better about the doom headed my way.

“I doubt any in the Tribe will fight with you against the Queen if you refuse the testing,” Baccha went on. “They’ll try to find another option for the throne. Ysai wanted to search the Enclosures for more blessed with Khimaerani’s gift. The only reason we came here first was because I promised them you were a worthy candidate.”

“Even if they do fight with us,” I said, “we will still be outmatched a hundred times over. Mother could bring ten thousand men here.”

“So I brought them all this way for nothing?” Baccha rose from his seat and began pacing. “Eva, they’ve waited over a hundred years for this. For a khimaer Queen, one blessed by Khimaerani. The only way I’ll be free from my oaths is when they find a khimaer Queen to take the throne.”

I blew out a sigh, massaging my temples as the beginnings of a headache pulsed at the base of my neck. “You should have led with that. What will it entail?”

“In the past, there were three trials. The only consistent rule they followed was that the last, and most important, trial was always used to address a problem in the Queendom.”

“Will any of it be designed to kill me?” These trials were part of the inspiration for the Rival Heir tradition, so it was a fair consideration.

“I thought the Entwining still held,” Baccha remarked. “Didn’t you say you’d survived a fall that shattered a number of your bones? Don’t tell me you’re afraid of a few tests, Princess.”

“Yes, well, I’d like to avoid the possibility, even so. I’ve had enough of people trying to kill me,” I said, draining the last dregs of my tea. “Let’s go. I suppose I should show you around.”

Chapter 29

Isadore

Since the night she’d fled Sher n’Cai with General Sareen, Isa felt as though she were sleepwalking in the weeks that passed on horseback. She wouldn’t speak to any of Throllo’s men and had to keep her mental fingertips on the General during the day to keep him from accosting her.

She’d despised him immediately. When the soldier brought her to the General’s manor, she’d eyed the walls crusted with ancient fey artifacts with distaste. She’d had to force the soldier to wake Throllo, and when the man had finally risen from his bed, it had taken quite a bit of persuasive magick to convince him of the wisdom of her plan.

He was to gather as many soldiers as he could and take her back to Ternain. But the moment Isa wormed her way into his head, she’d seen his true desire to collect her like one of his stolen artworks. She had to use her magick constantly, or she feared he would turn back and try to reclaim Sher n’Cai.

So much so that she was relieved when they entered the hill lands, called the Little A’Nir, and a group of patrolling soldiers intercepted them. They’d shocked her by revealing that her mother was not in Ternain, but at Fort Asrodei.

She couldn’t have said exactly how many days passed between when she