The Queen's Assassin (Queen's Secret #1) - Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,15
HRM Lilianna, Queen Regent of Renovia, requires your immediate presence at court
Short, but not sweet by any means. It is stamped and signed in ink by Queen Lilianna herself. Cal curses at the late hour. He meant to get there at first light, to be the one to tell the queen what happened at the abbey. But after battling a number of renegade monks, saving the girl, and killing the grand prince, he had collapsed in his bed the minute he returned. Now he has no idea what story she’s been told by the soldiers who’d come upon the aftermath. He had been surprised to discover the queen’s royal guard so far from the palace, but he appreciated their help in rooting out the remaining Aphrasians in the area.
Cal had gone out to Baer yesterday just to rule out a hunch. He didn’t want to get his hopes up, but he felt like maybe—maybe—it could lead to the fulfillment of his obligation to the queen. Maybe he would find the scrolls hidden away in one of the hills behind the abbey.
The scrolls are the center of his existence. He will fulfill his father’s pledge even if it means his life. Until then, this is the only life that he knows, and he will not rest until the scrolls are found and returned to the queen.
Except sometimes he and the queen do not agree on the best way to search for them. Cal leans forward with his elbows on his knees, rests his face in his hands. How will he account for last night? He’d explicitly ignored the queen’s orders by going to the abbey. He was supposed to be on his way to Montrice by then. Yet while he was gambling with privateers in an Argonian shipyard last week, they’d mentioned a Renovian fisherman who purchased a small shipping vessel to move river freight, which immediately reminded him of the river running beneath the Baer Hills. Which is why he decided to follow his hunch and head out to the abbey instead. It’s a good thing he did, too, or that girl would be dead right now.
He imagines talking to the queen this afternoon: “Well, Your Majesty, the bad news is, the Aphrasian insurgency is alive and well. The worse news is that your brother-in-law, the grand prince, is part of it! The good news is, I caught him. The bad news is, I slew him before I knew who he was. In my defense, he was dressed like a rebel and was about to stab an innocent girl.”
The queen is most certainly aware of that fact, though. About the grand prince’s murder, not the girl. Why was Alast going after that girl anyway? He can’t fathom why she was wandering around that old battlefield. Most of the villagers steer clear of it, believing it cursed.
But he doesn’t have time right now to dwell on who she was or what she was doing there. He’ll have to come back to her later.
Cal gets up and paces in front of the fireplace, considering the situation. The crown’s network of spies have known for a while that the Aphrasian sect is on the rise again. Reports are that they’re gathering strength, waiting for the right moment to strike and take down the queen, who only rules as regent after all, in order to replace her and Esban’s daughter with what they believe is their pure magical bloodline.
However, the Renovians have no idea where the rebel monks are based—some say they operate out of a tavern in the capital city. Others are certain it’s a farm in rural Argonia or somewhere in Stavin. The queen is convinced they are being funded by Montrice, that her former home is conspiring against her. While the two countries are supposed to be at peace, Montrice has sent an unusually large number of soldiers to the border. Many Renovians fear invasion is coming.
Cal had a different theory about where the Aphrasians might be.
What better place for the resurrected Aphrasian rebellion to assemble than Baer Abbey itself? Everyone assumes it’s empty, since its consecrated grounds are soiled and the structure itself destroyed. But the castle is equipped to store years’ worth of provisions deep within its labyrinthine vaults. Plus it’s unlikely