The Queen's Assassin (Queen's Secret #1) - Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,18

ways—mostly when it came to causes he believed in—he was far from the unreasonable tyrant the Aphrasian traitors painted him to be. He had no interest in taking the ancient knowledge of the Deian Scrolls for himself, as they claimed. Once they were in his possession, his plan was to share their knowledge with the people, to better their lives after centuries of oppression and suffering. Sadly, he never had the chance.

King Esban was nothing like the monarchs who came before him. He’d only inherited the throne because his elder brother, Almon, died suddenly while visiting a grand duke of Montrice. They’d been out hunting and were on their way back to the duke’s estate when young King Almon fell from his horse in the middle of the field. He was rushed to his room at the manor house, but nothing could be done for him. Other guests at the manor reported that he’d been covered head to toe in a bright red rash; that his face and hands swelled like a melon before he finally suffocated.

As soon as Esban was crowned, a rumor spread that he had actually poisoned Almon. That he’d plotted to kill his own brother in order to enact a heretical agenda against the Aphrasian monks, the only rightful guardians of the Deian Scrolls. In truth, the monks were terrified of King Esban because he didn’t turn a blind eye to their corruption. As rightful leader of Renovia, he was the one man who still had the authority to convict them of treason; he could also disband the order entirely if he believed their duplicity ran too deep to mend.

Aphrasian insurgents printed broadsides and spread them throughout the kingdom’s towns and villages, representing King Esban as a dishonest and greedy man with a vendetta against tradition. “The new king demands the scrolls returned as he wishes to hoard the knowledge of Deia for himself,” read one pamphlet Cal’s father had kept. “Once in his control, he will use its magical power against us.”

Never mind that the opposite was true. Once he was king, Esban and his council had begun working on expanding access to magical training by dismantling Aphrasian monasteries and establishing new centers of learning for the people.

King Esban wanted Renovia to be more than strong; he wanted it to become the most prosperous, advanced kingdom of all the lands, a beacon of arts and sacred knowledge. But for that to happen, the king understood that the privileged, like himself, had to relinquish some control. By the end of his rule, he had done more to advance equality than any other Renovian leader: He lifted levies; eliminated trade barriers at the borders so that rare spices and textiles became more widely available; instructed monasteries to open their doors to those in need—the sick, the hungry.

But that hadn’t been enough to quell the public’s suspicions; at least not with Aphrasians spreading unrest through their campaigns of lies. Some people flocked to the sect rather than embrace change, convinced that Esban would soon unleash his true plan. According to them, he would gain the public’s trust, then, with the abbey disintegrated, hoard the scrolls and use his power to tyrannize the kingdom alongside his foreign-born bride.

If only King Esban had pushed back against the monks from the beginning. But he believed his actions would speak for themselves, that the people would know him through his works and see that the claims about him were false. That he would triumph by deed alone.

That was his greatest mistake.

Eventually the Aphrasians weren’t satisfied with simply dethroning Esban. They plotted to assassinate the king and his pregnant queen, overthrow his advisory council, and place one of their own on the throne instead.

But the king’s spies, led by Cordyn Holt, had infiltrated the sect and warned him before the Aphrasians could strike. Royal military forces descended upon the abbey, taking them by surprise on the eve of their planned attack, and put an end to the plot and the sect.

Or so they thought. Cal sighs. Now he knows the truth. The Aphrasians are far from finished. If anything, they had been able to turn the grand prince to their cause. A man so loyal to the queen that he never even married or had children of his own. It