The Queen's Assassin (Queen's Secret #1) - Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,19
was said he devoted his life to the protection of the crown princess.
Cal leans back against the wall. A palace page eventually appears to greet him, and then vanishes again behind a doorway. Within moments the boy returns and leads Cal into the queen’s receiving chamber.
There is no delay once she is informed of his arrival. This means she has been waiting for him.
Two guards grab the gold scroll handles on either side of a pair of ten-foot-tall arched mahogany doors. Despite their size they swing outward silently.
A long plush runner—flawlessly white—stretches from the doorway into the otherwise empty room, stopping just short of the monarch’s dais. Cal removes his shoes in the receiving hall, takes a deep breath, and steps forward into the doorway. He is ready.
The guard to his left belts out, “Caledon Holt!”
Cal nods to the guard, who doesn’t look back at him.
“Step forward.” Queen Lilianna’s steady voice, still lightly accented from a childhood spent in Montrice, fills the entire room.
She is seated at her throne, flanked by floor-to-ceiling windows on either side, black hair twisted into a thick bun above a simple circlet of intricately carved gold leaves. She almost looks like part of the room’s décor. Her elegant white gown, trim embroidered with leaves of golden thread to match her crown, cascades from her lap and spreads out around her bare feet. She’s been wearing the mourning color for eighteen years, marking herself a permanent widow. Not purely out of mourning, Cal’s certain, but also to ward off potential suitors.
But today she’s not alone. A girl sits on her right, also clad all in white, with a tall, ornate silvery-white wig propped on her head. She wears a white, feathered eye mask, trimmed in diamonds, over a heavily made-up face. Smoky black kohl is visible under the mask and her lips shine with burgundy gloss. Her mouth is set in a bored expression, slightly pursed—she looks down at her matching nails, long and shining in the light. Cal does his best to hide his surprise to see Lilac, the crown princess.
Her appearances are rare—she hasn’t been seen much since she was born, except on special royal occasions, like the queen regent’s birthday or the anniversary of the king’s death, and sometimes not even then. Rumor around the palace is that Queen Lilianna is looking for a suitable match for her daughter before she comes of age and takes the throne, in order to unify Renovia with an ally and keep it safe from the growing threat of the queen’s former home, which also happens to be the kingdom’s closest neighbor. It was rumored that before her marriage to Esban, Lilianna was betrothed to the King of Montrice, but eloped with Esban instead. Their marriage disrupted the growing peace between the two kingdoms, and in the nearly two decades since Esban’s death, relations have grown so strained they are at the brink of war once more.
The princess considers him with her piercing gaze. He slides his gaze elsewhere.
The queen doesn’t speak right away. Cal tries to appear calm.
“Leave us,” the queen orders. Her guards bend at the waist and back out of the room, shutting the doors softly.
“Your Majesty . . . ,” Cal begins.
The queen holds up a hand. “There is nothing to say,” she tells him. His heart sinks. He knows he’s ruined. “You have slaughtered a prince of the realm.”
“Yes,” he says. “But—”
“Silence!” she growls. She pauses before continuing. “Regardless of what he was, first and foremost, he was my husband’s brother. Royal blood.”
Royal traitor, Cal thinks. He looks at the floor again. Does this mean he will be put to death, or merely imprisoned? Which is worse?
“Look at me,” the queen commands. He wills himself to obey, though looking directly at her fiery eyes always terrifies him. Today, however, they are hooded, almost sorrowful. She continues. “Despite the sin you have committed, the fact remains . . . Alast was a traitor, an Aphrasian.” She stops speaking. He waits for her to continue.
“I have been told by the royal guard that you also saved a girl’s life.”