A Rule of Queens (Book #13 in the Sorcerer's Ring) Read Free

awaiting his command. Behind Volusia, she knew, stood thousands of
her own men. Romulus’s ship, as fine as it was, was outnumbered, his men
surrounded here in this harbor. They were trapped. This was Volusia’s territory,
and they knew it. They knew any attack, any escape, would be futile.
    “This is not an act that can come without a response,”
the commander continued. “Romulus has one million men loyal to his command
right now in the Ring. He has one million more loyal to his command in the south,
in the Empire capital. When word reaches them of what you’ve done, they will
mobilize, and they will march on you. You may have killed the Great Romulus,
but you have not killed his men. And your thousands, even if they outman us
here today, cannot stand up to his millions. They will seek vengeance. And
vengeance will be theirs.”
    “Will it?” Volusia said, smiling, taking a step
closer to him, feeling the blade crossing in her palm, visualizing herself
slicing his throat and already feeling the craving to do it.
    The commander looked down at the blade in her hand,
the blade that had killed Romulus, and he gulped, as if reading her thoughts.
She could see real fear in his eyes.
    “Let us go,” he said to her. “Send my men on their
way. They have done nothing to harm you. Give us a ship filled with gold, and
you will buy our silence. I will sail our men to the capital, and I will tell
them that you are innocent. That Romulus tried to attack you. They will leave
you be, you can have peace here in the north, and they will find a new Supreme
Commander of the Empire.”
    Volusia smiled widely, amused.
    “But are not already laying eye upon your new Supreme
Commander?” she asked.
    The commander looked back at her in shock, then
finally burst out into short, mocking laughter.
    “You?” he said. “You are but a girl, with but a
few thousand men. Because you killed one man, do you really think you can crush
Romulus’s millions? You’d be lucky to escape with your life after what you’ve
done today. I am offering you a gift. Be done with this foolish talk, accept it
with gratitude, and send us on our way, before I change my mind.”
    “And if I do not wish to send you on your way?”
    The commander looked her in the eye, and
swallowed.
    “You can kill us all here,” he said. “That is
your choice. But if you do, you only kill yourself and your people. You will be
crushed by the army that follows.”
    “He speaks truly, my commander,” whispered a
voice in her ear.
    She turned to see Soku, her commanding general,
coming up beside her, a tall man with green eyes, a warrior’s jaw, and short,
curly red hair.
    “Send them south,” he said. “Give them the gold.
You’ve killed Romulus. Now you must broker a truce. We have no choice.”
    Volusia turned back to Romulus’s man. She
surveyed him, taking her time, relishing in the moment.
    “I will do as you ask,” she said, “and send you
to the capital.”
    The commander smiled back, satisfied, and was
about to go, when Volusia stepped forward and added:
    “But not to hide what I’ve done,” she said.
    He stopped and looked at her, confused.
    “I will send you to the capital to deliver them
a message: that they will know that I am the new Supreme Commander of the
Empire. That if they all bow the knee to me now, they just might live.”
    The commander looked at her, aghast, then
slowly shook his head and smiled.
    “You are as crazy as your mother was rumored to
be,” he said, then turned away and began to march back up the long ramp, onto his
ship. “Load the gold in the lower holds,” he called out, not even bothering to
turn back and look at her.
    Volusia turned to her commander of the bow, who
stood there patiently awaiting her command, and she gave him a short nod.
    The commander immediately turned and motioned
to his men, and there came the sound of ten thousand arrows being lit, drawn,
and fired.
    They filled the sky, blackening it, sailing