Silent Kingdom Read Free Page A

feeble attempt to hide my watery eyes, but there was no masking my pain and fear.
    “Why would you think I killed my brother?”
    I swallowed and stared at the patch of silver hair collecting in his dark beard. When I was a child, I giggled whenever the rough stubble tickled my cheeks as he hugged me goodnight. Those embraces had been too rare.
    “Answer me.”
    His frown deepened the wrinkles around his mouth. Those lips had told me to be strong, to never show signs of fear or doubt. Those lips had given me commands I’d tried to obey in hopes they would one day say that he loved me and was proud of me, his only child.
    Manipulator. Liar. Was everything he did a ploy for power? An act to fool people into serving him in some way, even if those people were of his own flesh and blood?
    “Did you overhear a rumor? Servant’s gossip?” His robes whispered around his legs, brushing the polished wood floor as he stepped closer. “Who else have you told?” He dropped his hand on the back of my chair, jostling me in my seat.
    I lifted my face. He hovered over me, so close now that I could feel his hot breath on my forehead and smell the lobster from dinner. “ Now you refuse to speak. Do you retract what you said?”
    The word leapt out of my mouth: “No.”
    A flicker passed over his eyes—anger? Or perhaps more disappointment in me. “Your uncle was weak. I can build a great kingdom, and you, as my daughter, can rise to power with me. Would you turn down this chance due to your own sentiments? Will you side with your uncle or your own father?”
    Tears hung in my eyes. My own father is a monster . “How could you?” I choked out. “How could you?”
    For a long moment, he watched me, his cold eyes sending a chill down my back. “You are a fool,” he murmured. Before I could react, he turned on his heel and swept from the room without another word.
    As I drew a deep breath to calm myself, I realized I’d been left unsupervised. Racing to my door, I tried the knob to find it locked. Footsteps beat a steady rhythm in the hallway: a guard was pacing before my door, hemming me in. My windows overlooked the beach far below, and I knew the drop was too high and the roof too steep for me to jump or climb to escape. I was a prisoner in my own chambers.
    Despairing, I plopped back into my chair and tried to determine a course of action, but my thoughts felt foggy and sluggish. I closed my eyes and prayed I was trapped in a nightmare. When I opened my eyes, none of this would be happening. My uncle would still be alive. My father would order me to continue my horseback riding and archery lessons. My mother would ensure I spent hours learning etiquette, which would someday help me win the heart of a handsome nobleman and secure a royal marriage. My life would be routine and predictable again. Isolated yet important. Uneventful but comfortable.
    Footsteps thudded along the hallway outside, snapping me out of my daydreams. I clenched my clammy fists tightly. But no one entered my chambers—not yet. Instead I heard movement outside my door as another set of footsteps walked away. The guard?
    My bedchamber disappeared. As suddenly as the first, another vision flooded my brain, showing me one of the king’s conference rooms, used for royal meetings.
    “What will we do with her?” My father paced back and forth in front of a long table.
    I didn’t know if my urge to scream came from my sense of betrayal or fear.
    “We are not sure if she has, or will, tell anyone,” another man, standing at the edge of the room in the shadows, said. It was Narek, Captain of the Guard. He was no longer dressed in heavy metal ceremonial armor, but in his black leather breastplate and greaves, red tunic and pants, and blue cloak that signified his position as a member of the king’s Royal Guard. Misroth’s insignia, the dragon constellation Vehgar, glittered across his chest nearly as brightly as real stars.
    “She must have received her