A Crown Of Blades(ARTK, Book 3)

Chapter 125-126

Anug 15th,3330 A.G

Nara grunted, adjusting how she sat atop her horse. She'd greatly underestimated how uncomfortable it would become in her last months, but she would not be seen to ride in a cart. Not when she were still very much with child; and not recovering from a birth. As a lady perhaps, or even if she were simply a princess....

  But she were not. A queen had to maintain an image. A queen could not be seen to grow lazy, if the tales of what'd happened to the daughter of the ancient murenian queen Sela had any truth to them.

  Nara glanced beside her first, to where one of the giants had been commanded to march. To her right(between her and another giant) were Renard,, Andre, Maude and Maruf, each looking every bit of the commanders they were.

  And the armies behind them..... She could not think of a force in the world that would not hesitate to see them coming. On the other side of the giant to her left were Avelyn and Loys; both unable to take their eyes off the beast.

  It were too close, she'd heard Avelyn whisper once. One more step and she'd stab it through the eye- Nara had laughed at that. By the time she got a dagger under the eye armor, pieces of her would've been scattered from Kroba to Voryn.

  Nara were having her watched, of course- but she needed enough freedom to believe she weren't. Enough authority that the girl believed  that Nara thought them to be true Allies. And from the conversation they'd engaged in so far, Avelyn Whittaker weren't as intelligent as she believed herself to be.

  "As we are Allies now-" They weren't, Nara wanted to say. She was her queen, but she did not interrupt. "It is my duty to volunteer any information I can."

  "Such as?" Nara raised an eyebrow.

  "Many in Valia still despise you." That much could be guessed. She'd killed their lord. Now, Nara were trying hard not to roll her eyes. "My brother included, but he will do as I say. He claims himself to be the head of the family after our dead father, but most of the time he behaves as a young man. I would not be surprised if he is in bed with some whore right now."

  Only the first sentence of what she'd said were the truth, but it were enough. She needed to craft the queen's image of every single member of her family before they laid eyes on one another again; before she could read too much into the glares and finger twitches.

  "Noted." Nara cracked her neck. "And your mother?"

  "She is......" Avelyn swallowed. "Well, the way she feels about many things is... difficult to pin down nowadays."

  There were a stretched out silence after that, with nothing left to say- but Nara preffered it that way. Human voices weren't as annoying as they'd been in the earlier months of her carry, but they occasionally triggered head pains and the more she could avoid that the-

Better.

  Nara glanced behind her at the sound of a set of hooves speeding up, coming right for her. She looked past ysmen, riding with the cart of healing supplies behind her( eudo inside of it, Tuyon, Uwen and the woodworker Giselle beside it)- to where the cart carrying the wet nurses rode. And then she knew.

  Before the soldier who'd been riding by them so boldly pulled his horse around the two additional giants guarding them(the remaining four at the very back of the army), she knew.

  His horse came within a single pace of hers, nearly knocking against it- but she did not blink.

  "My queen forgive me I-" The soldier paused, out of breath. Nara frowned. The ride hadn't been long- she would have ysmen check him out once she were available, to see if the man were still healthy enough to serve in her army. "It is important. I suppose that's all you'll want to know I... I'm... Rose's water has broken."