Crown of Hidden Scales novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Name in the Iron

"Ask him his mother's name," I read aloud.

The firelight shook on the paper.

Rhain sat up in the bed beside me.

"I don't know it," he said.

"Rhain."

"I don't. The Pit master said she was a scaled woman who died of fever."

"He never said a name."

His glove lay on the table, and his bare hand was dark and steady.

He was not lying.

I got up with the note crushed in my fist and dragged my gown on over the damp.

"The elder," I said.

We woke her at midnight.

She came to the door of the long house in her nightshift and a shawl.

One look at my face made her step aside.

I put the paper in her hand.

She read it by the hearth light.

Then she sat down slowly on the bench.

"Show me your hands, Warden," she said.

He held them out.

She took his right palm between hers, and studied the dark gold scales across his knuckles.

"The old king's first queen was born in this house," she said.

"Her scales were gold, like those."

"She married the king for love at twenty, and they say she was the best of the line."

My throat closed.

"The Dowager was the king's mistress then," the elder said, very quietly.

"When the queen bore a son with scales, Hesper told the old king it was a curse."

"She had the queen burned in the east tower."

"And the child?"

"Declared dead in the fire. Four years old." The old woman raised her eyes to his scarred brow. "His name was Aldric."

Rhain did not move.

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