Deny Me, Dragon King novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Three Letters

Torren called the Council at sundown, and he called it in the Audience Hall, where everyone could see.

Twenty lords sat along the walls in carved chairs.

Hesper Quillon stood at the foot of the throne in her white robes, calm as a candle.

Rosamund sat beside the empty chair that would be hers in two days, with her hands folded.

I stood in the middle of the floor in my blue traveling dress, because I didn't own another.

In my fist I held three small wooden sticks.

"Lady Linnea Marrick has charged the Flame Temple with a crime," Torren said from the throne. "I will hear it."

He had said Lady.

I heard a few of the lords shift.

"Six years ago my letters reached your gate," I said. "The courier was told to hand them to the High Seer."

An old lord by the window grunted.

"Every letter to the throne goes through her hands first," he said. "It has since the old king's day."

Two others nodded, and then looked.

"Slander," Rosamund said lightly. "A village woman's tale."

I held up the first stick.

"A courier doesn't take a woman's word," I said. "He takes proof."

"When a letter is handed over, the receiver stamps a tally stick. The courier gives it back to the sender."

"This is my proof."

I walked to the throne's steps and gave the sticks to Odo.

He carried them to the nearest lord, who turned one over in the lamp light.

"A flame seal," the lord said slowly. "The Flame Temple's. And a line of script. Received, by hand of the High Seer."

He read the other two.

"Received. Received."

Silence.

Hesper hadn't moved.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Deny Me, Dragon King from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.