Her Journey Beyond the Script novel · Chapter 23 of 24

Chapter 23: What He Paid

The hall let out one long, stunned breath.

Torin did not lower his hand.

"No," Aveline said again, clearly, so that nobody could say they had misheard.

"I won't wear a ring other people put on me. When I wear one, I'll have chosen it."

"Then tell me what to do."

"I'm not going to tell you. Show me you mean it, without being asked."

She stood and turned to the old lord.

"My lords, I'm going to my rooms. If there is anything left to settle, I'm sure the prince can settle it."

She walked out of the council hall with every head turning after her.

She did not look back.

Behind her, she heard Torin say, in an even voice, "My lords. A moment."

She did not hear the rest.

She heard it from the old lord an hour later, at her door, with his white beard trembling.

"He had a box brought in," the old lord said. "It was in the hollow of his bedpost."

"Three sheets of the Queen's."

"And one more, in a woman's hand, Lady Aveline's own, from before her fever."

"He read it into the record."

Aveline had been standing at her window with her back to the door.

She turned.

"Read what?"

"The bargain, in her own words."

"'I, Aveline Varrick, nineteen years old, in my right mind, agree to the axe if I must, to show the city what the Queen is.'"

"And his, below it. 'I, Torin Deincourt, promise to stop the axe, and if I fail, to answer for it with my life.'"

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