Kneel Before The Dragon Queen novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Hadrian's Sentence

I sat back down on the throne, and I let the hall wait while I looked at him.

Hadrian Kell knelt at the foot of the dais in his torn black coat with his bound hands in his lap.

Five years ago he had stood in that same place, a young captain with his hand on his sword.

He had sworn to be whatever I needed.

"Marshal," I said.

"I am not asking for the title."

"Then you will not keep it."

I held out my hand, and the steward put the ledger into it.

I found the page myself, in a neat dark hand I knew as well as my own.

"You signed the order for the seizure of an infant from the royal midwife," I said.

"Yes."

"You signed a hundred small things that kept a lie alive."

"Every one of them."

"Do you want to say why?"

"No." His voice was rough. "It would sound like an excuse, and I do not have one."

The hall was so quiet that I heard a candle gutter.

The grey captain with the broken nose took a step out of the crowd and cleared his throat.

"Majesty, with respect," he said.

"The Marshal opened the cell in front of six of us last night, and told us to say so."

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