Deny Me, Dragon King novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: The Treaty

There was a dress waiting on my bed when I came back from the nursery.

It was dark blue wool, plain as a field, and it fit me.

I stood holding it for a long moment.

Then I put it on, and I went down to the Council with my daughter's hand in mine.

Posy wanted to see the throne room in daylight.

She also wanted to see if the lords were as boring as they looked, and I told her she could report back.

The Audience Hall was full again.

The southern lords sat along the right wall in green and gold, a dozen of them.

They had the look of men who had come to collect a debt.

Their spokesman rose.

He was a big man with a gray beard and a voice made for parade grounds.

"Majesty," he said. "House Crane commands the southern riders, and the south has sworn to keep your border for ten years."

"The treaty was sealed on one condition. You marry Lady Rosamund in this keep, on the day appointed."

"That day is tomorrow."

"I'm aware," Torren said from the throne.

"There are rumors that the king has taken up with a village woman."

"If the wedding does not go forward, our riders leave the border at noon."

"And the bandits and the rebel clans will find a king with an open gate."

It was a threat, said in a polite voice.

A few of the northern lords looked at the floor.

Rosamund sat in the chair beside the throne, upright and perfect in white silk, with her eyes fixed on the king's face.

Torren rose from the throne.

He came down the three steps, one at a time, and stopped on the black floor in front of the southern lord.

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