Kneel Before The Dragon Queen novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Marshal's Ward

We rode south for two days through the snow, and the Ember Hall was full again when we walked in at dusk.

Every head turned.

I had washed, braided my hair tight, and put on a plain blue gown that Torin's sergeant found in the keep.

Torin walked beside me with his hand on his sword.

The Regent sat on my father's throne with a blanket across his knees and a servant holding a basin beside him.

He looked ten years older than he had four days ago.

"Warden. Lady Bracken."

He gave me the title.

"Your Grace," I said.

I did not kneel.

Torin did not kneel either.

A low hiss went through the court.

"We have come about the child," Torin said.

"Of course." Aldous smiled with cracked lips. "But first, a small matter of courtesy. My Marshal has asked for a word."

Hadrian stepped forward from the foot of the dais.

He looked as if he had not slept.

His coat was pressed and his hair neat, and his face was a mask I had once known every line of.

"My lords," he said to the court. "I accused this woman of poison, and the Warden pulled her out of a rope."

He turned to me.

"I have not forgotten what she is."

My stomach dropped.

"A river-town herb-seller," he went on, "who wormed her way into the Regent's chambers, was caught red-handed, and married her rescuer within the hour."

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