The Dragon Queen's Gambit novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Brother's Fall
The Ember Hall was still half dark when the council filled it.
Smoke from the river lay in the high windows.
The beacon at the head of the room burned in the gray light.
Ysmera stood below the dais with the Lord of the River Fleet on his knees before her.
Aldous sat in the regent's chair.
His brother's coat was scorched black at the hem, and the skin of his hands had blistered.
He had stopped begging an hour ago.
"Say it again," Ysmera told him. "So the back benches hear."
"The eggs went through my ships."
"Whose order?"
"My brother's."
A murmur crossed the Harrowby benches.
"How many eggs?" Ysmera asked.
"Nineteen. To the Mereth, for gold."
His voice shook.
"Seven more, the night the captain was framed, I put in the crate myself."
"He told me to."
"The midwife in the well?"
"His man did it. Not mine."
The big man lifted his ruined hands.
"Do you think I wanted any of it?"
"He is my younger brother, and he never once let me say no."
"That is a convict's word," Aldous said.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Dragon Queen's Gambit are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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