Rise of the Seven (The Frey Saga, #3)(31)

I felt the change in Chevelle beside me, but I dared not look up. There would be nothing I could do to fight Veil without risking the release of my power, but I had no doubt of Chevelle’s intent.

“I will find control,” I promised. “And we will solve the pendant.”





Regardless of who was trying to kill me, I still had a kingdom to run. So as I worked to catch up and set right all that had gone undone in my absence and awry since my return, I puzzled out the clues. I knew one thing for certain now: the attacks were Asher’s offspring. The boy’s coloring was likely due to a mixed birth. And the fact that the fey were involved made me wonder if the ice attacks were not of a half-fey child. Ruby, after all, had turned out strong and dangerous. Fortunately, she was on my side.

I had mentally crossed the rogues off the list, as the massacre in the yard would have never come to be if they had control of anyone in line for the throne. They were brutal, but they had enough sense to use a tool like that in the most effective way: they would have gathered a following. If it was the fey who had control over an heir, then they were either just playing with me until they could place him or her, or they had more than one and they were trying to thin out the stock, neither of which were highly likely. Still, I couldn’t stop the shiver that ran through me at the thought of a fey-influenced lord on the northern throne. But even if they didn’t have a child or children, then they knew who did, and at the very least were tracking the situation. I had the strands of silver and ice to prove that.

So, that just left two other options that I could think of: Asher and Junnie. Asher had not been gone long. He could have spent years training and molding his children, he could have told each they were his rightful heir, his second, and they could be coming for me because I stood in his place. The attacks had not come together. The silver boy was alone, and he had called me the pretender. But if Asher had done this, if he was the cause, then there was nothing to be done but wait for the others to decide it was time. There was no way to find them, to flush them out.

There was a way to find Junnie, however. And Junnie was, right now, raising a child of Asher’s. A half-human child whose mind she could possess. Junnie had been with me in the village, so she couldn’t have raised the other children. But she could have taken them when Asher was on the run. They were not with her when we had found her, but she had a following by all accounts, and there could be someone supporting her. Someone who wanted the new council, who wanted control of the entire realm. Maybe an army of someones. Maybe a new council had already formed. I shook my head, silently praying once more that it wasn’t Junnie.

I didn’t even consider Grand Council on my list, even though they too had wanted reign over all. Not because their key players had been removed and they were at this moment regrouping, not because they wouldn’t do it if they could. I didn’t consider them because in a matter of days, there would be no more council. I would finally avenge the wrong done my mother. I would repay the debt owed my people. In a matter of days, there would be one less barrier before me, one less cross to bear. Days.

“Frey?”

“Oh, sorry, Ruby. Please continue.”

She glanced at the scrolls, a large pile of messages from across the realm, and I could tell she was calculating how much longer it would take to finish.

“It comes with the uniform, Ruby. The guard has never claimed one who was merely a fighter. If you want to choose the dead, you have to manage the living. It keeps us from turning murderous.”

She cocked a brow at me, knowing full well Asher’s guard had been more deadly than productive. But they had all been given other chores. Not decent, moral duties, I thought, remembering Riven and his charge, but duties nonetheless.

Ruby picked up another scroll. “Alianna Denae of Camber is with child. The child’s father, Klave, was killed by the rogues outside our gates. She is grieving badly and it is feared she’ll not make it to full term.”

Manage the living. “Send her an invitation to the castle. Note that she is to come when the child is well and they will be safe to travel. Maybe we can give her something to look forward to.”

Ruby nodded, pleased that she might yet have something enjoyable to oversee.

“If she takes a turn,” I added in a hushed tone, “assure her the child will have a place here.”

Ruby’s eyes held mine for one long moment before returning to the scrolls. She had been an orphan, abandoned by all but her half-brother Steed. In this single task, I had given her reason enough to serve all others. By this lone thing, she understood. She was of the guard.

Her shoulders straight, she relayed the next message.





Chapter Sixteen


Threat





I sat on the edge of my bed, twirling the fey spike in my hand. Ice, silver, blood, and bone. A gift. The words had begun to circle, twisting in my mind as the strands twisted to form the pendant. I tried to force them away, to see the puzzle from another angle, but they were only replaced with other chants. The dream of my mother, her warning that others would come. And the other warning, words not of a vision, but a living nightmare. Fellon Strago Dreg.

I dropped the pendant on the side table with more than a little hostility and lay back to focus on something that was actually productive. I found my hawk and scanned the grounds, covering the mountain as best I could. No sentry out of place, no strangers with light hair, no ice-wielding half breeds or winged shimmering fey army. I checked for smaller inconsistencies, anything that would indicate a problem. But I found nothing, and after a long while, the search became more of an easy glide and I felt my body back in the bed relaxing with the task.