The Queen's Assassin (The Queen's Secret #1)(91)
EXCERPT FROM THE SCROLL OF DELLAFIORE, 2.4:
A Comprehensive History of Avantine
The Story of Esban and Lilianna
IN RENOVIA IT IS SAID that a young warrior queen and an Otherworldly mage fell in love and founded the Dellafiore dynasty, each eldest child inheriting the mage’s magical blood. [Scroll of Omin, 1.2] It is said that Omin appears to his kin at times of need.
The Dellafiores ruled peacefully for generations. Until one day when the ruling Dellafiore king was assassinated by his jealous cousin. Phras stole the throne by force, surrounding himself with a mighty army, cementing his position by sending his minions out into the kingdom to collect and destroy all written magical works, making it illegal for commoners to practice magic. His loyal followers, the Aphrasians, were rewarded with Baer Abbey. They hoarded the sacred texts of magical knowledge and the history of Avantine in a document known as the Deian Scrolls, becoming gatekeepers of religious and political power.
Thereby the Dellafiores vanished. During this time the Hearthstone Guild is formed in order to resist the Aphrasians. Their primary function is to protect the Dellafiores and retain as much of the Old Ways as possible. As such they train as warriors as well as lower mages, both for their own protection and for the inevitable clash with the Aphrasians, which has been foreseen through the Seeing Stones by one of their seers.
Again, generations pass as the Guild develops into a notorious society of underground assassins and spies.
One day the Tyrant King’s descendant, Prince Esban, soon-to-be crowned king in the wake of his brother’s untimely death, travels to the neighboring Kingdom of Montrice—Renovia’s perpetual rival—for a royal ball.
It is there that Prince Esban is introduced to a young noblewoman named Lady Lilianna. Much to the chagrin of the other eligible nobles, after only one dance, he falls madly in love with her. But Lady Lilianna is meant to marry the Crown Prince of Montrice, in a marriage ordained by the king himself.
Instead Lady Lilianna elopes with Prince Esban. Soon they are crowned King and Queen of Renovia.
However, the queen has a secret. Her birth name is Lilianna Dellafiore, and she is a direct descendant of the mage Omin and Queen Alphonia, a bloodline hidden from the Tyrant King for centuries upon centuries.
Lilianna tells Esban the truth of her lineage the night he proposes. The past has no bearing on the present, he tells her. And in any case he intends to keep her birthright a secret, to keep her safe.
Only Deia Herself knows whether Lilianna was as taken with Esban as he with her. Chroniclers of Later Times will doubtless debate this point—did the sole Dellafiore survivor truly love the dashing young prince, or was the match orchestrated by the Guild to restore the bloodline to its rightful place on the throne of Renovia?
But secrets don’t remain secrets for long, and the Aphrasians, suspicious of Lilianna from the very start, soon discover exactly who, and what, she is. A Dellafiore back on the Renovian throne is the utmost threat to their very existence.
When Esban announces the impending arrival of their first child, the Aphrasian monks take it upon themselves to eliminate the usurper and her progeny. An assassination on the queen is attempted, but fails, and the perpetrator is caught by the queen’s personal bodyguard, a Guild assassin named Cordyn Holt.
The guilty man is revealed to be an Aphrasian. In response, a furious King Esban orders the scrolls returned to the royal family. The Aphrasians resist, for none relinquish power without strife. They commit high treason, taking up arms against their king. All pretense of being his loyal servants is gone; they have long grown accustomed to power in their own right.
And so the king decides to bring his army to Baer Abbey, to finish the Aphrasian order once and for all. The king’s army emerges victorious, if weakened. King Esban is killed, leaving his widow and newborn baby.
With her father’s death, Princess Lilac becomes Queen of Renovia.
The Deian Scrolls are never found.
But a Dellafiore once again sits on the Renovian throne.
— III —
ASSASSIN & QUEEN
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Shadow
THE ENGAGEMENT RECEPTION, HELD IN the grand marble ballroom, is everything a bride could possibly dream of: hundreds of friends and well-wishers, inside a gorgeous castle decorated with the fullest, most vivid blooms to be found for miles around, excellent food prepared by royal chefs, free-flowing champagne, a beautiful dress. And the future groom? A powerful young king.
But the bride is me, and I am miserable.
And I can hear people whispering, buzzing about the coming wedding. I could try to ignore it, but I’m also trying to listen for word of Caledon’s whereabouts, so I have to endure the chatter.
So far he’s nowhere to be found. I need to speak with him, desperately. I need to explain, but he vanished after the engagement was announced. I couldn’t even look at him while it was happening, but it was the only way to save us. To save both of us. My mother made that clear.
His pardon was my one condition for going through with the marriage to Hansen.
The queen—my mother—floats toward me.
My mother is the Queen of Renovia. I have known this for my entire life. And I have been in denial about this truth my entire life. For my own safety, I do not speak of it, let alone think of it. When I was little, my aunts cast a spell to keep me from the truth. When I was older, I learned to guard my words on my own. In my mind, my mother is merely a high-ranking member of the Guild who serves at the palace.