Royal Assassin

As quickly as I could, I secured mugs of warmed wine for the Queen and Duke Brawndy and, on pretext of serving them, joined them. They were at the very edge of the parapet, looking out over the crenated wall at the open sea below. The wind had lashed it to white froth, and was flinging seagulls about with a fine disregard for the birds' attempts to fly. As I approached I could see they were speaking softly, but the roar of the wind frustrated my attempt to eavesdrop. I wished I had thought to get a cloak for myself. I was soaked through almost instantly and the wind blew off what heat my body generated by shivering. I tried to smile past my chattering teeth as I presented them with the wine.

"Lord FitzChivalry is known to you?" she asked Brawndy as they took the wine from me.

"Indeed, I have had the pleasure of having him at my own table," Brawndy assured her. Rain dripped off his bushy eyebrows while the wind had set his warrior's tail to flapping.

"You would not mind, then, if I asked him to join us in our conversation?" Despite the rain that soaked her, the Queen spoke calmly, as if we basked in spring sunshine.

I wondered if Kettricken knew that Brawndy would see her request as a veiled command.

"I would welcome his counsels, if you consider he has wisdom to offer, my queen," Brawndy acquiesced.

"I had hoped you would. FitzChivalry. Fetch yourself some wine, and rejoin us here, please."

"As my queen wishes." I bowed low and hurried off to obey. My contact with Verity had grown more tenuous with each passing day that he journeyed farther away, but at that moment I could sense his nudging, eager curiosity. I hastened back to my queen's side.

"There is no undoing what has been done," the Queen was saying as I returned to them. "I grieve that we were not able to protect our folk. Yet if I cannot undo what the Raiders from the sea have done already, at least, perhaps, I can help to shelter them from the storms to come. This, I bid you take them, from their queen's hand and heart."

I noticed in passing that she made no mention of King Shrewd's evident refusal to act. I watched her. She moved leisurely and purposefully at once. The loose white sleeve that she drew back from her arm was already dripping with cold rain. She ignored it as she bared her pale arm, to reveal a snaking of gold wire up her arm, with the dark opals of her Mountains caught here and there in its web. I had seen the dark flash of Mountain opals before, but never ones of this size. Yet she held out her arm for me to unfasten the catch, and with no hesitation at all, she unwound the treasure from her arm. From her other sleeve, she drew a small velvet bag. I held its mouth open as she slid the bracelets into it. She smiled warmly at Duke Brawndy as she pressed it into his hand. "From your king-in-waiting Verity and me," she said quietly. I barely resisted Verity's impulse in me to fling himself on his knees at the feet of this woman and declare her far too royal for his insignificant love. Brawndy was left stuttering his amazed thanks and vowing to her that not a penny of its worth would go to waste. Stout houses would rise once more in Ferry, and the folk there would bless the Queen for the warmth of them.

I suddenly saw the reason for the Queen's Garden as a site. This was a Queen's gift, not contingent on anything Shrewd or Regal might have to say. Kettricken's choice of place, and her manner of presenting it to Brawndy, made that clear to him. She did not tell him to keep it secret; she did not need to.

I thought of the emeralds hidden in a corner of my clothes chest, but within me Verity was quiet. I made no move to get them. I hoped to see Verity himself fasten them about his queen's neck one day. Nor did I wish to lessen the significance of her gift to Brawndy by adding another from a bastard. For that was how I would have had to present it. No, I decided. Let the Queen's gift and her presentation of it stand alone in his memory.

Brawndy turned from his queen to consider me. "My queen, you seem to hold this young man in considerable esteem, to make him privy to your counsels."

"I do," Kettricken replied gravely. "He has never betrayed my trust in him."