A Kingdom Restored: The Vazula Chronicles Book Four by White Deborah Grace

Author:White, Deborah Grace
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781922636232
Publisher: Luminant Publications
Published: 2022-10-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

“But they have no things except my old dresses. How did they get here?” Laura leaned forward across the breakfast table, her eyes fixed shrewdly on Heath’s face.

Only the two of them were present at the table—no one else had yet emerged for the meal. Probably because it was two hours earlier than the normal breakfast hour. At least Laura had twin infants to blame for her sleepless night. Heath, meanwhile, had lain awake thinking about Merletta asleep a mere few rooms away.

“I told you,” Heath insisted, “a dragon carried them. As a favor.”

“You may as well say Rekavidur,” his sister responded skeptically. “It’s not like your friendship is a secret.”

“It wasn’t him, actually,” said Heath. “It was Elddreki. Not that it really matters.”

She frowned at him. “But did he bring them across the land, or across the sea?”

“Across the sea,” Heath said shortly.

She narrowed her eyes. “Are you telling me the truth, Heath? I know all those rumors that circulated last year were nonsense—about Merletta and her guardian being from some little-known Thoranian island.” She named one of the kingdoms that formed the South Lands continent.

Goaded, Heath put down his spoon with a flourish. “You want the full truth?”

“Obviously,” said Laura shortly.

Heath glanced surreptitiously to the side, waiting as a maidservant who’d just carried in a steaming bowl of porridge edged back out of the room. Once they were alone, he turned to face his sister.

“Fine. The truth is that Merletta—and her friend Sage, whom I hadn’t met before yesterday—come from a kingdom hidden in the middle of the ocean. She’s gotten on the wrong side of those in power there, because she’s made it her mission to expose their lies and corruption. She had just been sentenced to execution when she was rescued yesterday by Elddreki.”

Laura just blinked at him, her mouth hanging open well before the end of his matter-of-fact speech.

“How can there be a kingdom that close by which I don’t know about?” she demanded at last.

Heath sighed. “You know the East Seas are impassable—no one can sail further than three days in that direction. Well, there’s a reason for that. There’s actually a magical barrier there—dragon-made, from what we can tell. It’s like how human ships can’t sail through the waters surrounding Wyvern Islands. But as in that case, dragons can fly straight through with no problems. Reka and I discovered the kingdom by accident a few years ago, and we were the only ones who knew about it, up until last Winter Solstice Festival.”

“What happened then?” Laura asked warily.

“The dragons saw Merletta and her guardian, and they realized her civilization is out there. Now they’re determined to kill them.”

“Kill who?” Laura asked, aghast. “Merletta and her friend?”

Heath shook his head. “No. Well, yes. But not just them. All of them. The whole population of her kingdom.”

“But why?” Laura demanded.

Heath ran a hand through his hair, the release of letting this information out almost overwhelming. Laura had always been adept at weaseling confidences out

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