Garden of Madness (The Seven Wonders Novels) by Tracy Higley

Author:Tracy Higley [Higley, Tracy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stonewater Books
Published: 2021-04-14T22:00:00+00:00

24

Somehow Tia held her ground until Amytis and her advisors left the chamber, taking the light with them or extinguishing it, she did not know.

Stomach roiling, she stumbled into blackness, took three steps, and grabbed at the table. The rough wood splintered against her hand, but she barely noted the pain.

Amel, the son of Nebuchadnezzar? Vying for the throne, danger to her father?

Her brother?

In truth, while the threat to her father greatly concerned her, it was this last that set her stomach against her, that flooded her chest with the bitter taste of revulsion. How close to her he placed himself last night! The way he spoke against her ear, pulled her into his quiet confidence. Not the affection of a brother. Something very different.

Tia leaned over the table in the darkness, braced herself with her forearms, and tried to think. Her mother’s perfume still clouded the air, dizzied her.

Did Amel know he was her brother? He certainly must. Shadir’s protégé.

Who was his mother? Not one of the harem women, or his birth would not have been kept secret.

Oh, Father, what choices have you made that will be our undoing?

But it was her choice, her secret feelings for Amel, that sickened her. How could she not have known, somehow, that he was her brother?

She needed to be away from this chamber, should one of them return.

Her stomach rebelled when she stood, and she paused and closed her eyes, hoping to quell the nausea. When she felt able, she moved forward with wooden steps, out of the room and down the corridor toward the first courtyard.

What was Shadir’s plan? How did he intend to place Amel on the throne? Whom did it endanger?

And what could she do to stop it?

After the darkness of the advisory chamber, the courtyard’s harsh sunlight pained her eyes. She sought a shadowy path beneath tangled green vines that arched over plantings of bitter herbs. She could hear the fountain water spurting fitfully beyond the green veil that hid her from view.

A flash of white on the path ahead lifted her eyes.

“Pedaiah!” The word came out in a rush and matched her footsteps. She would speak with him of all she had heard. She trusted him. She reached him in a moment and clutched at the blinding white tunic across his chest. “Pedaiah, I must speak with you—”

He caught her hand and pulled it from him, his face pained. “And I, you, Princess.”

She did not like the way he called her Princess. It was his way of distancing himself, and she needed a close advisor of her own today.

She peered through the greenery that sheltered them. Insufficient. “Come, we will speak privately.”

It seemed only natural to lead him to the chamber where he had prayed to his One God over her, days ago.

In the dim light she turned to unburden her heart, but he raised a hand. “I must say what I came to say.”

Something about the way he shifted on his feet, or perhaps the way he seemed to labor for breath, closed her mouth.

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