(eng) Morgan Rice - Of Crowns and Glory 03 by Knight Heir Prince

Author:Knight, Heir, Prince [Knight, Heir, Prince]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Ceres stared up at Lord West’s fortress home with a deep sense of foreboding. She had agreed to come along on the ride, willing to at least hear what this lord had to say before, if need be, fighting to the death. After all, she was back in her homeland now, and nothing, no lord, would stop her.

Lord West’s castle was craggy and gray, with a keep sitting on a hill above a larger enclosure, only the presence of flowers growing around the walls offsetting the forbidding look of it.

She rode closer on a horse one of Lord West’s men had loaned her. The creature was pale and skittish, so that Ceres spent as much time comforting the horse as looking at the castle around her. Even so, she could see the difference between this and the castle at the heart of Delos. That was a place designed to terrify the local populace into submission. This had more of a strong, protective feel to it. There were plenty of ordinary people living within the protective outer walls, in slate cottages that made the lower section seem like a village in its own right.

She had heard much of Lord West over the years and had heard, as far as nobles went, he was a fair one. But she still wasn’t taking any chances. She eyed all possible exits in case she had to fight her way out of there, to the death, and flee on foot or on horseback.

The horsemen around her dismounted, and Ceres walked with them up the slope to the central keep. At least they gave her the respect of not trying to detain her. She went through the large entrance gate, following the warriors’ leader through into a hall dominated by long tables. The warriors spread out around them, taking places that looked as though they were long established.

Another table sat at the front, and at it, Ceres saw a man in his forties working on documents with the aid of a pair of clerks.

“If the Empire’s men have burned the fields, then I’m not going to expect them to provide grain, but my men still need to be fed. For the winter, give them work helping in the weavers’ workshops while they replant. We can trade the extra for spelt from the hill farms.”

“Yes, Lord West.”

He looked up, and Ceres stared right back at him.

Ceres saw a man with shaggy, graying hair, a neatly trimmed beard, and deep brown eyes that seemed to take in everything about her at a glance. His clothes were finely made, but they were not the silks and fripperies of Delos’s court, and they looked well worn.

“Gerant,” he said, with the faint burr of a North Coast accent, “I sent you out because the riders from the Empire’s contingent said there was a threat of pirates landing in the village, yet you seem to have brought back a single young woman with you. Please explain.”

“She was what I found when I got there, uncle,” the young man who’d led the warriors said.

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