Lady of Stone by Barbara Ann Wright

Author:Barbara Ann Wright [Wright, Barbara Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, lesbian, Lesbian Romance
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2020-09-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

Prince Gunnar stared at Sylph from across the campfire, but he might as well have been someone she’d never met. His face seemed open and yet more closed than she’d ever seen. His real self—if that was indeed what this was—seemed serious and secretive, his eyes probing and unnerving, a quality she’d never associated with the greatest gadabout in the land.

“You may have heard of the Order of Vestra?” he asked.

“It’s a child’s tale,” she said. “The secret protectors of the crown, bogeymen for traitors.” She shrugged. “Or children who won’t eat their greens, though why such creatures are named after an ancient Farradain noble, I’ve never been able to guess.” She thought it might be another way of maintaining noble control, but she wasn’t about to say so in this crowd.

“We’re very real,” he said.

“We?” She looked to his comrades as pieces fell into place. Who would want to push the image of control more than the highest nobles in the land?

“It’s not bandied about,” he said with a trace of his usual drawl. “Secret order and all that. I’m glad it’s been relegated to a threat for misbehaving kiddies. Maybe one day, it will pass out of public remembrance altogether.”

“And you act as agents for the crown? Why not leave that to the royal guards?” Anxiety fluttered in her chest at her own daring. In the past, she would have remained quiet in front of the prince, put on a show of meekness, but the fact that he had a secret identity made her want to throw off her old life, too. She could show that she was clever, that she pondered the world at times.

That she was so much more than what her father had made her.

And if she couldn’t express her feelings to Thana, she could at least impress her. Thana was watching her proudly already. Something in her soared.

“Too conspicuous,” he said. “The people we chase are normally in the shadows, and they rarely expect the prince to be after them.”

She nodded. That explained why he recruited help outside the nobility, like Thana who—as monarch’s pyradisté—was already privy to many royal secrets. None of which Sylph had heard until now. Anxiety gripped her. Steady, she reminded herself. She had to keep her wits. “And you have decided I am trustworthy because Thana has found me worthy of aid?”

“No, my lady. It’s because you are a noble pyradisté and have as much to lose as any of us.”

Her chest froze. So he knew. And yet he sat so casually, as if she wasn’t an abomination. None of his cronies batted an eye. They all knew. The queen must have guessed after she and Thana had fled. How far had the knowledge reached? Her peers? Her father?

“Breathe,” Thana said softly. Her touch on Sylph’s arm was like a cool cloth to a fevered brow. “Watch me, Sylph. One, two, three.”

They breathed together for a few moments, and Sylph forced her facial muscles to relax, relax, relax, and admit nothing.

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