Serpent and the Throne (Fedosian Wars Book 1) by Brien Feathers

Author:Brien Feathers [Feathers, Brien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Brien Feathers
Published: 2024-10-09T00:00:00+00:00

sixteen

Royal Cup

The race was four miles and two furlongs, completing two circuits around the course, Sofia had been told by the count who yammered on about it during their ride to the track. Two dozen fences, hurdles covered in green spruce, each with individual names like the Thorned Throne and the Elfurian Cliff, had varying difficulties.

Earlier, she had gone to the parade ring to wish Lev good luck. Still upset with her about last night, he ignored her. Besides, he was busy giving orders to his handlers rather than dilly-dallying and flirting with ladies like some of the other lords. He took this seriously.

The lords showed off their racehorses and chatted up the crowd. Aleksei had been bent over, something wrong with Snowstorm’s horseshoe, and he was the only one who didn’t have a flurry of handlers.

‘Good luck, Lord Aleksei,’ she’d said.

He’d looked up and smiled at her.

‘That’s a sentinel, not a lord. Don’t talk to people if you’re going to sound ignorant.’ The count had been with her.

Ania Illeivich told Daniil Chartorisky he was her favored rider, and he thanked her and kissed her hand to be polite, but his eyes were on Lev’s Rhytsar, glaring as though he and the horse had a vendetta to settle.

Elyena was in the race. Sofia was surprised to see a woman racing, but apparently the girl was a phenomenal rider who rivaled Lev. Also, she was the only child of Lord Durnov, had her father wrapped around her finger, and could get away with murder, or so said the gossip around the track.

Sofia was nervous. She’d borrowed Papa’s race glasses—he hadn’t wanted to come though his son was racing—and holding them to her eyes she studied the fences, again. Covered in greens, they looked like rows of bushes. Some were unreasonably tall, taller than the horses, some had a ditch on the landing side, others on the take off side, now filled with water because of the earlier rain, and one was even in the middle of a turn, and they frightened her.

The final stretch was a long flat terrain, which was good, but right before that was a choke point, the course narrowing to the point where the riders would be right on top of each other, and there were three fences in quick succession inside the choke.

She worried about Lev, worried about Aleksei, worried for the only woman riding, and at the same time tried not to think about how she would be leaving right afterward and wouldn’t have time to tell Aleksei.

Though Shield seats remained empty in the grandstand, the betting enclosure crawled with sentinels in plain attire, marked by the darksteel they carried even off duty.

The archmage was in attendance, surrounded by courtiers in colorful silk like a peacock among his peahens. He drank wine and told jokes by how the women were laughing, and Sofia saw him call Lev up to the stands to speak to him instead of going down to the ring like everyone else.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.