The Wolf of Oren-yaro (Annals of the Bitch Queen Book 1) by K.S. Villoso

Author:K.S. Villoso [Villoso, K.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Liam's Vigil Publishing Co.
Published: 2018-01-28T22:00:00+00:00

~~~

The inn was roomy, quite unlike some of the places I’ve had the misfortune of staying at during my travels in Jin-Sayeng. It was more barn than anything else, with large roof beams surrounding the dining hall. The round tables were so far apart from each other that the conversations around us were garbled, like the buzzing of bees in the summer heat. There were grainy rice mats under the low benches for our feet. It was not comfortable, but after hours of walking about in dust and mud, I more than welcomed the relief of having to sit at last.

A mousy-looking server brought our food: hot, sour soup made of beef leg bones, corn, and jackfruit, bowls of rice, and some boiled eggs. The beef bones contained chunks of fatty marrow that oozed into the soup when I tapped it with my spoon.

“You must really love your Dragonlord,” Khine said. “For you to go all through this trouble…”

I glanced up from peeling an egg. “I suppose. He’s been…longer in my life than he hasn’t.”

“Even without the five years?”

I allowed a smile to flit across my lips. “Well, maybe not.”

“I did tell you I have Jinsein friends. I’m not entirely ignorant about those events.” He wiped his lips and took a long swig of the nutty brown ale that the inn served in round, earthenware pots. “Dragonlord Rayyel, on the eve before his official coronation day, abandoned his bride of three years. A mystery that has confounded many scholars.”

“I don’t see what was so confounding about it. Everyone I’ve met seems to have an opinion about why it happened. They usually blame me. Things I did, things I didn’t do.” I stared at the egg in my hand.

“You seem almost nonchalant.”

“Now I am. Five years ago, I’d have cut your head off for even daring to mention it.” I smiled at him.

“Queen Talyien the Decapitator. I’ve heard of that one, too. I can see why.”

“That’s surprising. Most men tell me otherwise.”

“Flattery.”

“So you’re not trying to flatter me? That’s a relief. People are either trying to flatter me or trying to run from me.”

“I don’t believe in empty flattery, and I’ve been around Inzali too long to be frightened of women.”

“Lies.”

“Maybe.” His eyes danced.

I was silent for some time while I sat there, staring at the fatty lumps congealing at the edges of my soup bowl. “It’s not what people think,” I said at last. “It’s got nothing to do with our clans or my lack of suitability as a bride, or his lack of suitability as a husband for the last direct heir of the Orenar clan. It was never about politics or tradition. He left because sometimes we make mistakes and we do things we can’t ever take back.”

It was strange to hear those words come from my own mouth. It was even stranger to have someone else listening to them. Until then, I had never told anyone these things. Even if I had wanted to, especially in the midst of the raw ache of the months after I became Queen, there had been no else who would listen.

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