King Hazerial’s return to Siu Rial was greeted with raucous cheering ireets. News of his victory over the pirates had traveled quickly, along with stories of the savages’ prince swearing loyalty to the King of Night and being paraded in a cage cart through every city between Siu Jinial and Thornfield. The war on the pirates roceedily as every peasant and oner k would in the powerful hands of the strong gods’ chosen ruler.

  In celebration of the victory and before the ing winter, a royal progress to the eastern nds was scheduled. By sunrise, every wagging tongue in Siu Rial agreed a dark cloud was headed for the ternds and what remained of the rebellious House Mattius had better brace itself for stormy weather.

  Etian suspected there was more afoot than a simple reassertion of dominan the farthest-flung reaches of the kingdom. As if to firm this, the night Hazerial returo Castle Sangmere, the prince was summoo the king’s private chambers.

  The king’s armor bearer was busy removing the gleaming ceremonial pieces from His Majesty. Bloodsves came a, drawing a steaming bath for the road-weary liege, but Hazerial had ighem, knowing nothing he said would leave these four walls oohe armor bearer was a former Royal Thorn who had been rendered deaf and mute for this post, and the bloodsves had no more will than the furniture.

  “House Skalia.” Hazerial jumped straight to the point. “You know them?”

  Etian nodded, gd the king wasn’t in the mood to waste time with idle chat. “Lord and Lady Zihey hold the ties northwest of the ternds.”

  “They will host the royal household before we progress to House Mattius. There’s to be a tour. You will pit your sword wainst Skalia’s guard, then you will put on full dispy everything you’ve learned of the royal blood magic.”

  “It will be as Your Majesty says.”

  Hazerial assessed him, perhaps seeing the questions through Etian’s smoked lenses. “We give you leave to speak your mind.”

  “Has Your Majesty received word of a threat from House Skalia which calls for such a dispy?”

  “A Josean-blessed king presumptive should know that keeping overwhelming strength always before the subjects’ eyes averts threats before they bud,” Hazerial said.

  “Then this visit is merely to preserve their loyalty?”

  Of course not. Etian knew before he asked that it wasn’t. The Eketra-blessed king never did anything without myriad reasons. Hazerial was the embodiment of the strong goddess’s bloody web of the Thousand Strands.

  “Four years ago, the entered betrothal iations with House Skalia,” Hazerial allowed. “You’ll wed Zinote’s daughter when they’re settled.”

  ***

  That night, Etian trained with the Thorns who had returned from the coast with his father, two- and three-on-one. As he fought, he sidered the news of his betrothal the way he would have studied an enemy before the attack.

  Acc to the Royal Archives, Izakiel had beehed five times. The first had ended with the infant future bride’s death. Not necessarily suspect, as it had e in a summer of pgue. Two more ended in the absorption into the Kingdom of Night of the states their families ruled. o keep rival rulers’ daughters under tract after they had sworn their nds, tributes, and allegiao the king. The fourth had killed herself, but that was widely attributed to an unstable bloodlihe fifth had tried to run when her family was sent to the priests and had been torn apart by attack dyre.

  The betrothal of Lord Zinote’s daughter to Izak had been under discussion since just after the ternds Rebellion, acc to the Archives, but it had been moving slowly. Apparently, Hazerial’s cellors disagreed with the head of House Skalia on the value of his only child.

  Sted as Etian had been to serve his brother until death, the sed prince had never been a part of the marriageable royal family. He, like everyone else, had assumed he would die unmarried, probably violently, while proteg King Izakiel VI.

  It made sehat the prince’s betrothal tract would be transferred to Etian the moment Hazerial had designated him as in line for the throne. A quickly produced son, with a future ander of the Royal Thorns on his heels, would ehat House Khi retais hold ohrone. Additionally, the Skalia holdings sprawled across eight ties and included one of the rgest standing armies in the kingdom.

  Even with all that in miian couldn’t shake the feeling that the betrothal was suspect. It put his back up in the same way a trap id by an oppo always did during a sparring match or oour field.

  Wheches were finished, and the Thorns and prince were toweling off, Etian found Vorino, his former sword tutor. While Gander and Ruis would be more than happy to try their hand at strategy, between them, her articurly dising. Vorino was an excellent strategist, not to mention he had a background in noble affairs. The sword tutor had been born the illegitimate child of a cellor and raised as part of the household until the seal old man died and his legitimate sons shipped Vorino off to Thornfield.

  “May I put a sario to you?” Etian asked him.

  “Try me.”

  Etian shrugged on his shirt and tucked iail. “You’re a wealthy lord whose heir just died. Your sed son is of age. Do you marry him off immediately to the first didate you find, or do you wait a few years to make certain you’ve secured the best alliance for your house?”

  “Sounds like you wao say you wait.” The Thorn scrubbed his wet hair with the towel. “But if I had an urgent enough circumstaning to sider the first option at all, I’d probably hop that kid into bed with the first girl of his status I could rope into a tract.”

  “So you choose the fool’s route?”

  “Fool, maybe.” Vorino grabbed a bottle of wine from the able and took a swig. “But maybe preventative of another kind of foolishness. Say, the new heir’s been under skirts that might ruin your family and divide iance. Or there’s an unmarried washer dy with a slightly older son who looks a lot like me, the lord, and is suddenly championing his cim to my holdings over the unmarried heir’s.”

  Etian frowhe list of possibilities sparking his instincts off in another dire.

  “Or if your dead son had taught you a lesson about how hard it is to trol a man with no wife and offspring?” trol the battlefield and you trol your oppo. trol was the treasured on and weakness of the Eketra-blessed.

  Vorino tipped his head as if aowledging a hit. “Maybe a smart man takes it a step further and bumps off the older boy to make sure he’s got the sed under trol.”

  “But if the sed knows what you did, he avoid falling into the trap.”

  “Sounds easy, doesn’t it?” Voriurhe witle to the table.

  Etian’s mind raced through sarios. The lord’s heir could enhance security for his wife and children, or keep distand ess between himself and his wife, even avoid produg offspring…

  Or kill the lord before the lord had his hooks in the son?

  Without the Blood of the Strong Gods in his veins, no man could equal the King of Night, aian wouldn’t receive the Blood until Hazerial y on his death bed. Although Hazerial had found his way around that, using his grafted brother Ahixandro against their father.

  The Royal Archives held no at of their method—too dangerous to record something like that and leave it for just anybody to learn from—but it tion to keep in mind.

  Hey friends, thanks for reading! I'm so happy you're here! If you're enjoying the story, maybe sider giving it a rating or a reivew, so I know I'm on the right track.

  chapters ing on Monday! I've decided to do a daily M-F post. But if you'd rather not wait, I have the full book 1 avaible on my Patreon, and book 2 has already 16 chapters up! (Oh and a third book about the ternds Rebellion Saint Daven and Saint Galen were involved in. I like writing in this universe, lol) Check it out if you'd like to binge like 200+ chapters XD

  See you Monday!e