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He speaks well, the words srin doesn’t meet her eyes "Itto me

If I had no restraint, I would take her hand and run But I have restraint in spades, and I keep an even pace Alh the black flowers, the blue-patterned halls, and onto the sacred ground that is the queen’s personal te the royal apartments of thesalons and bedroo fountain, waist height, bubbles away in the center of the se and faods have no nas are random, their words sparse, their punishs They are felt at all tiuely feuished only by a quirk of the lips that could be a flaw in the stone She seely She comforts me, even now, in the shadow of ht, I think she says

The rooe as the other palace terand as the olden altars or jeweled books of celestial law Our gods require little more than faith to ainst a fah thick dia waves Only when the doors of the sanctuods and one another, do I breathe a low sigh of relief Before ht, Mother takes my face in her waro back," Mother whispers

I’ve never heard her beg It is a foreign sound

My voice sticks "What?"

"Please, my dearest one" She switches deftly back to Lakelander, favoring our native tongue Her eyes sharpen, darker in the shadows of the narrow room They are deep wells I could fall into and never cli it together"

She doesn’t let go ofer I see the hope bloom in her eyes, and I squeeze my lids shut Slowly, I put my hands over her own and pull them away

"We know that isn’t true at all," I tellmyself to look back at her face

She clenches her jaw, hardening A queen is never accustomed to denial "Don’t tell me what I do or do not know"

But I aods told you otherwise?" I ask "Do you speak for theods in your heart, but only priests can spread their words

Even the queen of the Lakelands is subject to such bonds She glances away, asha, and looks grimmer than ever Quite a feat

"Do you speak for the crown?" I press on, putting distance between us Mother ain, silence Mother won’t answer Instead she steels herself, shifting into her royal persona before row taller I almost expect her to turn to stone She won’t lie to you

"Or do you speak for yourself, Mother? As a grieving woman? You just lost Father, and you don’t want to lose me--"