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I grunted “Get to the point, old man”

The sun was already rising over the battlements I should have been with Iris at dawn I wanted to be with her His wordsto me

“I need you to understand why you weren’twith your mother I’m not sentimatic I saw the opportunity in your existence And since neither the for Braitie, if we chose to make it so”

“Give the job to someone else”

“Ah, yes One of your father’s thousand other sons, fathered out of wedlock I’ll just send a flock of carrier pigeons and give the crown to whichever one shows up first, shall I?”

I stood and started to walk away I wasn’t ready to listen to this shit

“Randal,” he said, like he was calling his favorite stag hound to heel

“I don’t want it,” I insisted, wanting to go but also wanting to put an end to this conversation “Patara does She would ood queen”

“She will never be queen, even if anted it The very idea would plunge the kingdom into civil war Every faction that believes it has a clai up arive her the life of luxury a former queen deserves”

I turned and met his eyes I wanted to see a lie there, but all I saas honesty Was he a good enough liar to fool me? I doubted it War hadn’t crossed my mind, but it made sense A vacant throne, or one perceived to be weakly defended, would have the vultures circling

“You would be a safe choice, Randal Work with dom accept you as their new ether we can protect Patara, and…” He hesitated, as if considering his next words, then nodded al in his head “And I’ your milkmaid into the fold Give her a title Make her available to you--”

His words were cut short as ers wrapped around his throat and I lifted him clean off the bench “How the fuck do you know about Iris? You touch a hair on her head, motherfucker, and I’ll kill you I swear to every God in the sky…”

I are ofout of the ork to ht them all if I had to To protect Iris I’d happily lay down my life