Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) Read Online Free Page B

clear admission of his guilt,
but Jeremy grabbed hold of him roughly by the arm, forcing him to
stay put. Natalya waited with Jeremy and the servants at the top of
the stairs for the other Knights to return. Shouts rang out below
and Natalya could see Jeremy fairly twitching to get in on the
action.
    It wasn’t long, however, before they
returned, dragging behind them two unpleasant individuals who
glared haughtily around.
    “Names?” Natalya asked them, pulling out the
list of escaped prisoners to compare their answer to. The glares
both whipped around to land on her and she stared coolly back.
“Names?” she repeated and the Knight holding the woman, who
happened to be closer to Natalya, shook her rather roughly to get
her to respond.
    “Lady and Lord Esquire,” she spat out through
gritted teeth.
    Natalya ran a finger down the list, searching
for the name. “Ah-hah,” she said after a moment, “here you are.
Serving your sentence for possession of a book on blood-magic and
ties to the Order.”
    “This isn’t how it was supposed to be,”
whined the man from behind her, “I don’t belong here.”
    “Shut up,” his wife snapped at him, “This is
all your fault.”
    “Don’t worry,” Jeremy told him, spinning the
man around so he could place irons around his wrists, “we’ll get
you back where you belong.”

CHAPTER 2
    “Please tell me you are joking,” Layna
implored her aide.
    “I’m afraid not, Your Majesty; all of the
Council members’ households have sent messages that they are unable
to travel.”
    “This can’t be a coincidence,” she sighed and
rubbed her eyes. It seemed she was doing more cleaning up after
Telvani’s messes, and less what she needed to be doing to rebuild
the people’s confidence in her reign. “Where is Gryffon?”
    “The King is in the library, My Liege,” he
answered and correctly assumed that was a dismissal. He bowed and
left her to her thoughts. All six members of the Council were too
busy to answer a summons? That was extremely unlikely, even given
the circumstances under which she was calling them together. The
latest sessions had all been far too compliant to Lord Telvani’s
wishes. Even the meetings they’d had since Telvani escaped had been
far too subdued and none of the members had been able to offer any
suggestions on what to do. This was very unusual, and she and
Gryffon were suspicious that Telvani had somehow found a way to
influence each of them.
    They had found no evidence of blackmail or
subversion so far, but the fact that all of them supposedly
couldn’t get to the palace – all at the same time – only further
proved to her that there was something amiss.
    She strode through the castle purposefully,
almost unaware of the many feet that were constantly behind her.
Almost, but not entirely. She had grown much more accustomed to the
constant barrage of guards, aides, and maids who followed her every
movement, but it was tiresome.
    Gryffon was sitting at the center table
poring over documents. He squinted at them, from hours of focusing
too closely, and she felt for him. Both their lives had been turned
upside-down the moment that she had been recognized as the heir for
the kingdom. The hunts he used to be able to take alone, now came
with an entourage of guardsmen. Layna had spent no few nights
listening to him complaining about how much harder it was to be
silent in the woods with ten men following behind you. And armored
men make quite a racket.
    “Gryffon,” she interrupted his work, laying a
gentle hand on his shoulder.
    He looked up at her gratefully, obviously
glad to have been given an excuse to stop. “My love,” he greeted
her, standing to give her a quick kiss.
    The touch still sent shivers through her, and
she watched the people around them out of the corner of her eye.
They were all pointedly looking elsewhere for their privacy.
    “We may have another problem,” she told him
regretfully. “None of the Council members are