King of Mist (Steel and Fire Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

doors, perhaps to escort her home. Siv couldn’t allow a Rollendar-Denmore alliance to take hold right now. He straightened his coat and strode over to her.
    “My lady.”
    “Your Highness.” Tull offered him her smooth, white hand, and he bent over it, deep enough to be both kingly and gallant.
    “Thank you for attending the council meeting,” Siv said. “I hope it wasn’t too boring for you.”
    “Not at all, Your Highness.”
    Bolden edged sideways in the entryway so that he was fully in Siv’s view, looking about as happy as a furlingbird with a cold as he tried to listen in.
    “Would you like to dine with me tomorrow night?” Siv asked the young widow, not bothering to keep his voice down. “Your company and your presence in the castle would honor me.” There. That sounded suitably regal.
    “Thank you, Your Highness. I’d love to.”
    “Good. Until tomorrow, my lady.”
    Tull curtsied, looking up at him through delicate eyelashes. She really was lovely, and it was high time for him to renew his courtship before Bolden secured any promises himself. Before his father’s death, Siv had thought there was a chance he could insist on a certain non-noble marriage, but now that he wore the crown himself, he was starting to see how important marriage alliances could be. The nobles would dismiss him as long as they saw him as weak, and an Amintelle-Denmore-Ferrington alliance could be truly formidable.
    But as Lady Tull left the council chamber, accompanied by her retainers, Siv already had a different woman on his mind. He hoped to get back to his chambers in time to catch Dara before she headed off on her investigation. Unfortunately, his sister Soraline intercepted him before he’d gone more than five steps.
    “Siv! How did it go?”
    “Hey, Sora.”
    “Tell me everything.” She grabbed his arm eagerly. She had dark hair, round features, and light eyes like their Truren mother’s. “Did you discuss the Ringston Pact? Did Lord Farrow mention the—”
    “It was fine. Nothing too exciting happened.”
    “But—”
    “I have to get back to my chambers,” Siv said. Dara might have come and gone by now. He wasn’t sure what time her shift ended.
    “But you have to tell me what happened,” Sora pleaded. At seventeen, she loved politics more than just about anything. Siv tried to squeeze past her and her hulking red-haired bodyguard, Denn Hurling, but he stopped at the look of desperation on his sister’s round face.
    “Okay, okay. I’ll fill you in.”
    “Yes! You know, you could let me actually attend the council meetings. I might be able to help.”
    “You’re a seventeen-year-old girl,” Siv said. “I don’t think having you whispering in my ear will help my credibility with the nobles. They already think they can walk all over me.” Even the young ones. He hoped Bolden contracted a very nasty case of gut rot in the near future.
    “I know more about the kingdom than you do anyway,” Sora mumbled.
    “If you don’t want me to tell you what happened, I can—”
    “Never mind!” Sora said. “Sorry, Siv. Start at the beginning.”
    He filled his sister in on the discussion as they walked. To his immense surprise, talking it over actually made it easier to process everything that had happened, and Sora even had some good insights.
    “Why do you think Lord Rollendar wants to control that road so badly?” Siv asked. That had been bothering him since the beginning of the meeting. “He doesn’t grow plums, and Lord Morrven isn’t his direct competitor. He shouldn’t care.”
    “Hmmm . . .” Sora considered for so long that Siv thought she must be lost down a morrinvole hole in her head. Finally, she said, “What did Lord Samanar say? He’s Morrven’s biggest rival.”
    “He supported Rollendar,” Siv said. “But like you said, Samanar and Morrven are competitors, so that’s expected.”
    “But Lord Samanar has never been particularly friendly with the Rollendars,” Sora said.