Evanescent Read Online Free Page B

don’t like it, but Timbago is right. Today we have no choice but to maintain the peace.”
    “And what about Eriste?” I asked. “The new ambassador? What do either of you know about him?”
    “He makes Sarai look like a kitten dressed up in trollskin.” Timbago snorted.
    “You’ve dealt with him before?” I asked.
    “More than I would care to admit,” Timbago said. “I wasn’t unhappy to see him leave when he went with the empress to Bathune, and I’m not pleased to see him return.”
    I raised an eyebrow at Timbago. “So you don’t like him?”
    “I never liked him, Queen Allie.”
    “Why?” I asked, trying to get a feel for the ambassador I would be meeting before we were actually face-to-face.
    “Before your mother became the Golden Rose, when your grandmother ruled, Bathune and Nerissette were one country.” Timbago looked away. “The old queen split the lands at the White Mountains when she died, so that each of her daughters could inherit part of the kingdom, which she’d hoped would prevent a civil war between them.”
    I knew this already. When I hadn’t been going over paperwork and trying to rebuild the parts of my castle that had been damaged in the Fate Maker’s last attack, I’d been studying the history of my new home and how my ancestors had ruled it. “And?”
    “A lot of the wizards felt that the kingdom shouldn’t have been split, that it should have gone to the oldest daughter—Bavasama—as a whole kingdom. Eriste was one of them,” John said.
    “So you think he wants to get rid of me and put Bavasama on the throne?”
    “I know he does.” Timbago’s eyes fixed on mine now. “The only question is will he do anything about it?”
    “Do you think that’s why my aunt sent him?” I asked. “Do you think Bavasama is going to try to force me from my throne?”
    “I think she would not be sad to see you gone,” John sidestepped. “You are the queen of a large kingdom, a kingdom larger than her own, and one she will inherit if you die. She has much to gain. And you didn’t die in battle the first time…”
    John had helped Rhys after the war, making sure that the wounded were treated and the dead were taken care of while I was still too weak from my own fight with the Fate Maker to take charge. Since then he’d moved into the palace and his son, Eamon, had joined the Royal Guards with several other woodsmen. Whenever I needed John he’d been there, ready with advice or information to help me make decisions in the day-to-day running of the kingdom. He was never pushy, though. Never demanded that I do things a specific way. He simply gave me the information I needed and helped me keep the country under control while I figured out how I was supposed to manage. He was doing it again now.
    “So, long story short, she’s going to try to be my friend while she looks for a way to stab me in the back.” I blew out a long breath. No one had ever told me that running a country was going to be like living inside a high school but it was. Between the squabbling cliques of nobles and the gossip and the general he said-she said crap that floated around the place it was like being at boarding school or something. Except, unlike Harry Potter, I didn’t have a cool professor like McGonagall to keep everyone in line for me.
    “That’s politics, Your Majesty,” Timbago said. “Eriste means you nothing but harm and is not to be trusted.”
    “Okay.” I nodded. “Don’t trust him. Don’t trust her. That shouldn’t be hard. It seems I can’t trust most people anymore anyway. Just you two, Winston, Rhys, and Mercedes.”
    “Can I give you a piece of advice, Your Majesty?” John asked as he led me back into the throne room. “You shouldn’t trust anyone . Not even us.”
    I stopped, my hand going for my sword. “Why not?” I eyed him warily.
    “We all have an agenda.”
    “Even you?”
    John lifted an eyebrow. “Even me what?”
    “Do you have an agenda?”
    “Yes.