Troubled Waters Read Online Free Page A

he didn’t even seem arrogant; he could have been discussing something as absolute as the arrangement of the stars in the night skies. “The king has sent for her and she must come.”
    “If she agrees to go,” Doman repeated stubbornly.
    Zoe didn’t waste time speculating what sort of retribution this powerful man could bring to anyone who tried to thwart him. “I agree to go,” she said in a faint voice, but everybody heard her.
    “Good,” Darien Serlast said briskly. “Get into the coach.”
    Even Miela protested at that. “She must gather her things! She must set her house to rights! She will not be able to leave for a day at least!”
    Darien did not even bother to look annoyed. “She may gather what she needs,” he said. “We leave within the hour.”
     
     
    A fter all, the few things Zoe needed could be gathered up in five minutes; what took time was saying goodbye. Miela and a few of the other women accompanied her back to the house, where Zoe packed what she wanted. Some changes of clothing. Two small journals in her father’s hand. A few loose copper and quint-silver pieces that might come in handy on her journey. The warm, colorful, densely patterned shawl that had been her mother’s, hung with cheap metal and glass charms that chimed merrily together and covered the clinking sound of the gold coins sewn into the border.
    “You and Doman can do what you want with the rest of the furniture,” Zoe said to Miela as they stepped out of kierten and closed the door behind them. “You will know who needs the clothing and the cooking pots.”
    “I can’t believe you’re to marry the king!” one of the other village women exclaimed.
    “But I thought the king already had a wife,” piped up a young girl.
    “He has four,” Zoe said.
    The girl stared. “But then how can you marry him?”
    Miela hushed her. “He’s the king. He’s different,” she said. “He may have as many wives as he likes.”
    “And why would he want to marry Zoe ?”
    There was a conspicuous silence; the question had obviously vexed everyone. What did these people know of the politics, the shifting alliances of power in Chialto? Zoe glanced down at the girl, a thin, scrappy blonde with huge brown eyes. “Because my father used to be a very important man,” she said gently. “It is quite possible King Vernon has been looking for him the entire time that we lived here.”
    Her mouth forming a soundless O , the girl stared back at Zoe. But even Miela seemed startled at that news. Oh, she had always known that Navarr Ardelay was a great man who had fallen on hard times. But clearly she had not given much thought to just how great he was or how far he had fallen.
    “Will you be safe, then, in your new life at the palace?” Miela asked, seeming for the first time to wonder if it was a good idea to thrust Zoe into a new and glamorous existence. It might be better, after all, to mourn in obscurity.
    “I suppose I will,” Zoe said, her voice indifferent. To be honest, she didn’t care. She could live here and grieve, or make her home at the palace and grieve; it simply didn’t matter. Wherever she was, her life would be bounded by insurmountable pain. “I don’t think you need to worry.”
    Wrapped in her mother’s festive shawl, Zoe made her rounds through the gathered villagers, accepting their hugs, their whispered words of farewell. Doman pressed on her a blessing coin, no doubt one of his own that he had hoarded through the years. It was stamped with the symbol for courage, which seemed particularly appropriate as she was about to embark on a journey with a hunti man.
    “If the king is unkind to you, return to us,” he said loudly enough for everyone, even the Serlast man, to overhear. “We will give you shelter from any cause, from any weather.”
    “Thank you,” she said, leaning forward to receive his kiss on her cheek. “I have been most happy during these years my father and I lived in your