Reign Queen L. Gibbs (best books to read for young adults TXT) 📖

ordeal. He was loyal to Russal. Could she rely onhim to tell the tale if it put Russal in the wrong?

He was a child, but wasn’t the child thefather of the man? Her thoughts whirled. If only Felip Covey wouldstay away and keep his stories to himself. She was overwrought andtired. Striding to the bed, she stopped, staring down at the neatlyturned-down covers.

She couldn’t sleep. Tomo’s pleading screams echoed in her mind. TheLaurents, would they know? Dorvea Veed? Dorvea seemed to knoweverything, and she had always been honest with Kambry.

Lessa. She’d been around Amily and Russal allher life and had even played with them. Might she have beenthere?

Kambry rushed to the doorway at the head ofthe stairs. The sound of the cot creaking in the room just feetaway pulled her to a stop. She should ask to Russal. Would he talkto her now?

Timidly, she approached the door and rappedsoftly.

The door flew open, Russal standing with hiseyes and hair as wild as she had ever seen them.

She froze, staring at him.

“What do you want?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Nothing.”

“You knocked for a reason,” he said, hisvoiced jarring. “What do you want?”

Stepping back, she asked, “I wondered, haveyou ever hurt anyone with Kavin magic?”

He was silent for several breaths. “I have.”Other than his fingers gripping the edge of the door tighter, hedidn’t move or change his expression.

She had expected him to say no, and sherealized she had hoped he would. “Who did you hurt?”

“There have been many.” He shut the doorbefore she could gather her scattered expectations.

She reached out to knock again, her handstalling midair.

Did she really want to know more?

Reaching to the right as if in need of solidsupport and distance from his room, her hand came in contact withthe door at the head of the stairs. It was open in a moment, herfeet taking her to the bottom two steps at a time. She arrivedsurprised she hadn’t tumbled into the dim light, and she stared upthe dark stairway before facing the room she had rushed into.

Moonlight came in through the uncoveredwindows of the private drawing room, and she turned the corner inthe faint light, striding to the door to the corridor and thewaiting guards.

Her hand on the nob, she turned, looking backinto the moonlit room. Was Covey hiding close, watching her?

She yanked open the door and stared at thetwo guards, startled to see her.

“Your Majesty, is something wrong?”

“I want to see Guard Lessa Veed.”

Both guards were unfamiliar to her. Theystood at attention, their faces twitching with consideration. Didthey think her mad to be demanding to see a guard at this latehour? They hadn’t had a queen in years. Perhaps they wondered ifthis would be a common occurrence.

“You know who she is?” Kambry folded her armsand tapped a foot. She gazed from one guard to the next.

“I’ll send a page for her. You wish to speakto her now or after you have rested?”

“Now.” She put all the demand she could intoher voice.

He gave her a nod and stepped around thecorner. Voices carried to her, but she couldn’t tell what theysaid. The second guard remained stoic, his hand on the pommel ofhis sword.

The first guard returned. “She’ll be hereshortly.”

Kambry shut the door and sat down to wait.The couch had always been comfortable, but she kept fidgeting. Howwould she get Lessa to describe an event that might make her kingappear less than fair or kingly?

This was a mistake. Russal wouldn’t doanything to hurt Tomo. He had been eight, and they’d only becomefriends a short time before.

He said he’d hurt many.

He was just a child, but that didn’t make itright to attack him with thorns.

She paced back and forth and forced herselfto sit on the chair facing the couch. Covey had said the attack hadhappened after the murders. Russal said that was when he and Tomobecame friends. Was this an outburst of anger instigated by loss?Would that make it excusable?

He’d said many.

She rose again. When would Lessa get here,and how was she going to broach the subject?

A knock on the door broke into herthoughts.

Kambry jumped to open it, finding Lessastanding there, her eyes looking bright and alert. She lookedKambry up and down and entered, her bobbed blonde hair bouncingwith the gesture.

As Kambry shut the door, Lessa said, “Youwished to speak to me, Your Majesty?” At the click of the latch,she relaxed her stance. “What is it, Kambry? You look terrible, andyou frightened the king’s guards. They want to know if the king iswell.”

“Russal? He’s fine.” Her shoulders shrugged.“He’s okay.”

“But something is wrong.”

Kambry took Lessa’s hands and tugged her tothe couch. They sat, Lessa regarding Kambry with curiosity.

“I need you to be very honest with me.”

“I’ve always been,” Lessa said.

A memory rose to Kambry’s mind. The firsttime they had met, Lessa had made it plain she didn’t approve ofKambry or her bare feet. She’d also made it clear her prince’sactions were difficult to interpret. Honesty had been one qualitythat had drawn Kambry to her. If their physical features had notbeen so easy to match, Kambry would have known Dorvea Veed wasLessa’s mother just from their shared blunt nature.

“That’s why I asked for you. I need you totell me something without garnishing it or protecting the peopleinvolved. Tell me just as you remember it.”

“You’re my queen. You have all myloyalty.”

Kambry squeezed her hands. “I really neededto hear that.” But she couldn’t look Lessa in the eye when sheexplained what she needed to speak to her about. She looked out atthe room, her gaze settling on the lounging couch. “Lessa, when youwere a child, you played with Tomo, Amily and Russal, right?”

“Not so much in the beginning. I sort offollowed them around. Later, when Amily was maybe six, that waswhen I became part of the group. The boys didn’t want another weegirl to lug around. But I was always nearby. Where else was my momgoing to put me?”

“So even if you weren’t a member of theirlittle group, you were near enough to see what they weredoing?”

“Spying on them. Yes, I was terribly nosey. Iwanted to