Page 45 of Highland Lords of War & Thunder: The Prequel

Lord—Eudora caught herself before the thought could finish. There were no lords seated around her table, only the men she'd chosen or inherited to advise the crown.

Bradan answered. “They say they see no reason to provide warriors to a queen who may have no right to command them.”

The room went still.

Eudora felt anger stir but gave no outward sign of it. “Who told them I have no right to command them?”

“No one will say,” Bradan said.

Wilford looked to the queen. “Because they don't know.”

Bradan suggested another possibility. “Or because they won't tell us.”

A councilman farther down the table leaned forward. “Then send soldiers into both villages and bring the men responsible here. A few days in the castle cells might loosen their tongues.”

“I will permit no such thing,” Eudora ordered.

“They are refusing a command from the crown,” the council member argued.

“I will deal with that refusal, but I will not fill my cells with men because they repeated something someone whispered in their ears.”

The council member continued to disagree. “They are questioning your right to the throne.”

“All the more reason not to behave like a woman terrified someone might believe them,” Eudora said, with a raised and distinctly firm tone.

The councilman sat back.

Wilford spoke up. “Your grandmother would have had the men responsible brought here first and decided what to do with them afterward.”

“That sounds more like her but… I am not my grandmother,” she said sternly.

Wilford bowed his head respectfully.

Eudora looked at Bradan. “You said two more villages. How many altogether?”

“Five.”

Five. Three days ago, there had been only one. The rumors were no longer simply spreading. They were taking hold.

“What else has been heard?” Eudora asked, though a firm command remained in her tone.

One of her advisers cleared his throat. “A merchant caravan arriving from the northern road yesterday reported hearing the same questions in two villages beyond our border.”

Eudora's eyes narrowed. “Outside Morra Mist?”

“Aye.”

That troubled her more than she cared to admit. Discontent within her kingdom was dangerous enough. If neighboring lands began questioning the stability of her crown, ambitious men might start wondering whether Morra Mist was vulnerable.

And Morra Mist had much that ambitious men would want.

“Have you discovered where the rumors began?” Eudora asked.

Bradan shook his head. “Not yet.”

Eudora kept her disappointment from showing. Agnes had followed the whispers farther than any of the men sitting around this table, but even she had been unable to discover who had first set them loose. More troubling were the names Agnes had begun to hear attached to those whispers. Names that Eudora had no intention of sharing with anyone in this room. At least not yet.

Eudora looked from one face to another. “No one? Not one of you can tell me how this rumor got started?”