Page 57 of Highland Lords of War & Thunder: The Prequel

“What is her name?” he asked.

“Senna.”

Legion kept his reaction from showing. “You want her brought to you?”

“Nay.”

That wiped away the small measure of pleasure he'd felt.

“I want you to learn everything you can about her. Who her parents were. How she came to be in that household. Whether she knows anything about the claim being whispered about her and whether she's had contact with those spreading the rumors.”

“That sounds simple enough,” he said, relieved to hear that Senna was meant no harm.

“It is not the whole of your task.”

That brought back concern and he waited to hear more about the task that had suddenly turned troublesome.

Eudora drew a slow breath. “If you confirm she is the woman they intend to put forward as the rightful heir to Morra Mist, you are to make certain she can never be used to divide this kingdom.”

His gaze hardened. “Explain.”

Eudora fought the words she knew she must speak. “You are to kill her.”

For the first time since entering the solar, Legion looked genuinely stunned.

“You want me to kill a servant lass because someone claims she has royal blood?”

“Nay,” she said with a shake of her head. “I want you to prevent a civil war.”

“By killing a woman who may know nothing about it?” he said unable to keep the anger out of his voice.

“Do you think I reached this decision easily?” Eudora snapped. “Someone is deliberately turning my people against the crown. Villages that have answered the call to training for generations now refuse. Whispers have crossed our borders. If this woman is presented as the rightful queen, every chieftain in Morra Mist will be forced to decide which claim he believes.”

“And if she wants nothing to do with it?” he challenged.

“It may not matter what she wants. A claimant does not have to desire a throne to have others kill in her name.”

Legion couldn't argue with that. He had seen men go to war for less.

Eudora stepped closer to him. “I will not allow Morra Mist to be torn apart while I stand by and hope those responsible lose interest. If the information is false, Senna has nothing to fear from you. But if it is true, and her existence can be used to plunge my kingdom into war, I will protect my people.”

“By ordering me to murder her.”

“By ordering you to prevent a war before it begins.”

Silence stretched between them.

Legion had walked across battlefields after the fighting ended. He knew what war left behind. Men who would never return home. Women who waited for husbands already dead. Children without fathers. Villages burned. People left homeless. One life weighed against hundreds, perhaps thousands.

It should have been an easy choice for a man who had made far worse ones.

Except now that life had a name… Senna.

“You understand your command?” Eudora asked.

“Aye,” he said with not an ounce of emotion.

“And you will carry it out?” she asked, needing him to confirm it.