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CHAPTER 7
Ignoring the mumbles of some of the servants, I strode out onto one of the many terraces of the castle that led into the large gardens. Over the span of my lifetime, I’d worked with the gardeners to make the gardens an oasis of fountains with different themes and colors. And with great success. My garden was legendary.
The hidden rose garden was my favorite—its smell calmed; its silence comforted. I had instructed the gardeners to replant the silver rose Louis the Great had gifted me for my birthday to this hidden oasis, out of sight and display of the front yard where my father had planted it at first.
I had just made my way through the long, overgrown ivy tunnel and out into the rose garden when I closed my eyes and tilted my head toward the sun. Its warmth prickled on my skin and, for a moment, let me forget all my worries.
I heard a foot shuffle on the little rocks in front of me and my eyes tore open. I froze.
Right there, next to the splashing fountain of the goddess Venus and the silver rosebush, stood a man as tall and strong in stature as my father. He was dressed in all black, armor covering his upper chest. My heart started racing.
A Northerner.
Was he here to kill me? Sent by King Algar? I stepped slowly backward, hoping to sneak away before he could turn and discover me, when a branch snapped under my foot.
The man twirled around, a large sword in hand. I was about to scream for help when he dropped his sword in front of him and raised his hands.
“I’m sorry. I’m not here to hurt anybody,” he said, stepping away from the sword, backing up until he ran into the Venus fountain. He was built like a bear, with wide shoulders and a clean-shaven boxy chin. His nose was a little crooked, and his eyes were as blue as the sky, in contrast with hair as dark as night.
“Who...who are you?” I asked.
“I’m a lord knight from the North. They call me Rune. I’m here for the crowning of the queen.”
Rune. I had never heard of this man, nor had I seen him at my birthday with all the other suitors. He would have stuck out of the crowd like a fox in a henhouse. Not in a bad way. He wasn’t ugly. Not handsome like Alrick, but his facial lines were manly and clean, and his large stature was something a lot of women found appealing.
I tilted my head, studying him. Was he one of Alrick’s men? Or King Algar’s? How could I ask without giving away whose side I was on?
Steadying my racing heart, I carefully stepped closer and waited, as if I wanted to see if he’d make a grab at me. If that was his intent, just looking at the size of his hands, I had no doubt that he could kill me if he wanted to.
“The crowning?” I said, carefully circling the rosebush. Its petals sparkled like little stars in the sun.
“Yes,” Rune said. His voice was low and manly. “I overheard servants talking about the silver rosebush.” He nodded at the roses that were now right in the middle of the two of us.
I circled the bush, my eyes on Rune, not the flowers. “It’s magnificent, isn’t it? There are only two of its kind in the whole world.”
Rune stepped closer and stopped right in front of the roses, hands finally lowering to his sides. He was now only a few feet away from me, could reach me with one jump if he wanted to.
“I have to say,” he said, his eyes focused on my short hair and face rather than the bush. “I have never seen anything this unusual.” He redirected his gaze at the roses. “Why would the Night Queen hide it here?”
I stopped walking. “The Night Queen?”
He frowned a little. “I apologize. That’s what some people call your queen in the North. Fools, if you ask me. No woman spits fire like a dragon. People are idiots. Forgive me, I meant no disrespect to your queen.”
He didn’t know who I was!
“I’m...sure she wouldn’t take offense.” I played along. “She has more important things to worry about these days.”
Rune’s lips twitched into something that might have been a grin. “Then she is to my liking. Pragmatic. Knows how to choose her battles.”
“I don’t know about all of that,” I said.
“So why do you think she did it?” Rune asked again.
“Do what?” Our eyes met. His were a dark blue—more like the deep sea where Alrick’s were light blue like the sky. Why was I comparing him to Alrick?
“Hide the bush here out of sight,” he continued. “Wouldn’t Louis the Great want to see it displayed as a sign of the friendship between the two houses?”
“Maybe a warning? Or maybe the friendship between the two houses had to be given a second thought. And the queen would like the mighty king to know that.”
