Page 16 of Golden Queen (Idrigard #1)

Five

Markus summoned me to his chambers the next morning before I even had time to finish dressing.

I knew why. We had not spoken since the Artaxians had come. He would want a word for word accounting of my conversation with Adrio. And of course, he would want to rant a bit about the horse.

I found him seated behind the large, ornate desk in the Chancellor's Tower. He had moved his chambers there as soon as we made our little deal, even though nothing was official yet.

Markus ignored me as I sat in the low chair he kept in front of his desk.

It was lower than usual to ensure everyone who came before him felt small.

His disrespect mattered little to me, though.

I could continue to play the game he thought he was setting the pieces for.

Once I took my throne, I would destroy him.

"Uncle," I finally said when he still did not deign to look up at me. My patience had worn thin.

He glanced up, his jaw a hard line. "Princess," he said tersely. He wrote a few more words on the page and then he slid the document to me.

I read the first few lines. "Absolutely not."

"It was a wildly inappropriate gift—worth more than a kingdom of riches. You simply cannot afford to be so beholden to the horse lords."

I laughed harshly. "Beholden to the horse lords? Is that the best excuse you could come up with to justify your jealousy?"

That hit a nerve—as I intended.

"My past dealings with that disrespectful tribe of savages have nothing to do with this. This is state business which you cannot even begin to understand. Now you will sign your name, and—"

"I will not," I cut in. His past dealings had everything to do with why he wanted me to refuse the gift from the Artaxians, even after publicly accepting it.

Artax had openly refused when Markus requested to purchase one of their horses. He had ranted and raved for a fortnight—and broken my mother's collection of priceless Withian vases in the process.

It had been a special kind of blow to him when the horse lords had turned down each of his subsequent offers. The last had been an ungodly sum of gold that had caused the council to threaten to remove him from the Regency.

"Aelia, do not push me in this."

"Or what, Markus?"

He didn't answer, just gave me a dark look, which I chose to ignore. I had once lived in fear of this man, but with the council's interference and our deal over the chancellery, his claws had been clipped.

"I will not send Etreyiu back," I said defiantly. "Now is there anything else?"

Markus calmly pushed back his chair and stood. His movements were relaxed, nonchalant even. The only thing that betrayed his anger were those eyes—small and beady—and full of hate.

He rounded the desk and leaned down to me. I tried not to flinch, but dear gods, the man had done so much to hurt me over the years. I had spent so much of my life cowering beneath his rage with the threat of Tatana's pain hanging over my head.

I steeled myself, gritting my teeth, preparing to hurl the words at him that would force him back into that declawed state.

But before I could even begin to threaten to take away the chancellery that he so coveted, Markus began slamming his hands onto the desk violently.

"You...will...sign it!" he screamed, punctuating each word with a strike of his hand. The sound of his palms impacting the wood echoed through the chamber, making me flinch.

When he finished, he was breathing heavily, leaning his hands on the desk. Little white specks of spittle clung to his lips and his eyes were like twin pools of insanity.

I pushed my chair back and lurched to my feet. "I will remind you of the agreement we made, Markus—"

Markus only shook his head and laughed darkly. "Agreements can be broken, Princess. In more ways than one."

The words sent an icy chill down my spine.

Something had changed. Did he know about my plans?

Did he know I wanted to name Bryce Mandelian as high chancellor and that I already had the tentative support of a majority of the council?

Not that I needed their support at all. Appointing the Windemerian chancellor was the one duty that would not be usurped by the council or by my husband.

By the laws and customs of Windemere, it was mine by rights to name.

"If you break our agreement—in any way—you will lose your chance at high chancellor.

If you want to play this game, I can promise you I will win.

And I will never, ever, relent. I will banish you from Windemere, and then, when you are safe somewhere, tucked into your bed, I will send the hunters after you so that your last step on this earth will be hounded. "

He smiled, and his mouth looked wrong somehow, like he had far too many teeth. I blinked, and the image was gone, but it had scared me enough to feel sweat bead on my brow.

"Stupid, feckless, girl," he ground out through clenched teeth. "You have no idea the game that is even being played." Calmly, slowly, in that slippery way of his, he moved.

I did not anticipate the hand that wrapped around the front of my throat and shoved me back to the door. He squeezed his fingers into my skin as his other hand fumbled for the knob. He was trying to push me out of the room—to humiliate me.

"Get off me, you fucking dog!" I growled. He was not choking off my air supply, only continuing to dig his fingers and nails into my flesh.

But his eyes were wild, feral, like the Markus who had existed when he first began to see the hold on his power in Windemere slipping as I reached my majority. The Markus from the days when he had used Tatana's body as a weapon to grind me into submission at his feet.

I threw my arms up to push him off, but he was strong. Markus had always been strong. Even if he was much softer in the middle those days, he had kept up with his training. The hand on my throat was unyielding.

I knew he wanted nothing more than to vary his grip and crush my windpipe until I could not breathe. I was the source of all his problems. I was the useless girl who had grown up to supplant him from his seat of power.

"If you kill me," I began hoarsely.

He tightened his hands until my breathing became more difficult.

I continued to fight, clawing at him, kicking my legs out, trying to knock him off his feet.

I struggled uselessly against the crushing hand while helplessness rose in me.

I felt hot tears of rage run down my cheeks as my body, the one I had worked so fucking hard to make stronger, betrayed me beneath the bulk of Markus' strength.

"If you kill me, you lose everything," I choked out hoarsely. "Arkadian will destroy you." If I died, my cousin would ascend to the throne, removing any need for regency or marriage.

He looked at me for another heartbeat, and then he let go.

I slumped against the door, gasping in a ragged breath while my heart pounded in my ears.

"I care little about whether you give the chancellery to that cunt, Bryce.

There are bigger forces at work in the world, and I will not allow your scheming to interfere with my duty to protect this kingdom.

But I will keep our agreement for the time being.

I will not touch your little...sister as long as you do not tell anyone about my. ..unfortunate loss of temper."

He turned, rounding his desk, and seating himself in his chair again. "Leave me," he commanded, picking up his pen. Instead of writing though, he crumpled the parchment and tossed it into the fire.

I swallowed what small vestige of my pride remained and left.

I passed a servant whose eyes went wide at the sight of me. I hurriedly pulled my hair around my shoulders to cover as much of my throat as I could. I knew there would be angry red marks.

I had become so complacent, believing Markus was under control, believing our agreement protected Tatana from his anger.

And it had! Markus had struggled valiantly for three years to keep his temper in check. He had barely even looked at her. He coveted the role of high chancellor so much that he had left us both alone.

My hands shook as I shuffled across the carpet in the direction of the main hall. I kept my eyes downcast, praying I would not run into Arkadian. He would do something stupid, like going directly to Markus and putting a dagger in his chest.

And then he would be thrown into a dungeon at best, executed at worst, for striking against the Regency of Windemere.

And if Arkadian did not go and kill him immediately, I knew Markus would make good on the threat against Tatana. He would not touch her if I did not tell. I had to hide this from my cousin as I had hidden all the others.

Rage, fear, and that horrible fucking helplessness pulsed through me, making a roaring in my ears as I continued stumbling down the hall.

Something drastic had changed to take the desire to be high chancellor from Markus so quickly. Did he plan to make some play for the throne himself?

That seemed fairly unlikely, even with the whole of the Royal Guard at his back. And that would never happen. There would always be those who supported the House of Lithaway.

But even if he could manage to get them all, even down to the elite Gold Guard, Markus could not stand against the Windemere fyrds.

The fyrds would be united in this, at least. Not even Markus' staunchest supporter, that dog, Gerrin Tithian, would allow a Smeck from Ardmore to usurp a Lithawayan heir.

So why then, did I have his fucking handprints on my neck again?

When I reached my chambers, Tatana surged up from her chair. "Aelia, what happened?"

I devolved into wracking, horrible sobs as she put her arms around me.

We had been there before. We had been there so many times before—often with the roles reversed. Tatana's shattered, bruised body sobbing in my arms.