Page 4 of Given

I knelt and took her hand. “I’ll have your father and his knights to protect me. And we’ll stay on our side of the Rift.” The excitement I’d felt all morning bubbled higher. I’d only visited the great chasm between the human and vampire kingdoms once before, when I was barely older than Cathrin. I wanted to know if it was as grand and terrifying as I remembered.

I also wanted another glimpse of what lay just beyond the Rift. I wanted to stand at the edge of Sithistra and gaze upon the purple sky of the vampire kingdom of Nor Doru. Known as the Deepnight, the blanket of twilight kept the vampire realm in perpetual shadow.

If I was really honest with myself, I wanted to acknowledge—if only for a moment—the half of myself I tried so hard to hide. I wanted a glimpse, however brief, of my mother’s homeland. I couldn’t see her, but I could see where she’d lived before she traveled south to marry my father. I knew next to nothing about her, or about the frozen north. Queen Amantha had forbidden Helen from teaching me about Nor Doru or my mother’s people. The scraps of knowledge I’d picked up here and there weren’t enough to satisfy my curiosity.

Anxiety shaded Cathrin’s brown eyes. “I still don’t want you to go.”

My heart squeezed. To her, I wasn’t other. I was simply her aunt who let her stay up late and eat too many sweets.

I kissed her forehead. “As princesses of the realm, it’s our duty to go where the king commands. He’ll take you to the Rift one day, too, so that you understand how important it is to keep the peace.”

“You won’t be gone long, will you?”

“Just until tomorrow. Your father wants to rest the horses overnight.”

Elissa made a sound. When I looked up, her brows were pulled together, and she clutched a pendant similar to Cathrin’s. “Rolund said that?”

I stood and tugged a lock of Cathrin’s hair. “Run along now.” I lowered my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “And sit next to Lady Astrid. If she notices your stitches are crooked, she’ll take your piece and fix them herself.”

Cathrin muffled a giggle. She curtsied to her mother, then left with Brother Tomas.

The moment their footsteps faded, Elissa came to me. Her frown deepened. “Lidia said Rolund planned to return by nightfall.”

Tread carefully, a voice of warning whispered in my mind. At the same time, I mentally cursed my brother for pitting his wives against each other. He probably hadn’t done it on purpose. Most likely, he told Elissa his plans days ago and then spoke to Lidia this morning after he’d decided on a different course. It wouldn’t be the first time he left Elissa in the dark.

The Brotherhood taught that men should love and honor their wives equally. But it was an open secret that my brother favored his queen consort. Elissa was lovely with her soft brown eyes and auburn hair, but Lidia was ten years younger with black curls and deep green eyes—and a figure unmarked by a dozen unsuccessful pregnancies in as many years.

I plastered what I hoped was a reassuring smile on my face. “I’m sure Lidia heard wrong. And you know how Rolund is. Half the time, he neglects to tell his own steward his plans.”

“Perhaps,” Elissa said, not sounding the least bit swayed. She glanced at the doorway, then lowered her voice. “Given…I have a favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

She stepped close and spoke barely above a whisper. “I want you to check on the babe.”

Anxiety streaked down my spine. “Elissa…”

“Just this one time. I won’t ask it of you again, I promise.”

Indecision warred within me. For as long as I’d known her, Elissa had either been pregnant, trying to become pregnant, or recovering from pregnancy. Despite these efforts, Cathrin was her only child.

And the lords of Sithistra would never consent to a female ruler.

“Please, Given. It will put my mind at ease.”

I glanced at the door over my shoulder. “It’s against the law for me to take the vein.” As if she didn’t know. It was Rolund who had decreed as much.

For a moment, desperation shone in her eyes. Then she straightened her shoulders. “Very well. As your queen, I command you.”

My breath caught. She was no stranger to wielding power, and it showed. Her father was the Lord of the Meadowlands, a vast expanse of apple orchards and fertile valleys south of the Blacktop Mountains. In an earlier age, the lords of the Meadowlands had ruled their own kingdom. Even today, Elissa’s father commanded a formidable army. No Sithistran king had ever ridden to war without the support of the Lord of the Meadowlands. Rolund’s coffers would be empty without his father-in-law’s money.

Elissa knew all this, of course. It had made her a queen.

That didn’t change the fact that ordering me to take her vein was unlawful. But this was about more than the law. I’d lived under Queen Amantha’s rule long enough to know that. Rolund was my brother but he was like any other Sithistran man in how he viewed women. He had no patience for the cliques and power struggles within his wives’ courts, which he preferred to ignore. If I defied her, Elissa could make my life miserable in a hundred different ways.

“You’ll have to unbutton your sleeve,” I said.

She moved quickly, her hand trembling as she tugged the silk to her elbow and extended her arm.

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