Page 111 of What Fury Brings
Olerra couldn’t look up. She couldn’t bear to meet her cousin’s gaze or her prince’s. She felt small, defeated. Unfit. She couldn’t stand her cousin, but she couldn’t even fault her. If Olerra had found a similar weakness in her cousin, she would have exposed it immediately.
The queen’s guards came in first, easily identified by their pointed helmets. They took up position around the room. There seemed to be so many of them. Too many to witness her defeat.
This was where she lost everything.
She still couldn’t look at Andrastus.
When the queen entered the room, she said, “Call off your hired hands, Glenaerys. Whatever this is, there’s no need for such a show of force. You will send half of your guard away.”
Glen was too thrilled by the situation; she didn’t even seem put out by the order. With a couple of hand motions she shooed some of her women out the door. Athon remained, though he took a step back from Olerra, as though to give the queen a better look at her.
“Now what is it?” Lemya asked. “Why is Olerra on the floor?”
“Your Majesty, I’ve just proven that Olerra doesn’t have the Goddess’s Gift.” Glen wasted no time at all to spill her greatest secret.
Olerra’s chest felt too tight. Her breathing became strained. This must be what dying of humiliation felt like.
She couldn’t bear not to look.
Olerra met her aunt’s gaze.
“Is this true?” the queen asked her.
Olerra couldn’t find her voice, so she nodded.
The queen did not react to the admission. Lemya stood tall, hands at her sides. Not a soul in the room moved.
Olerra waited for the verdict. Waited for anything at all to happen.
“So what?”
The words came not from the queen, but from Andrastus.
Olerra loved him for it.
“So what if she doesn’t have the Gift? She’s earned her rank as general. She’s won every battle she’s overseen. She’s strong and brilliant and will make a great queen. Who cares if she doesn’t have a little bit of magic? She’s already unstoppable. You all didn’t even notice until now, so how necessary is it really?”
“You will remember your place,” Glenaerys said to him. “Olerra may let you run your mouth whenever you like, but you will not do so in my presence.”
“Don’t talk to him. You are in my rooms, and he can do whatever he likes here!” Olerra snapped back.
“That’s enough,” the queen interjected, and everyone returned their attention to Amarra’s monarch.
“You kept this from me,” Lemya said. “Why?”
Olerra was still on the floor, and she hung her head. “I was ashamed. I didn’t want to disappoint you.”
“For something that was out of your control?Why?”she demanded again.
“Because if the goddess didn’t even see fit to give me her power, then how could I expect the people of Amarra to choose me as queen?”
Gods, she felt broken. Torn inside out, her deepest fears and weaknesses laid bare for the woman whose opinion she cared for most, andthe cousin who used every weakness to hurt her the worst. The guards around the room were unmoving, but they had ears. The news would spread faster than even the queen could contain it. Everyone in the whole kingdom would know in a matter of hours.
“There’s more,” Glenaerys said, clearly not a fan of the silence or lack of scolding directed at Olerra.
“More?” the queen and Olerra said simultaneously.
Glenaerys grinned as she turned to Andrastus. “Would you like to tell them or should I?”
