[Books of Bayern 1] The Goose Girl Read Online Free PDF Page B

warned herself not to fall into the role of complacent listener.
    The queen sat down and pressed her fingers against the corners of her eyes. "I have done what a queen should and what is best for Kildenree. The wide mountain range and the vastness of the Forest have kept us separated from our dangerous neighbors. In the past it would have taken an army four months at best to reach us by the Forest Road—the only road.
    Now, what is to defend us when the pass is cut? What will prevent that monstrous army from pouring into this valley? Nearly a generation of our men was killed in the civil war before your father and I were placed in power. Our armies are insufficient."
    She seemed to be talking to herself now, and her tone was near pleading. Ani felt dread begin to prickle her skin. Her mother never pleaded.
    "You are the crown princess. If it had to be one of my children, it should have been Napralina, I know. She is the third child, the second daughter, just the prize such an arrangement would require. But she was so young, and you—you were different. After the trouble with your aunt, I worried that the people would never trust you, that the rumors of your being a beast-speaker had sunk too deep."
    "What did you do, Mother?" said Ani.
    The queen ignored the question. Her voice twanged defensively. "A queen is never so secure that she can ignore what her people think of her, Anidori."
    "What did you do?"
    "Did you not pass your sixteenth birthday during the mourning period?" Ani nodded.
    The queen took an audible breath and looked back at the map. "It was fortunate, truly, that Odaccar wished for peace as much as I. In private counsel, we arranged your marriage to the king's first son. After your sixteenth birthday."
    Ani stood, her chair scraping against the tile floor with a whine. The sound roused her, and she found she could argue back. "What? But, but you can't."
    "I do not want you to tell me that what I did is not fair. I know it is not fair."

    "But I am the crown princess. I am supposed to be the next queen. The law says I am the next queen."
    "Your motivation has always seemed to come more from duty than desire. I imagined you might even be relieved."
    "Do not pretend that you are doing me a favor, Mother. You can't just take away who I am. Whether or not you think I . . . I am good enough to be queen of Kildenree, that is what you have raised me to be, what I have worked at all my life." Ani narrowed her eyes as realization burned her blood, and her voice softened w i t h the pain of betrayal. "Is this why you kept me away from my siblings all these years? Not because you were training me to be queen, but rather protecting them from me because you knew you would be sending me away? Separation, elevation, delegation—it was all just a ruse."
    "You will still be a queen, Anidori."
    Ani shook her head. "You know it's not the same. It will not be my crown. It will not be my home. I'll be a stranger, the foreigner wife of their king."
    Her mother glared. "What do you want? You want me to coddle you and feel sorry for you?"
    "I just—"
    "I will not have you questioning me!" The queen bolted upright. Instinctively, Ani covered her mouth with a trembling hand.
    "You are understandably angry, but that will not change the promises I have made, nor will it change what you will do."
    Tears stung Ani's eyes, and she slowly lowered her hand from her mouth. "Did Father know?"
    "No, he did not," said the queen with some contempt. "He did not want to know. I told him I arranged the marriage for Napralina, that we would tell her when she turned fifteen, and by the time he found out it was you, it would be too late for him to change it. Had he known, he would have felt he needed to protect you. Protect a future queen! You should have been strong enough not to need protection." "I was only a little girl then."
    The queen shook her head. 'You should never have been only a little girl, you should have always been a crown