Bricrui (The Forgotten: Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

able to come to the
palace. I’m afraid it may not be as simple as we first
thought.”
    “Not as simple as Telvani having somehow
finding a way to convince all the Council members to agree with him
on every subject?” he said sarcastically, but then immediately
scrunched up his face and apologized. “Sorry, I just feel like
we’ve had nothing but one problem after another. Why did you have
to go and be the Queen?” He sighed with exaggerated
exasperation.
    Layna gave him her best mad face, but
couldn’t hold it for long before it transformed into a smile. He
always had that effect on her. She leaned forward and kissed him
instead. “Come on, let’s go spend some time with Phoenix while we
discuss our options.” She took him by the hand, and led their now
twice-as-big entourage to the nursery.
    Amelia was sitting in the corner in a rocking
chair, a wet towel draped over her forehead.
    “Are you unwell?” Layna asked, concerned, as
they entered the room, thankfully leaving the rest of the party in
the hallway.
    The older woman removed the cloth and gave
her a weak smile. “Oh, I’m fine, just a bit of a headache.”
    “And how is Miss Phoenix today?” Layna asked,
her voice rising to the pitch that she had always gotten amusement
out of adults seeming to think babies responded to better – until
she had one of her own. Gryffon beat her to the child, sweeping her
up into his arms.
    “Giving poor Amelia a headache, are we?” he
jokingly admonished. Phoenix smiled at them and reached for
Gryffon’s crown. He humored her by tilting his head so that she
could get her chubby hand around one of the jewels. She grabbed it
and pulled the whole thing neatly off his head, much to his
surprise, and Layna laughed at the look on his face.
    By unspoken agreement, neither immediately
brought up the subject that they had come here to discuss, allowing
some of their stress to melt away in the presence of their
daughter.
    Eventually, however, it could not be ignored
any longer. “We received messages from each of the Council members’
households,” she told him, “that none of them can make it for one
reason or another.”
    “Excuses by the members themselves or from
their staff I wonder?”
    “Hard to say, but it stands to reason that
whatever Telvani was holding over their heads is still in place.
And may be getting worse. He obviously planned this well.”
    “How did we allow our entire Council to be
subverted? I thought that when we got rid of the old politics and
placed people at Amelia’s suggestion that this sort of thing
wouldn’t happen.”
    “Now wait just a moment,” Amelia chimed in,
and Layna smiled despite the situation. Amelia was one of the only
people who still spoke to them as though they were just people and
she found it refreshing. “It wasn’t my suggestions that caused
this. These are all good people and not one of them is going to be
turned by bribes or other such nonsense. Maybe if he was holding
their whole family hostage or something, but how would he have done
that?”
    “What if he was threatening their loved ones
with some new disease he came up with?” Layna suggested, thinking
back to Lord Telvani himself, currently wasting away in the
dungeon.
    “Or threatened to turn one of those creatures
loose on them,” Gryffon said, not taking his eyes from Phoenix
whose nose he was tapping. Layna tried to imagine someone
threatening Phoenix with such a monster and shuddered.
    “But that would mean we haven’t done a very
good job,” Layna pointed out.
    “What do you mean?” Amelia asked,
perplexed.
    “In eradicating his supporters. If he still
has enough influence to hold threats over all six Council
members….” She paused and tipped her head towards the dungeons.
“He’s obviously not in a position to be the one carrying out his
plans at the moment.”
    Gryffon looked up at her and they locked eyes
for a moment. Finally he spoke, “Perhaps it’s time that we go pay
some of