Kingmakers, The (Vampire Empire Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Sirdar,” Adele said, extending her arm.
    General Anhalt took her hand, and immediately felt weakness in it. “Your Majesty. Are you well?”
    “I am,” she replied warmly, noting his expression of concern. “It is so good to see you, my old friend.” She scanned the crowd again and her voice held a trace of anxiety, “Where is Greyfriar?”
    “He could not attend you.” When her concerned eyes darted quickly to him, Anhalt shook his head. “He is well, Your Majesty, merely…indisposed.”
    Adele breathed a sigh of relief.
    “Your arrival is most unexpected.” He raised a chiding eyebrow at her, then at the captain of the Harmattan. “And most foolish.”
    There was a collective gasp. The gathered soldiers' surprised looks darted between the general and the empress. Adele stared sternly at Anhalt, but then after a moment laughed loudly, throwing her head back in delight. “Only you would be cross at me for saving your life.”
    “Perhaps next time you could just send the ship without escorting it yourself.”
    “Now where's the fun in that?”
    “The Empire cannot bear your loss, Your Majesty.”
    “Of course not, Sirdar,” she conceded with a sobering nod, “but in this case, my presence was necessary. It was the only way to break through the enemy lines and reach you. And to bring you supplies.”
    He bowed and smiled at her. “Then you are most welcome.”
    Captain Hariri came down the gangplank with desert robes flying, and clasped Anhalt warmly. “Just like old times, eh? But colder.”
    The general grunted. “You really should at least try to resist going along with the empress's schemes.”
    “I only follow your voluminous previous examples, effendi.”
    Anhalt regarded Adele with a scowl. “I should have never introduced the two of you.”
    “Adele!”
    The empress spun toward the familiar voice, her entire demeanor swiftly altering from a woman in charge to a woman in love.
    The tall figure in grey strode to her, his long hair blowing wildly along with the ends of his head wrap. Adele ran to him but immediately halted as Greyfriar stiffened in his tracks, exhaling a sharp hiss of pain. He took a halting step back from her.
    Adele's face showed her own anguish. The geomancy still echoed in her veins.
    “My empress,” he said, bowing low to her, not out of duty to crown, but out of reverence for the woman herself.
    Anhalt observed the doomed pair. It had been months since they had last seen each other, and now they were held apart by the very power that had saved their lives. She could easily hurt Greyfriar, even kill him as she had the vampires swarming around her ship. Every time she practiced geomancy, she put him in danger. With time, so long as she didn't use her geomancy, she would revert back to normal. Until then, they could only stare at each other across a distance of a few feet.
    “I'm so glad to see you,” Adele said. “How are you?”
    “I am quite well. And you are very lucky.”
    “Really, I won't be scolded by both of you. This was the only way. Admiral Moffet has been trying for three weeks to break through the Gap with little result other than mounting casualties and three lost frigates. We feared for you.”
    Anhalt waved them to follow him out of the icy wind and away from the ears of the men. “Your Majesty, shall we step out of the bitter cold into the merely frigid?”
    Instructing Hariri to begin unloading Edinburgh , Adele accompanied Anhalt and the trailing Greyfriar into the tunnels. The Harmattan fell into step around them. They made for the deepest section, heavily fortified for the command staff. Once inside the rude dirt-walled situation room, with Shirazi and the Harmattan guarding the closed doors, their council resumed.
    “What of Rotherford at St. Etienne?” Anhalt asked.
    Adele responded, “He succeeded in taking the town, but since then he has been hard-pressed by sizable packs. Communication is sparse. Little word comes or goes from his command