The Shadowed Throne Read Online Free PDF Page B

had Iorwerth and Kaanee, and she had Oeka. They were a formidable group of allies—Oeka in particular, in her own way. And there were others, she reminded herself. Maybe not as powerful as those three, but there were others.
    I’m Arenadd’s daughter,
she told herself.
He always said I was like him, an’ he could handle anythin’.
    Almost anything.
    She shivered and tried to push the memory away. That didn’t matter now. She was dealing with people and griffins, not . . . other things.
    As if sensing her distress, Oeka appeared at that moment to interrupt. “Laela. I am hungry.”
    Laela brought herself back to the present. “Me too. Let’s go get somethin’ t’eat, you an’ me.”
    T he Queen and her partner ate together in the dining hall, waited on by one of the only other people in the Eyrie that they both trusted.
    Laela grinned at the sight of her. “How’s it goin’, Inva?”
    Inva smiled back nervously. She was middle-aged, her pale Northern skin freckled by the harsh sunlight of the land she’d been born in. Her slave collar had been removed quite a while ago, but the scars still stood out on her neck. The hair that had been cut short was growing back in a scatter of black and silver.
    Laela watched her taste each dish before serving it. “Yeh know I can still get someone else to do that.”
    Inva avoided her eye, the way she’d been trained to do from birth. “It is my honour to risk my life for you, my Queen.”
    â€œIt’s
my
honour to have yeh do it,” said Laela. “But I ain’t got too many friends in this Eyrie, an’ I’d hate to lose one now.”
    Inva finished tasting the food and laid it out on the table. “My duty is to offer up my life in place of my master’s.”
    â€œIt was yer duty in Amoran,” Laela said bluntly, “when yeh still had a master.”
    â€œYou are my master, my Queen.”
    â€œNo, I’m yer employer,” said Laela. “There’s a difference. This time, yer gettin’ paid.”
    Inva only smiled in that mysterious way of hers and poured some wine into a cup.
    Inva’s silences and rigid manners were often frustrating, but Laela was very fond of the former slave. During her visit to Amoran, where she and Arenadd had gone to free the other Northerners who were still enslaved by the Amorani Empire, Inva had been appointed as Laela’s personal slave. After she and her fellows had been handed over to the King, largely thanks to Laela’s own efforts, she had been set free like all the others.
    Despite that, Inva had still spent her entire life up until a few months ago with a strict set of rules to follow, and so far it seemed she wasn’t going to give them up.
    The other freed slaves had been given homes in and around the Eyrie, on Laela’s orders, and had been given jobs that suited their training. Laela had been amazed to find how well educated some of them were. Inva in particular could read and write far better than Laela could, and in several different languages to boot. She knew her numbers as well, and she had seen plenty of politics thanks to years spent working in the Emperor’s court and among his family.
    That was one of the reasons why Laela had made her her personal servant, and her assistant in all but name. Other people in the Eyrie disapproved of her keeping company with a “blackrobe,” but Laela didn’t care. They could complain when they could give better advice than Inva could.
    Her work done for now, Inva sat politely and waited while her mistress ate. She didn’t try to make conversation.
    That was for Laela to do. “How are the new quarters suitin’ yeh?”
    Inva smoothed down her skirt. “They are . . . cold.”
    â€œCheer up, spring’s on its way,” said Laela.
    Inva shivered. “This land is a desert of ice. The sun is weak