The Thirteenth Scroll Read Online Free PDF Page A

province as well. Unlike the late King,
I
have a large family, and there are plenty of others just waiting for the Barony to be passed. I still say a clean win on
     the field of battle is the better way to claim the throne than whatever it is Elon’s message said he was bringing.”
    “Do you truly think Elon would be bringing it, were he not convinced of its importance?” she asked. “We’ve taken a long time
     to cultivate this partnership. You’ve played every turn just right. Don’t let your impatience get in the way now.”
    Aurya watched as Giraldus tried to make up his mind whether to preen at her compliment or be annoyed by her admonition.
    “I still don’t like all this
waiting
,” he said finally, “all these plots and counterplots. I’m a man of action, Aurya—as you well know. I have to
do
something, not wait around for the next bit of information like a lapdog waiting for a morsel of food to drop from his master’s
     hand. I’ve paid the bishop a small fortune in gold for his… services… and I’ll not be treated with such disdain.”
    A sharp burst of breath escaped Aurya. She was not impatient with waiting, but she did sometimes become impatient with Giraldus’s
     impatience.
    “Elon will be here. Today. When, I don’t know—but he
always
keeps his word, especially for the amount of money and the promises you’ve given him. You might not be High King yet, but
     you are ruler of this province. If you’re so anxious to be busy, go…
rule
… something. Just
quit pacing
.”
    Aurya watched the flush creep into Giraldus’s cheeks. No one else would have dared speak to him in such a manner. But she
     did not care what others dared; her rules were her own, and even Giraldus had to play by them if he wanted what she offered.
    And he did; he always did. Since the moment they met at the Summer Faire here in Adaraith, Kilgarriff’s capital city, almost
     nine years ago, Aurya had known that Giraldus wanted her. She had made certain that he did. Although she was barely eighteen
     and not long on her own, she already knew her powers and how to use them to her advantage. Even joining the Faire by erecting
     a small booth and passing herself off as a fortune-teller had not been for the few meager coins she had earned. It had been
     a trick to get her where—and who—she wanted.
    But it was not magic she had used on Giraldus, except the magic of being young, beautiful, and intelligent. She had used that
     intelligence to make certain her beauty was seen just enough to weave its own brand of ensorcellment. When the young and vigorous
     Baron Giraldus, then twenty-five, opened the Faire, she had been in the forefront of the crowd. Quickly disappearing after
     she was certain he had seen her, she carefully planned her days so she was close enough to be often glimpsed, but never near
     enough for more. She counted on Giraldus’s curiosity and his hunter’s instinct to do the rest.
    By the fifth day of the weeklong Faire, she received an invitation to the Baron’s fortress. By the end of the summer, when
     she was quite certain he had fallen in love with her, she finally let herself be wooed into his bed. Since then, they had
     been rarely separated.
    Her beauty had ensnared him, but it was Aurya’s intelligence and fire that kept him. From her low beginnings as the daughter
     of a woman she still thought of asa contemptible fool—so meek and compliant, unwilling to stand up and name her child’s father so that he might share her disgrace,
     always at church, on her knees and begging for forgiveness—Aurya had found her own way in life.
    And now she was the Baron’s consort. Giraldus had hesitated only once in their relationship and then only briefly—when he
     had discovered her hatred of the Church and her use of magic. She had left him then, the first and only time. It had been
     less than a week before he was after her, unable to stand their separation. When she returned to his side, she