The Twelve Kingdoms: The Mark of the Tala Read Online Free PDF Page B

her shoulder, reaching a hand for Hugh, who waited a respectful distance back.
    He stepped up, took her slim hand, and kissed it. “You’re a delight to indulge, my love.” He bowed to me then. “Princess Andi, you’re looking lovelier than ever.”
    “And you, Prince Hugh, are a dreadful liar and likely the most charming man in the Twelve Kingdoms.”
    He chuckled and winked at me, his summer-sky eyes friendly, warm, without calculation or shadows. Taking my hands, he kissed my cheek. He smelled like vanilla and sunshine. Amelia beamed at us.
    “Princess Ursula mentioned you’d taken a fall—you’re unharmed, pray Glorianna?”
    A little knot formed between Amelia’s delicate eyebrows and she pushed her finger against it, so she wouldn’t get wrinkles. “I didn’t hear that! Oh, I wish you wouldn’t ride that horse all over beyond.”
    “She won’t, anymore,” Uorsin rumbled.
    My stomach dropped. Father strode into the room and settled himself on his throne, Ursula beside him. Twin pairs of steely eyes observed our little reunion. It did not bode well at all that Father had announced such a thing in open court, informal or no. Our attendants provided ample witnesses that the King had instructed me. In one sentence he’d robbed me of my freedom and any opportunity to present my case.
    I curtsied to him, low and formal, my sore muscles protesting. “It’s my pleasure to serve the King’s wishes.”
    He nodded and glanced away, avoiding looking at me, as always. I took the opportunity to flash Ursula a mean look. She only raised her eyebrows at me in bland accusation. How could she think I brought this on myself? Yes, I’d ventured too far, but there was no way to know that man would be up there . . .
    Amelia slipped her arm through mine. “Don’t worry—I’m sure he doesn’t mean for always. Come, let’s eat and I’ll tell you how wonderful Hugh is.”
    “Yes.” I smiled to make her happy, pretending everything would be okay. “I hear you two are getting a castle all your own.”
    “With a suite set aside especially for my favorite little sister,” Hugh assured me with an easy grin, offering his arm on my other side. Sympathy shadowed his smile. Hugh would understand about losing freedom. He leaned to whisper in my ear, “When you come visit, you can ride all you like.”
    “Now that my free-roaming daughter has seen fit to join us,” Uorsin announced, “we shall retire to enjoy a feast celebrating the first postnuptial visit of my beloved Princess Amelia and her noble husband and treasured liege, Prince Hugh.”
    Smiles and clapping all around. Not for me, sandwiched between the golden couple. Amelia whispered in my ear, “What on earth happened to make Father and Ursula so angry?”
    Even they didn’t know. I opened my mouth to tell her—
    The stained-glass window of Glorianna’s rose flew apart with a great crash.
    A wave rippled through the room as everyone flinched from the explosion of sound, then from the rain of rose-colored glass. An enormous bird, bigger than a hawk, smaller than an eagle, so black it absorbed the sunlight, swooped around the room in a great circle. Ursula, Uorsin, Hugh, and the guards all responded like a second wave splashing back, thrusting whatever steel they possessed at the ceiling.
    The bird swept another circle, turning its head to glare at us with a baleful blue eye.
    Then it dropped a small cylinder at the King. A guard deflected it with his blade. Another tracked the bird’s flight with the tip of his arrow. The zing of the bowstring drew a strangled cry from me. The arrow sliced through the edge of a wing. The raptor screamed in rage but recovered its flight. A single black feather wafted down in front of me, taking its time in a rocking pendulum descent, while guards called orders and ladies covered their heads and shrieked.
    The feather landed at my feet, iridescent now against the white marble floor.
    I thought no one saw me pick it up—their