Read Online The Twelve Kingdoms by Jeffe Kennedy - Free Book Online

grave, victims of your overweening ambition?”
    Each accusation hit me in the gut, blows as painful as if they had been physical punches, all the worse that he spoke in such a coaxing, reasonable tone, the sorrow of betrayal in his visage. Each stole more of my breath, forcing my heart to labor.
    How had it come to this—and why hadn’t I seen it? It made a horrible sense, the way he put it together. The same way he’d struck at my sisters. An invidious logic I could not argue against. I had no proof otherwise. Other than that I would never be disloyal at all, let alone in such heinous ways.
    Purchased loyalty is the only kind you can depend on. Uorsin must believe that. That was why he’d sent me to Branli, on what I now clearly saw as a fool’s errand. There were no other routes into Annfwn not blockaded by Andi’s wall. But Uorsin thought I conspired with her, lied about the magical barrier. If I’d returned with a way in, or with my nephew, my loyalty would not be in doubt. I’d known I’d face this, but not to this extent. No wonder he’d contracted with the mercenaries.
    â€œYou do not deny it, Daughter?” The question came so softly I almost didn’t catch it.
    â€œNone of that is true.” I kept my voice as clear and emotionless as I could. Disaster if I wept. So weak. So female. Put the tears away. “I cannot prove my innocence, except by bringing Amelia and Astar to you, safe and unharmed.”
    â€œSomething you could have done already, had you wished to.” He poured more wine, only for himself this time, and drank. “I thought I’d done my best by you, Ursula, my namesake. I taught you everything I knew. Perhaps I’ve been hard on you, but everything I’ve done, I did for the High Throne and the peace it stands for. I thought you understood that, believed in it, too. Now I have to wonder—do you want the throne so badly that you deprived me of another heir?”
    My spine ached and my gut churned far too much to risk drinking the wine. I had to find a way to get through to him. “My King. There is something you need to know before you judge me. A secret I dared not reveal before the court without your permission. May I tell you?”
    He sat silent as I fretted. Finally he groaned, as if in physical pain. “Tell me.”
    â€œFather, Amelia bore twins—a girl and a boy. At first we thought the girl did not survive the night, so I kept her birth a secret. The boy child was healthy and strong and the Twelve did not need the additional grief when there was so much to celebrate. Amelia, once recovered from childbirth, however, discovered that we had been fooled by a . . . simulacrum and that the girl is still alive, but taken by Tala rebels.”
    As I spoke the story, in the stale silence of Uorsin’s bedchamber, pinned under his penetrating gaze, it sounded more and more absurd to my own ears. I would not have believed myself. I wrestled down the desire to say more, to fill that deadly quiet, to beg my father to believe me. My nails, even as short as they were, dug sharp into my palms.
    â€œAnd how ”—Uorsin’s voice dripped contempt—“did pretty little Ami see through a trick that fooled you?”
    I certainly could not say that it had been a magical vision from our mother. Or that Amelia’s ex-convict, Tala half-breed lover had assisted. Danu taught that the greatest strength came from taking responsibility on yourself. “I made a mistake,” I replied.
    He rose and came around the table. Not raging. Deadly quiet. “Look at me and say that again.”
    I raised my chin and looked my King and father in the eye. “I made a mistake.”
    His fist blasted my cheek with pain. A hard enough blow that my brain darkened a moment, swimming to stay alert. Fortunately it had been a fairly casual backhand. Far from the first he’d dealt me over the years. Not that it