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

made them sting any less. Though no more than the sting of admitting my failure to him.
    â€œYou made a mistake.”
    â€œYes, my King.” I clenched my teeth against saying more, and in case he chose to strike me again. A censure I richly deserved. I saw my dead niece, but it was magic. Ami was beside herself with grief and I couldn’t say no to her. I stood by while she opened the tomb, saw for myself that the blanket held only twigs and leaves. I could not take her son from her, after all that, so I let her go into the Wild Lands with him.
    Now a greater mistake stared me in the face. I should not have come back here, to face the King. This rage and betrayal went deeper than ever before. I cringed inside, where he couldn’t see, and hoped to survive to prove myself to him. My eye socket throbbed, but I dared not put a hand up to touch it.
    Uorsin stared at me, stark points of ice blue in bloodshot pools. “Where is Amelia now?”
    â€œShe chases the kidnappers to retrieve her daughter.”
    â€œMy pretty Amelia. You would have me believe that she’s raced off into the Wild Lands, burdened with an infant, to fight rebels all by herself.”
    I hardly would have believed it myself. But Ami had grown up in the last half a year. Hugh’s death had, instead of crushing her, polished her to a high sheen. She had a certain indomitability about her these days. A surety of purpose she’d lacked before. One I envied at this moment, as I wondered where my own had gone. Uorsin glowered, expecting an answer this time.
    â€œShe took her personal guard with her, including an expert huntsman and tracker. I believe her to be well protected.”
    â€œYet, you ask permission to go after her.”
    Would he let me go? “To ensure their safety, yes.” To prove myself to you.
    â€œA safety that did not concern you before this.”
    â€œI knew you would be expecting word. That your army remained poised to intercept Erich. I knew you needed to know, from me, that Astar was not in jeopardy of being taken by Erich’s forces.”
    â€œI think you’d say anything to have the throne for yourself.”
    Desperation gnawed at me. “Then disinherit me. Send me off in exile. Have me executed. The High Throne requires a worthy heir. If I don’t meet your measure”—I sucked in my stomach muscles to steel my breath so it would not waver—“then I don’t deserve to be your daughter.”
    â€œEmpty words.” Uorsin stood, walked away, and emptied the flagon of wine into his goblet. “Have you more to explain why you abandoned your mission in Branli and somehow ended up at Windroven?”
    â€œI sent you a missive with my report.”
    â€œTell me again,” he said, tone deceptively soft as he paced around the room.
    â€œWe spent months following the rumors, looking for the other route into Annfwn.” It hadn’t been an easy task, combing the pubs and chatting up shepherds, ferreting out anyone who’d heard the old stories of pathways over the mountains into paradise—without directly inquiring. “I kept a list of the roads and paths we followed, some no better than deer trails. None led us anywhere but deeper into the Wild Lands.”
    â€œDid you reach the sea?”
    â€œNo.” I’d tried, hadn’t I? I’d tried everything I could think of to bring him the answer he wanted, not letting myself contemplate the eventual impact on Andi, should I succeed.
    â€œThen you did not go far enough.”
    We had gone far enough, and found ourselves circling back on our own tails. More Tala magic. When we’d stood at Odfell’s Pass and Andi gave her demonstration, though I had seen that the land beyond the barrier bloomed with summer, my Hawks later told me that they had seen only snow, that she and the Tala had disappeared from sight on the other side. Perhaps she hid the barrier from me also now,