Reign Queen by L. Gibbs (10 ebook reader txt) 📕

Shennon rubbed her gloved hands together to warmthem up.

For the thousandth time, please let Fatherbe as delayed as I am.

This was Shennon’s first job outside the cityof Pries, capital of Shlognar, and arriving three days later thanexpected for a difficult mediation between two disputing kingdomshad her rattled and short of patience. She forced her hands downinto her blanket-covered lap. Nothing had changed since she lastpeeked around the quilted shade covering the window and pretendingto keep the heat inside. Shennon shifted in her seat infrustration. Surely it had been more than an hour since the driverhad informed her of their imminent entrance into the Dragon King’sfortress.

From outside the carriage, she heard thedeep, “Ho, now boys,” of the driver slowing the team down.

“Finally,” she huffed and slid along thepadded seat to the carriage door, her glovedhands fumbling, and unwound the tie from the metal button that keptthe shade down and hardly any of the cold out.The glass window was coated with frost, the foggy center giving adistorted view that was just enough for her to confirm that theywere entering the barbican of the outer wall of High Cadore. Thethick stone wall left her in momentary darkness as the carriagepassed through the twenty feet of masonry.

“At last!” Shennon grabbed her satchel,straightened her woven hat, and sat primly beside the door, hershoulder pressed tightly against it, anticipating it would takeeffort from within as well as without to break the ice whichcrusted the door seam. She peered out the foggy center of thewindow hoping to see a servant reaching for the handle. There wasso much she needed to do before the arbitrator and the rest of hisassistants arrived, and she did not want to let him down. Thoughshe was recognized as one of the most reliable of the researchers,one aspect of her employment had kept her out of being among thoseconsidered to assist the mediator: she was his daughter. It hadtaken months of constant negotiation with her father, ArbitratorJoss Trelor, to convince him she was the researcher that would bestmeet his needs at the delicate negotiations. She had met everydeadline and taken on every research task, no matter how onerous orpiddling to prove herself. He had relented, admitting later he’dhoped she would rise to the occasion, but he’d needed no one tobelieve he chose her for any other reason than her skill inresearch.

She’d left Pries a week in advance of themediation team to give her time to familiarize herself with thefamous archives of High Cadore and track down the origination ofthe dispute. Three days behind in her work, she would have to keeplong hours to make up for it if her father’s travels had beensmoother. Shennon shifted her skirts until they draped evenly andwould not inhibit her exit from the carriage and pressed hershoulder to the door. With any luck, herfather had been held up as well by the unexpected snowstorm, madeworse by the elevation of High Cadore. At home in Shlognar, thespring plantings were well advanced, but in the mountains of theCadore Range, winter had yet to let go of itschill grip.

The door popped open beside her with aresounding crack, and she dropped out of the carriage as themissing support left her leaning in mid-air. The churned-up snowand dirt of the outer bailey filled her view as she threw out herarms to catch herself. Her fall was arrested by a wealth of handsand arms that caught her and promptly flipped her to a standingposition and deposited her on her feet before she had time to gasp.Shennon stood still and gazed about. No fewer than three guardswere straightening up from their effort to save her from theembarrassment of landing in the grime of a busy entrance while aliveried servant in navy gawked, his handstill grasping the handle of the door.

“Sorry, Miss,” the servant said, his Adam’sapple rising and falling as he gulped in chagrin and embarrassmentincreased his already cold-induced ruddiness. Foggy billows escapedfrom his mouth.

Similar vapor poured from her own lips asShennon exhaled. She could almost hear her nose hairs crackle asshe spoke.

“I seem to have escaped harm,” she said,smoothing her skirts and gathering herdangling satchel. “So don’t worry yourself. My excitement atarriving was my own undoing.” Shennon pulled the strap of hersatchel back over her shoulder, pleased it was the only thingdisplaced by the somersault she nearly took. “I would like to gowithin and begin at once.” She turned to the guards and prepared tointroduce herself, taking in at a glance the porter who stood offto the side staring up at the two large trunks she had brought withher as if he thought they were much too heavy for him to bear. Shegave the two trunks mounted at the back of the carriage a glanceand raised an eyebrow at him. They were no bigger than average.

“You’ve brought two trunks,” he said.

“I came prepared as I will be here for awhile,” Shennon said.

“Confident chit,” said a guard under hisbreath. The guard beside him snorted.

Shennon awarded the two with a stern grayeye. She knew she was young for the average researcher on anegotiation team, but being in a family of arbitrators got herstarted early in her professional career. “The war between Shallaand Welsel has been running for two centuries.How long did you think negotiations would take to bring theirdispute to a close?”

“Do you liken your visit to a negotiation? Isuppose that’s one way to look at it,” remarked the guard who’dsnorted.

Shennon’s eyes narrowed. “What else would onecall it?”

Before they could answer, another uniformedguard joined the group, but his insignia and attitude made itobvious to the Shennon he had power over the others. They werequick to stand at attention, eyes straight ahead. “Stop thisnattering and get yourselves off to your duties. I’ll take theyoung woman to face the question.” His thin mustache twitched atthe three who scurried off.

“I’m Captain Meeps.” He gave her a brief bowand gripped her elbow. “Miss, if you please? You were delayed andthe Dragon King is short on patience. Your trunk will be taken