Free 1618686836 (F) by Dawn Peers Page A

only one I can lean on to get this done. I’ve heard pain gives you great clarity, Lord Shiver. Am I clear enough?”
    “Yes! Please, baron, it wasn’t an aggressive move.”
    “Maybe not Shiver, but this is. I don’t care what you’ve achieved for this country. I’m the one in charge in Everfell. You’ll come back here tonight, and I’ll ask you the same questions again. And Shiver?” Elias yanked Shiver’s head up by its hair, so he was forced to look into Sammah’s malevolent eyes. “I’ll know if you’re telling me the truth, Shiver. If you defy me, if you lie, I suggest you make arrangements to take your eldest son somewhere safe.”
    Elias released Shiver’s hair and arm. The lord collapsed forward, gasping and muttering. Unwanted tears littered his eyes, but he blinked them away. He scrambled to his feet, trying to sketch a bow to Sammah, but staggering forward instead nearly falling into the baron’s lap. “Get him out of here. Take him down to the bathing rooms and get him cleaned up. He looks more like a drunk stable boy than a lord.”
    Sammah recoiled in disgust as Elias grabbed Shiver by the back of the tunic, handling him out of the room. The door slammed behind them both as Sammah relaxed back in his chair. He reached for his pipe again, sighing as another deep lungful of smoke drifted from between his parted lips. Sammah extinguished the pipe. The sky was starting to lighten, though the sun hadn’t crested the horizon yet. Time for a few hours of rest. The first court meeting was later, and he would need to be alert. If he allies were trying to flank him, he was going to need to ask a lot of searching questions over the next couple of days.

13
     
    Sammah listened with interest throughout breakfast as Quinn chattered away about the man she had seen in the corridor, and the strange mixture of emotions she had felt pouring from him. Sammah was curious, too. Not many young men would turn away the affections of Yvette in the dead of the night, under the assumption affections were offered. The man had been wandering around in an area of the castle reserved only for the nobility. As Sevenspells were the only retinue to arrive so far for the meeting, it would make the man either Shiver himself, Harn, or one of Shiver’s sons. Given the state Shiver had been in earlier this morning, there was little chance it had been the lord himself, and Harn was always by his lord’s side, when he was about the castle on his standard duties. That only left Rowan, River, or Eden. Rowan had most likely stayed with his father, trying to learn the haphazard way that Sevenspells men approached court matters. Of River and Eden, Sammah didn’t know enough to judge, though, with Eden becoming captain of the guard, he might have taken the higher ground, trying to show responsibility in the face of his father’s baccinal tastes.
    Regardless of which son it had been, Sammah was reasonably sure from his own research and notes on empathic powers that Quinn had sensed near to pure disgust from this man. That he had reacted so badly spoke volumes. Perhaps Sammah had more chance of getting reasonable cooperation from one of Shiver’s sons, rather than struggling to keep the lord himself under control at the end of a tight leash.
    Sammah had heard this morning from Ross that Quinn had taken up the work of two of his girls last night, so they could pursue Shiver under the guise of working. He had rewarded her with the day off from her duties to him. At the end of breakfast, the young girl had retreated to her rooms, her dark eyes showing exhausted gratitude. She was obedient. Quiet obedience was one of Sammah’s favourite traits in a child.
    Sammah poured himself another glass of water as Neyv cleared his table. She was a quiet little girl, much like Quinn had been in her early teens. He wasn’t sure what her talents were yet, but he knew there was something waiting to come out. Whatever she was capable of, she remained