Free Sea of Sighs (Empath Book 2) by Dawn Peers Page B

rebellious side of his brother, alongside his duties
to the king, was going to drain him completely. It left him no room
to think of Quinn; for that, at least, he was grateful.
    “I think it’s important, what you’re doing
for us, Eden. I’m impressed you’ve been resourceful, and I know
father will be proud. I think you should take the time to see him.
You will come down with me the next time I pay him a visit.”
    Eden could see between those lines, and he
knew his brother was instructing him, not giving him a polite
invitation. Eden nodded, smiling, and trying to show that would be
a wonderful idea. “I feel terrible that I haven’t been to see him
yet so far, but I’m sure once he finds out what I’ve been doing for
Sevenspells cause, he’ ll understand. ”
    The two brothers clasped hands, the matter
dealt with and the situation agreed. Eden didn’t exhale with
relief, but River did. Clearly, the middle brother had expected
them to come to blows, and Eden wondered what words had passed
between them before he came to the quarters. “So what we do
now?”
    “That’s easy. Depending on what your role as
chamberlain entails, you don’t have to do anything until it’s
announced formally. Therefore, we ’ve got
a day or so to discuss the situation, discuss exactly what our
father has done, and what we need to say in the meeting to make
sure that Sevenspells isn’t put in a corner.
    “I’ ll admit , I
hadn’t considered the treachery on part of the king until you
pointed out just what he was doing. I know father had no respect
for Vance’s reign before, and it’s perhaps not surprising that
there’s been a challenge to his rule. If anything, I’m surprised it
didn’t come earlier. You’d think Vance would be surrounding himself
with his strongest people, not sending them away. That being said,
we need to consolidate our position, so we’re not going anywhere
until we all know where we stand. Agreed?”
    Again, Eden knew this wasn’t a request, and
he searched out the nearest seat. “We’d better send someone down to
the kitchens to get some food. I don ’t
think we’ll be leaving your chambers tonight, do you?”
    River looked from one man to the other, not
sure where to put himself. He was clearly beyond useful in all of
this, and resigned himself to the role of drudgery.
    “I’ll go and speak to Renner,” he said with
a sigh. The pale-haired, lanky lad left the room without another
word. Rowan looked after him for a second before turning to Eden.
“How do you think he is going to cope with all of this?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “ Well, it ’s clear
that you know something is coming. Don’t pretend to be stupid now,
Eden; you believe that war is coming to the kingdom. I
don’ t want war —father doesn’t want it
either, believe it or not—but it will come. It will be Sammah’s
fault, like you said, and you’ve already started fighting back. I’m
a first son of Shiver of Sevenspells, and I will fight for him
until my last breath leaves me. But I’m not sure at all that River
has it in him to be one of us.”
    There it was again: one of us. Rowan was
desperate to compartmentalise into little sections, keeping
Sevenspells away from the rest of Everfell as its own entity.
    Eden suspected that Rowan knew perfectly
well his father intended to take the throne, and was not as naïve
to the situation as he would have people believe. If that were the
case, it could have easily been Rowan, and not Alec of Broadwater,
who Sammah had killed that night to push home his point. No wonder
Shiver was recoiling at their alliance. Luckily, Shiver hadn’t been
near his deathbed. Sammah had picked Alec as the current Lord of
Broadwater, Broc, was an old man, unsuited to rule. Alec had been
too ambitious for Sammah’s liking, and had been eliminated. Now,
his elderly father was struggling to get Alec’s younger brother,
Brice, ready to rule.
    Broadwater would no longer be a thorn in
Sammah’s