“To be a royal? She could be a head in a jar and still be an effective royal.”
“But I hate her.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t think that fact will come into play.”
“It should. It should be the most important thing in the universe.”
“You know we’re monks, yes? Humility and all that.”
“We’re not just monks,” she reminded him. “We’re war monks. There’s no humility. There’s swords and blood and, if we’re lucky, very good ale. So what do you want me to do about my sister? Have my parents send her to a nunnery, which I have been suggesting since shortly after her birth?”
Once more, Joshua simply gazed at her without speaking.
“What is that look on your face? Why do you just keep staring at me like that? What aren’t you telling me?”
“This isn’t about your sister being inadequate to lead, Gemma. In fact, the seer seems to think Beatrix will be more than ready to lead as queen.”
“Oh.” She shrugged. “Fine. Then what’s the problem?”
“There is concern about what your sister will do once she’s in power.”
“Because she’s a woman?” There had never been a woman who’d led these lands as queen. Only kings born into certain bloodlines or men willing to take the crown.
“No. Because she might be missing a soul.”
Gemma frowned. “Literally . . . or figuratively?”
“Either or both. It’s unclear at this point. But the brotherhood is not willing to take the risk.”
Sitting up straight in her chair, Gemma asked, “Exactly what does that mean?”
He rested his arms on his desk. “Plans are already in motion.”
“Plans? What plans?”
“To kill your sister.”
“You’re going to kill my sister?”
“It’s not my preferred choice, but I don’t make these kinds of decisions alone. And you know that.”
“The elders. They’ve decided to kill a child.”
“She’s of age, Gemma. And it’s what we do.”
“You don’t know my family. They won’t let this happen.”
“That’s why you need to leave. Now. Go home. Save your family.”
“But Thomassin? Bartholemew? Brín? They all agreed to this as well?”
“It was decided it would be easier to send you home on your own to get to your sister than to try to stop the rest of the elders here. They would just go around us. At least this way, with your help, your sister will have a chance of being saved.”
“But the elders were just trying to—”
“Advance your rank?”
“Yes.” She lifted her hands but quickly dropped them. Sighed. “But Sprenger stopped them.”
Joshua laughed. “He’s such an idiot. If he knew why they were advancing your rank, he would have let it go through. The plan was for you to be sent out on a mission with your fancy new rank. And while you were gone—”
“A separate unit would go kill my sister.”
“Unfortunate but accurate. But I’m not going to let that happen. Any of it. Go save your sister. Put her in hiding. When it all blows over, she can either be queen or go back to her normal boring life with both of you hating each other.”
“But if I do this . . . won’t I be betraying the brotherhood?”
“You’ll be leaving on my orders. They’ll know that . . . eventually.”
“Oh, that makes me feel so much better.”
Joshua chuckled. “What have I always told you, spoiled child?”
“We have to play this smart,” she said in a high-pitched voice that always made him laugh.
“Now go. Your squire is waiting with your horses by the hidden tunnel in the stables. You can get out that way.”
“Samuel can’t come. That isn’t fair to him.”
“Gemma, he hates it here. He’d rather risk his life with you than stay here in safety.”
“I’m going back to the family farm, Joshua,” she said, standing. “I doubt there will be much danger as long as my dad’s pigs don’t get out of the sty again and chase the children.”
CHAPTER 1
Two years later...
Gemma Smythe raised her shield against the sword battering against it, again and again. When the blows weakened, she swung the shield wide. The soldier attacking her was thrown off, and Gemma moved in, slamming her sword into his side. She yanked it out, and thrust again, this time into his bowels. She tore him open and let his insides spill out before kicking him in the chest to send him spinning away.
Another attacking soldier slipped in his friend’s entrails and went down. Gemma finished him off quickly, removing his head. Then she used that head to distract the soldier behind him by kicking it into his face. She turned away once her own