“So who IS worthy?” Sylvia asked.

Pater looked my way. I looked back at him.

“I’m not, any more. I tried as Regent. Couldn’t stand the politics, the bickering, the little power plays.” I looked down. “I gave it up for good reasons – you both remember why.”

“Shaina,” Sylvia said. “She wasn’t a Guardian. She wasn’t even noble. You were in love. You didn’t have to marry her, though…”

“She was my WIFE !” I shouted. The anger was back, the rage at how everyone had treated her, turned her into a pawn in their game of power, how she had betrayed me and started playing her own game, and how that last plot had fallen.

“She was persuaded to take part in a coup attempt, to remove you and the Heir,” Pater said. “She couldn’t have loved you much to do it.”

“Well, her friends underestimated me. They killed Joycelyn, Princess Royal, but missed with me. And they paid…”

“Oh how they paid,” Sylvia said.

“Fine,” Pater said. “We still have a problem. Who goes for the Laurel.”

We turned to Sylvia.