Chapter 16
Torden’s Task
Torden and Creagan turned toward the open door as soon as they heard the door across from their chamber open.
Torden expected Legion to enter the room and tell him it was his turn. Instead, Legion walked straight past the small chamber without a glance.
Torden immediately got to his feet. Something was wrong.
Legion's expression revealed little, but after all the years they had known each other, he did not need to see anger on the man's face to know it was there.
It showed in the rigid set of his shoulders and the way his hands remained clenched at his sides as he strode down the hall.
Creagan came to stand beside Torden, the decanter of wine still in his hand. The amusement he'd worn since they'd entered the castle faded as they watched Legion walk away.
“Legion,” Torden called out.
He stopped but didn't turn.
Torden waited, giving him a chance to say something, anything that might explain what had happened in the queen's solar.
Legion finally looked back at them. “She wants you next.”
That was all he said before continuing down the hall.
Torden watched until he disappeared around the corner.
“It takes a lot to upset the Lord of War,” Creagan said.
Nodding, Torden agreed. “My thoughts exactly.”
Torden looked across the hall at the closed door to the queen's solar. Whatever command Eudora had given Legion, it had disturbed a man who had faced armies without flinching. He didn't particularly care for the thought of discovering what she had waiting for him.
“Go get her,” Creagan said with a slap to Torden’s shoulder.
He scowled at Creagan, then crossed the hall and entered the solar.
Eudora stood near the hearth. She looked as composed as she had when he'd left her, giving no hint of what had passed between her and Legion.
Torden closed the door behind him. “You upset Legion.”
“I gave him his command,” she said, surprised by his concern.
Torden responded with a command of his own unable to keep the deep rumble out of his voice “What did you command him to do?”
“You know I won't tell you.” Her tone turned sharp. “And do not dare command me.”
That it wasn’t a choice he had irritated him and it irritated him even more that he was left to wonder.
Eudora stared at him. “You are the Lord of Thunder. I can hear it in you and when you release it, I imagine your footfalls alone tremble the earth.”
“You have a task for me,” he said, not willing to discuss that with her.
“Legion was unwilling to admit he is the Lord of War. I expect Creagan will be the same, though what he is lord of evades me since my grandmother refused to tell me.”
“And for a good reason. Now the task, tell me, so I may be done with it.”
She walked toward the table where several parchments lay scattered, though she made no attempt to retrieve one.
“There is a young woman I need you to find. She is searching for documents she believes will prove I am not the rightful heir to the throne of Morra Mist.”
That caught Torden's attention. “And you know this for certain?”
“I know she is searching for them. Whether the documents actually exist is another matter,” she clarified.
“And my task?”
“You are to find the woman, find the documents, and bring both to me.”
Torden waited, expecting more.
His brow wrinkled after Eudora said no more. “That's it?”
“That is what I command of you,” she confirmed.
After seeing the state Legion had been in when he left this chamber, Torden had expected something far worse. Finding one woman and a few pieces of parchment sounded far too easy a task.
“There is something you're not telling me.”
“I tell you what you need to know.”
Torden scowled. “Shouldn’t I determine that?”
“Do you rule Morra Mist?”
He had already learned arguing with the queen got him nowhere, so he returned to the matter at hand. “Finding one woman shouldn't prove difficult.”
“You may find the woman herself more difficult than the task or, so I have been told.”
“How so?”
“The person who brought me the information described her as a bit of a hellion.”
Torden nearly groaned. His thoughts went immediately to Ismera.
One stubborn, argumentative female had been more than enough for him. He had no desire to deal with another who thought nothing of challenging a man twice her size and seemed to take particular pleasure in irritating him.
He had been glad to leave Ismera behind. Hadn’t he?
He shook the foolish question from his thoughts. “A hellion, you say?”
“Aye, that was what was reported to me.”
“She might prove annoying, but she would be far from dangerous.”
“I didn't say she was dangerous.”
Torden was confused. “Why summon me for such a simple task?” He shook his head, the answer easy. “You don’t know who to trust and since I—”
“Have no choice but to obey me, you three were my only option,” Eudora finished. “And you may think your task minor, but if not successful the crown could fall into the hands of unscrupulous men who would destroy Morra Mist.”
“You sound so sure and yet you do not know who is behind this,” Torden argued.
“What reason would someone have to take the throne from me, but greed. My family has built Morra Mist into a safe and thriving kingdom. There is great wealth here, in what the land produces, what the people produce, and in what we trade. We are a wealthy kingdom, and someone wants that wealth. And once they have it, they will demand and take more from the people and the land until there is nothing left. I do what is necessary to save Morra Mist.”
Torden had learned through the many years just how burdensome wearing a crown could be on the wearer and on him, Legion, and Creagan.
“Tell me what happens to the woman after I bring her here?” Torden asked eager to be finished with yet another summons.
“She will be dealt with accordingly.”
Torden didn't like the sound of that. “What does that mean?”
“It means her fate will depend upon what we learn.”
“What you learn from the documents?” he asked, wanting it made clear.
“The documents and from her.” Eudora's expression grew serious. “If the documents are genuine and prove I have no legitimate right to this throne, which seems unlikely, then Morra Mist faces a problem far greater than the woman who discovered the truth.”
“And if they prove false?”
“Then I need to know whether she was deceived by someone or knowingly participated in the deception.”
“And if she forged them?” he asked.
“Then she has deliberately attempted to undermine the crown.”
Torden knew the punishment for treason… the woman would hang.
He didn't know her and had no reason to care what became of her. Yet the thought of delivering a woman into Eudora's hands without knowing whether he was bringing her to safety or to the gallows didn't sit well with him.
“You are obligated to obey my command,” Eudora said, feeling he needed reminding.
“That is true, but it doesn't mean I can't ask questions.”
“Which I have generously answered.” She pointed out.
As much as Torden disliked the uncertainty surrounding the task, he had no choice. He would find the woman and the documents and bring both to Eudora.
“Where do I find her?”
“That is a problem in itself. I don't know exactly where she is. I know she is from Morra Mist, but she recently returned after spending time in the Highlands across the sea.”
It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be, Torden thought.
“What else do you know about her that could help me find her?”
“Very little, I am sorry to say.”
“Her name? Can you at least tell me that,” Torden asked and waited, hoping it wasn’t what he thought it was.
“Ismera.”
The name echoed through his head as if the queen had shouted it.
The hellion he had no wish ever to deal with again. And now he was obligated to find her and bring her before a queen who might very well order her to hang.