Chapter Sixty - Clara

Two separate outside forces were converging on the castle, she could see them from the window slit. Her guard was the loyal kind who swiftly rounded up a like-minded force and they waited in her tower room, like turncoats watching to see who would gain the upper hand before they joined the fray.

Yet Clara knew she would triumph, whichever Ephron survived. The gladiators were disbanded for now, with those loyal to Eithne heading for wherever they hailed from, except for Flavius. Her eyes narrowed. She would deal with him in the fullness of time. And Xander had gone to Frankia chasing a not so wild goose and a gander who deserved all that was coming to him.

Charles de Mornay could rot in Hell, as far as she was concerned. He’d almost cost her the greatest prize of all. The girls were well hidden in a walled city and soon a ship would come to take them to the Satrapy in the east where they would join harems willingly, or not.

She had wanted to send Eithne with them, but had to give Xande