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หน้าหลัก / They Stole My Twin's Crown / Chapter 2

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Chapter 2

ผู้เขียน: Little Pop
"The Winter Wing," the captain said through clenched teeth.

I ground his face against the stone again.

"A liar doesn't have much use for a tongue."

His courage collapsed.

"She disappeared three days ago."

His voice shook.

"His Majesty ordered the matter sealed so it wouldn't disrupt the coronation."

Three days ago, pain had ripped me out of sleep.

Elara hadn't simply walked out of the palace on her own feet.

I picked up the fallen sword and touched its edge to the maid's cheek.

"Who saw her last?"

"Harriet Greaves."

The maid started sobbing.

"She took people down to the Winter Wing to question her."

Harriet Greaves arrived before I had to go looking.

She came through the courtyard gate with servants and guards behind her, a long barbed whip in one hand.

Three years ago, that woman had knelt in front of me and sworn she'd protect Elara with her life.

Now she wore Elara's pearl hairpin and a robe cut from silk out of my sister's dowry.

The moment she saw me, she swung the whip.

"Lady Elara! You dare touch the Empress's people?"

I moved aside.

The lash shattered a flowerpot behind me.

Greaves laughed.

"Kneel. Hold out your hands. Today I'll teach you the manners Her Majesty should've beaten into you long ago."

My eyes stayed on the pearl pin.

"Rosalind gave you that?"

She touched it proudly.

"Not just the jewelry. His Majesty took your dowry vault too. It all belongs to the Empress now."

"And the Shadow Guard?"

Her satisfaction deepened.

"Lord and Lady Ashbourne got the command seal off you and handed it straight to the Emperor. The traitors who wouldn't submit were killed. The rest scattered."

So that was why Elara had been left with nothing and no one.

I lowered my eyes.

Greaves thought I was frightened.

She stepped closer and reached for my hair.

"Her Majesty is Lady Ashbourne's own niece. She was lost as a child and suffered for years. Your parents took her in because they owe her.

"You wouldn't step aside. Whatever's happened to you since, you brought on yourself."

Rosalind was my mother's niece.

That explained why my parents had started treating a stranger like blood.

It didn't explain why the debt had to be settled with my sister's life.

Greaves lifted her boot toward the back of my knee.

I looked up.

Caught her ankle.

And threw her to the ground.

Before she could scream, I took the barbed whip from her and looped it around her neck.

I dragged her across the courtyard to the stumps where Elara's pear trees had stood.

Her expensive silk tore against the stone.

"You're insane!"

"Am I?"

I tied her to a stump, pulled the pearl pin out of her hair, and drove it through her sleeve into the wood so she couldn't move.

"You wear Elara's clothes."

I lifted the whip.

"You wear her jewelry.

"And you use the same punishment that was used on her."

I smiled.

"You must be very pleased with yourself."

The first lash landed.

Greaves screamed.

Then came the second.

"How many lashes did she take?"

She refused to answer.

I set the whip handle against her knee and forced the joint sideways.

Her scream tore across the courtyard.

She nearly fainted.

I had water thrown in her face.

"Don't pass out."

My voice stayed gentle.

"Miscount by one lash and I'll have a bone broken and set again before we go on."

That finished her.

"A hundred and twenty-seven!"

She sobbed so hard she could barely get the words out.

"His Majesty and the Empress ordered it. I only did what I was told."

I smiled.

"A hundred and twenty-seven."

I let the number settle.

"I'll remember it."

Then I raised the whip again.

"Ten of them come back to you today. The rest we'll settle slowly."

A palace herald shouted from beyond the gate.

"His Imperial Majesty arrives!"

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  • They Stole My Twin's Crown   Chapter 10

    Three months later, Elara could finally get up on crutches.The physician said her right arm might come back to about seventy percent.Her legs had taken too much. She'd never stand for long again, and cold weather would always hurt.I watched her look down at them.I expected grief.Instead she threw one crutch aside."If I can't stand, I'll sit."Then she looked at me."You're rich anyway."I picked the crutch up and tapped her leg with it."Throw it again and there are no honey cakes tonight."She latched onto my arm."You're the best."My hand slipped."I looked at her."Three years apart and you've come back shameless."Rook came in with the last of the reports.Father's sentence had been carried out.Rosalind screamed for our mother right up until the end.The day Mother was taken to the royal tombs, her hair went white overnight.She wouldn't leave. She knelt outside the gates of the house for hours, asking to see us.Neither of us went.Lucien issued a dec

  • They Stole My Twin's Crown   Chapter 9

    For the first time, real panic showed in Lucien's eyes.He stood in front of Elara."I didn't know the truth."They deceived me."His voice went soft and desperate."Stay. The throne beside me is still yours."I'll have Rosalind executed. I'll bring the best physicians in the empire to you."Elara looked at him."Where were you the first time I was beaten?"Lucien froze."Rosalind said I pushed her into the water."And the second time?"She said I poisoned her tea."And the thirtieth lash?"His mouth opened.Elara answered for him."You said I'd never learn my place unless it hurt enough."Lucien's face went white.My sister went on quietly."The day you took the crown from me and sent me to the Winter Wing, I waited for you to come and ask what had happened."I waited until dark. You never came."Later I cut my wrist and sent a maid to beg you to see me."She looked straight at him."You said I was playing games again."Lucien, you had every chance to know the

  • They Stole My Twin's Crown   Chapter 8

    Father sat down hard on the stone."Impossible."You gave the Shadow Guard to Elara. You said so."I crouched in front of him."I said I'd leave the Shadow Guard to protect her."I never said I'd leave the real seal."The last of the color went out of his face.Three years ago I already knew my parents favored Elara.I'd believed it was because she was gentle and I solved things with a blade.Because I was afraid she'd be bullied inside Ardenhall, I let House Ashbourne direct some of the outer Shadow Guard network.The true seal never left me.Without it, nobody could move the core of the guard.Father took the false seal to Lucien and accused the Shadow Guard of treason.Seventeen men who refused to submit were killed.The rest disappeared into the provinces and waited for me to come home.Rook threw a ledger down at Father's knees."We took this out of House Ashbourne's hidden vault."He looked toward the ministers."Seventy percent of Lady Elara's dowry was sold of

  • They Stole My Twin's Crown   Chapter 7

    Lucien tore the medical ledger out of Rook's hands.The further he read, the worse his face became.The record was plain.Rosalind had never been pregnant.She'd bribed Aldous Mercer, the royal physician, to certify the pregnancy.Her own maid had prepared a hidden pouch of animal blood under her dress.On the day of the terrace, Rosalind had deliberately provoked Elara.Before my sister could even reach her, she threw herself down the steps and ruptured the pouch.Lucien looked up."This is forged."Rosalind grabbed at it."It is."She sobbed."Elara hates me. She and Mara put it together to ruin me."Elara leaned against me."The ledger carries Mercer's private seal."Every draft can be traced to its source."She looked at Lucien."You wanted evidence."It's in your hands."His grip tightened on the pages."If you had this, why didn't you bring it to me?"Elara laughed once."I did."You burned it."He froze.My sister reminded him calmly."Last winter, I k

  • They Stole My Twin's Crown   Chapter 6

    Mother clung to my clothes."Elara's out of her mind."She killed Rosalind's child. She tried to stab the Emperor."Her voice went desperate."We shut her away to save her."I kicked the cover off the well."Where is she?"Mother tried to stop me again.Then Rosalind shouted:"Elara's dead."Silence swallowed the courtyard.I turned around slowly.Rosalind saw she'd finally found something that could reach me.Satisfaction came into her eyes."Three days ago she couldn't take any more of the questioning."She told us where the Shadow Guard roster was hidden."Her mouth curled."Once a useless woman gives up the only thing keeping her alive, what's the point of feeding her?"Lucien's head snapped toward her."What roster?"Rosalind's expression changed."Your Majesty, I only heard the servants talking."I never questioned her myself."I'd stopped listening.My sword flashed past her face and buried itself in the palace wall.A lock of her hair drifted down.She

  • They Stole My Twin's Crown   Chapter 5

    Mother's lips trembled."You're alive?"I rested the sword tip against her shoulder."From your tone, that's a disappointment."She shook her head at once."No. I'm only shocked."You drank the death-simulating draught. I thought you'd never come back."I smiled."Death-simulating draught?"There was Widow's Veil in that bowl."Her face changed.Father cut in immediately."Nonsense."He pointed at me."Mara, you come back after three years, walk into the palace armed, pass yourself off as Elara, and attack the Empress. You've clearly lost your mind."I looked at him."Widow's Veil tastes faintly bitter. An hour after you swallow it, blood starts coming from the eyes, the nose, the ears."My smile sharpened."Care to guess why I'm still standing here?"He said nothing.I'd known something was wrong the moment the bowl was carried in.My parents called it a harmless sleeping draught.Someone had put poison in it.They were afraid that if I simply vanished, I might

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