USURPED
One of them lifted the small leather book from its half-hidden place, turned it over once with mild curiosity, then tucked it away into a chest on the far side of the room with other odds and ends waiting to be sorted.
By the time Jade returned that evening, tired and full of the Queen’s careful silences, the drawer sat exactly as she’d left it.
Unfortunately, the book did not.
*
Elsewhere, in a room far removed from gardens, reading and half-forgotten books, King Adrian sat across from Captain Edmund and a third man Jade had never met, narrow-faced, quiet, and was introduced only once as Aaron. Even Edmund seemed a little unsettled by him.
“The southern arrangement stands,” Aaron said, lay