Chapter 114 Chapter 114 Peace talks with the robbers

I walked to the door and saw that Rosemary was giving up knocking on the door and preparing to leave. "Are you looking for me?" I asked her. She bowed gravely. "Princess Kettricken wishes you to find her as soon as possible." "That's it now, isn't it?" I tried to make her smile. "No," she raised her head and frowned at me, "I meant 'as soon as possible, my lord.' Didn't I?" "Of course. Who told you to practice these rules diligently?" She sighed heavily. "Fedren." "Federon is back from his summer tour?"

"He has been back for two weeks, my lord!" "You see, I don't know! Next time I meet him, I'm sure to tell him how fitting your conversation is." "Thank you, my lord." Completely forgetting her carefully maintained manners, she bounded to the top of the steps, and then I heard her light footsteps like rolling pebbles, pouring down like a waterfall And down.The child was a good fit, and no wonder Federon wanted to train her to be a messenger, one of his duties as a clerk.I put on a clean shirt a moment after entering the room, then went downstairs to Kettricken's room, and Rosemary answered the door after knocking.

"I'm coming right now." I told her, dimpled when I saw her. "Come in, my lord. Let me inform my mistress of your arrival," she told me, and then, pointing to a chair for me to sit down, she hurried into the inner room.I heard the whispers of the ladies from inside, and saw them chatting while embroidering through the crack of the door.Kettricken looked sideways at Rosemary, bid farewell to the others, and came out to find me. Kettricken came to me later.For a moment I just gazed at her, the blue gown and her blue eyes, the late autumn light shining through the swirling glass windows on her shiny blond hair.I stared at her, and then realized that I was acting from Verity. I lowered my eyes and stood up and bowed. She didn't wait for me to stand upright before she spoke. "Have you visited the King lately?" she asked at the outset.

"Not these days, my queen." "Then I suggest that you call on him to-night. I am very worried about him." "As you wish, my queen." I continued to wait, because I wanted to know that this was not the real reason why she came to me. After a while she sighed. "Fitz, I feel unprecedented loneliness here, can't you just call me Kettricken and treat me like an ordinary person?" This sudden shift in tone nearly knocked me off balance. "Of course." I answered her, but my tone was still too formal. Danger, Nighteyes said softly. Danger?How to say?

This is not your mate, but the leader's mate. It felt like using my tongue to find a cavity in my mouth, which made me very uncomfortable.I must resist the danger, no matter how hard my heart beats when I see her, she is queen after all, I am not Verity, and she is not my love. However, she is my friend, as she proved back in the Kingdom of the Mountains, so I should also give her the mutual warmth of friendship. "I'm going to visit the king," she told me, and motioned for me to sit down, while she herself sat on a chair by the fireplace opposite, and Rosemary brought her little stool over and sat at Kettricken's feet.Although there were only three of us in the room, the queen leaned forward to speak to me in a lower voice. "I asked him directly why he didn't notify me when the knight was coming, but he looked puzzled, and before he could answer my question, Regal came in. It could be seen that he came in a hurry, as if someone had run away Inform him that I'm there, and tell him to put down what he's doing and come here immediately."

I nodded heavily. "He made it impossible for me to talk to the king at all, and instead insisted on explaining everything to me. He claimed that someone had brought the knight straight to the king's chambers, and he happened to meet him while visiting his father, and then sent the boy to rested while he himself talked to the king. They agreed that nothing more could be done now. Then Shrewd bade him explain the state of the treasury to the boy and the assembled nobles. According to him, we are going bankrupt , so every penny has to be watched closely. Bearnes should figure it out for himself, he told me. And when I asked him if the people of Bearnes were not the people of the six duchies, he told me Bearns has always been more or less self-sufficient, so it seems unreasonable to ask the Buck Principality to defend such a long stretch of coast to the north. Fitz, do you know that the Proximity Islands have been ceded to the robbers?"

I could hardly stand still. "I know it's not true!" I literally exploded. "Regal said it has been ceded." Kettricken also had difficulty calming down. "He said that Verity had decided before departure that we couldn't protect them from raids by raiders, and that's why we called the battleship Resolute. He also said that Verity's skills were cowardly, members of the Skill Team on that ship , and told him to bring the battleship back for repairs." "The warship was refurbished after the harvest, and then went to sea to guard the coast between Seal Bay and the Gull Islands. If the neighboring islands call for help, it will be ready. This is the captain's order, so that everyone in winter and Verity will not forsake that coastline. We shall never be free from the raiders if they secure a strong presence in the Neighboring Isles, so that they may come from nowhere in winter or summer We were raided there."

"Regal claims they've taken it, so we can only make peace with them now." Her blue eyes studied my face. I gradually became depressed and almost passed out.How can this be true?How come I don't know anything about it?Verity inside of me reflected my confusion, because he didn't know it himself. "I don't think the crown prince will make peace with the robbers. Except for killing with a sword, there is no reason to negotiate peace with the robbers." "Isn't this secret being kept from me so as not to annoy me? Regal also hinted that Verity is keeping these secrets from me because I cannot understand these circumstances." Her voice trembled.Her husband didn't think she deserved to know these secrets, which made her more angry than the abandonment of the Neighboring Islands into the hands of robbers.How I longed to hold her in my arms for comfort, and my heart ached.

"My queen," I said hoarsely, "listen to me as if Verity would tell you the truth. You have always been sincere, but this argument is not. I will get to the bottom of this fishnet of lies , and cut it open pretty hard so we can see what kind of fish fall out." "Can I trust you to look into this undercover, Fitz?" "My queen, there are few people who know what kind of training I have received so that I can carry out secret investigation tasks like you." She nodded heavily. "You know, the king doesn't deny these things, but he doesn't seem to understand much of what Regal is saying. He just... listens to the elders like a child, nodding and not quite understanding..." She used Caring eyes glanced down at Rosemary sitting at her feet.