The Gender Game 2

clasp on the inside, and the skirt fell into a puddle on the floor. I exhaled in relief—I hated wearing skirts. “Mother was always too soft when she dealt with the Patrians. I plan to take a different course of action—one that I think your skills are perfectly suited for.”
Tabitha grinned again, the predatory glint in her dark eyes intensifying. “Oh?”
I blinked at her. “Of course, Sister mine. I am appointing you as the new Chief of Wardens.” I allowed a smile to cross my lips as Tabitha’s face contorted with anger and she spat a curse at me. We had never really gotten along. In fact, one time she hit me so hard, she fractured my jawbone—I had to have my jaw wired closed for six weeks as a result. But I returned the favor not long after by pushing her down the stairs that led to the roof. She had six broken ribs and a broken arm.
As royals, abstinence from violence wasn’t enforced on us within the palace walls… at least not when there were no visitors around.
“You selfish bitch,” Tabitha hissed.
I suppressed a smile. Tabitha had been petitioning me since Mother’s death to give her a position over the war council, except there was no war council. She wanted me to create the position just for her.
I raised a hand. Instantly, six wardens materialized—royal wardens were good at lurking in shadows.
“Careful, Sister,” I practically sang. “You wouldn’t want to be confused with a violent Patrian sympathizer, now would you?”
I watched as Tabitha tamped down her rage—a control that I knew would cost some man terrible pain later— and kept the smile off my lips. After she calmed down, I gave her a nod. “I have a meeting with Ms. Dale in a few minutes. Please remain here until after she leaves, and I will speak to you further about the details of your position.”
My sister bowed, stiffly, before I turned and swept through the library door.
I allowed myself a smile before taking my seat behind the large round desk. It felt wrong sitting here, but it also felt right. I looked over to where the wood had been sanded down and re-stained, obscuring the words that had been carved there in blood. Yet I would never forget them. They rattled around in my head like a mantra, fueling and sustaining my rage. For the boys of Matrus, indeed.
My mouth flattened to a hard line as I recalled the double murder of my mother, Queen Rina, and her advisor, Mr. Jenks. Clearly, someone had found out what Mother and Mr. Jenks were doing with the boys, and they had taken exception to it.
There was a rap at the door and Ms. Dale entered and bowed. I lifted my hand, indicating she should sit in one of the chairs facing me, and she did. She was a handsome woman, aging well, and still in remarkable shape. She had been acting as a defense trainer for almost all of her life, but Ms. Dale’s true occupation was one of a spy. Actually, she was the spy—a spider sitting on the top of a very well-placed web of informants.
“Ms. Dale,” I said, meeting her unflinching brown eyes. “Tell me all about Violet Bates.”
Ms. Dale took a breath in and then handed me the file she had been holding. “Violet Bates was one of my more promising students. I had been planning to recruit her for the warden’s academy when she broke the law and tried to smuggle her younger brother across Veil River after he failed the screening. She slipped into delinquency soon after that, but then, when Mr. Jenks’ lab was broken into, it provided an opportunity to utilize her skills for the mission to retrieve the egg—and what made her more suitable for the task was the fact that she was an orphan; relatively unknown and expendable.”
I thumbed through the file, pretending to read it, but listened attentively. “I see,” I said. I placed the file aside, and leaned forward, resting my elbows on the table and folding my hands. “And were you aware of her plot to assassinate my mother?”
Ms. Dale’s mouth formed a grim line. “I was not. In fact, I don’t believe Violet to be the killer.”
“Oh, really? Why do you think that?”
“Violet’s history is one of violence, certainly, but if you study the details of her infractions, it’s clear that it was only when directly threatened that she did harm. She has never intentionally hurt anyone who wasn’t a threat, and frankly, she didn’t have good cause to murder your mother.”
“Why not?”
“Because Violet wants to be with her brother more than anything in the world. Your mother was the key to that, and for Violet to murder her before getting what she wanted just wouldn’t make any sense… If you’re asking for my opinion, I think it’s more likely that Lee Bertrand, the spy we had already planted in Patrus, is the culprit.”
I refrained from rolling my eyes as I considered her statement. Lee Bertrand was a bit of a paradox, with his unorthodox birth in the middle of the Veil River. He technically had no nation of his own, but he had sworn fealty to my mother and Mr. Jenks. There was no reason to suspect him. Especially given what had happened to him. “His body was found splattered on the pavement in the courtyard,” I reminded her.
She nodded, her expression guarded. “Yes, and I think it’s likely that Violet killed him in self-defense.”
“Then why isn’t she here? Why has she fled instead of stating her innocence?”
Ms. Dale opened her mouth, and then shut it, sighing. “I don’t know,” she said. “That doesn’t make much sense to me. I imagine that she’d come if she could, but I have no idea how she got in or out of the palace undetected. I wasn’t given the details of that, as Lee was supposed to be handling the escape plan.”
I sat back, eyeing the older woman