The Dragon Warlord's Silent Bride

RAIGORO’S POV

Raigoro had expected King Odran to lie.

He had expected a better lie.

The wedding record lay open on the chapel table with Princess Selena Valence written in three separate places. The chronicler had entered the name beneath Odran’s royal declaration, while the bride’s blood seal stood where a written signature would normally appear.

The Blood Compact had verified her royal line.

Odran had supplied everything else.

Raigoro remained at the table while the Southern witnesses gathered their belongings. The priest avoided looking at him, and Queen Maerissa positioned herself near the altar screen in a way that discouraged anyone from approaching it.

His bride stood several steps away with her veil still lowered.

She had hesitated when the priest called her Selena. She had watched the guards beside Alma before taking the ritual blade, and Odran had reached for her whenever she failed to move quickly enough.

No one had explained why a princess famous in diplomatic reports for conversation had remained silent through an entire wedding.

Instead, the ceremony had been kept moving until explanation became unnecessary.

Raigoro had allowed the rite to continue because stopping it would have left her under Odran’s control. The king could alter records, separate witnesses, and hide the bride before Blackharrow proved anything.

Taking her north preserved the questions. Answers would require evidence.

Before they left the chapel, Alma wrapped the bride’s cut palm in clean linen. By the time the private wedding feast began less than an hour later, red had started to show through the cloth.

Odran called it a feast, though no musicians played and half the seats remained empty.

Raigoro’s bride sat beside him beneath her veil. A full plate had been placed before her, but she did not touch it. When a servant approached from behind, her hand rose to secure the veil against her face.

Across the table, Maerissa began talking about Selena’s education.

”My daughter has studied diplomacy since childhood.”

The bride’s fingers stopped beside her cup.

”She speaks the western court language beautifully.”

Raigoro turned toward his wife.

”Does she?”

The woman beside him gave no answer.

Raigoro had years of reports concerning the Southern heir. Selena attended hunts, diplomatic dinners, public celebrations, and court dances. She was known for speaking easily, sometimes before her advisers had decided what she ought to say.

The silent woman beside him could be Selena with a condition Valence had concealed.

She could also be someone else entirely.

”Which Crown hosted the naval academy opening you attended last spring?” Raigoro asked.

His bride looked toward Maerissa before anyone else.

”Merovia,” Odran answered.

The answer matched the embassy reports.

Raigoro looked at Odran.

”I asked her.”

Odran’s cup stopped halfway to the table.

Raigoro let the silence sit between them.

The bride treated every question as dangerous. Whether she understood exactly what he was testing remained unclear.

Her hand shifted out of sight, and Alma answered with a small gesture near her wrist.

The bride relaxed.

Raigoro had learned the servant’s name from the witness list. Bruises were forming around one of Alma’s wrists, and her sleeve had been pulled out of place. Raigoro paid closer attention to the way she watched the bride, anticipating needs before they were spoken or written.

That kind of familiarity was difficult to manufacture in a morning.

Odran moved the conversation to departure.

”The princess’s Southern attendants will remain here. Blackharrow may provide replacements.”

The bride reacted before anyone could answer for her.

Her chair struck the stone as she turned toward the steward’s slate, but the steward caught its edge before she could take it.

Raigoro lifted one hand.

”Leave it.”

The steward released the board.

The bride took the chalk and wrote without hesitation:

ALMA COMES WITH ME.

She turned the slate toward Raigoro in one practiced movement. Even the bandage around her injured palm barely slowed her.

She had been communicating this way for longer than one morning.

Odran ignored the slate.

”That woman is required in the palace.”

The bride underlined the sentence hard enough to leave chalk dust across her bandaged hand.

ALMA COMES WITH ME.

Maerissa’s smile thinned.

”My daughter, the North will provide everything you need.”

The chalk broke between the bride’s fingers.

The bride had endured the ceremony with barely a visible protest.

Odran tried to take Alma from her, and she broke the chalk.

Interesting.

Raigoro looked at the servant again. Whatever existed between those two women had been there long before the wedding, and Odran wanted it left behind in Valence.

Raigoro wanted to know why.

”Alma travels with us.”

Odran looked at him.

”This is a matter concerning my household.”

”The princess is no longer traveling under your household authority.”

”My daughter has attendants chosen for her position.”

”None of them appear to be here.”

Maerissa touched the edge of Selena’s empty place setting.

”Alma has no experience of the North.”

”Neither, according to this morning’s conversation, does your daughter.”

The bride lowered her face.

Raigoro noted the reaction and left its meaning open.

Odran looked around the table. Refusing now would require him to explain why the bride needed to be separated from the only attendant she had publicly asked to keep.

”Very well.”

Alma approached the chair without embracing her mistress. Instead, she repaired the sleeve where one altered seam had begun to open.

The bride shifted before Alma reached her left shoulder, and Alma adjusted without being asked, avoiding the hidden pins beneath the fabric.

Raigoro had read reports about Selena’s attendants.

Alma’s name appeared in none of them.

After the feast, Odran demanded a private audience with the bride.

Raigoro refused.

The sealed covenant had removed her from Odran’s household authority, and Raigoro saw no reason to return her to a room where the king controlled every witness.

He stationed Blackharrow guards at both entrances to the Northern guest wing before bringing Daric inside.

The bride entered a separate chamber with Alma.

Before the door closed, she looked first at Odran’s guards, then at Raigoro.

The guards made sense.

Her husband apparently required explanation.

What had Valence told her about him?

Once the door closed, Daric placed the Southern guest records on the table.

”Perhaps she truly cannot speak.”

”Perhaps.”

”The compact accepted her.”

”It accepted her blood.”

Daric leaned against the table.

”Then she is Selena.”

Raigoro looked toward the closed chamber door.

The woman had arrived under Selena’s name, wearing Selena’s gown and carrying Selena’s crest. Blood had proven that she belonged to the royal line.

Nothing had connected her to Selena’s life.

”She may still be part of Odran’s deception,” Daric said.

”She may.”

”You think he substituted another woman.”

”I think Odran is hiding something about the bride.”

”That is not an answer.”

”It is evidence.”

Raigoro opened the banquet register.

Foreign princes, noble families, court officials, and members of the royal household had all been listed.

Records showed what a ruler permitted to remain on paper.

”Speak to servants and retired courtiers. Compare the current succession record with older copies held by foreign embassies. Check household appointments, removed portraits, burial records, and anyone who served the royal family before Maerissa became queen.”

Daric studied him.

”You think this began long before yesterday.”

Raigoro closed the wedding record over Selena’s written name.

”Find out who I married.”