Horse Charmer by Angelia Almos Read Free Book Online Page A

in frustration. "You've found nothing."
    Kenrick kneeled down. "I'm sorry I've failed you, My Queen."
    Cassia didn't understand how nothing could have been found. How could they not know who killed her father and why he'd been out of the castle? It wasn't like a king could go anywhere without being noticed.
    "You must find Talent Westleigh." Sarahann turned back to him.
    Kenrick looked up. "We'll intensify the search."
    "Take who you need from the guardsmen," Sarahann said, dismissing them with her hand. "I want answers, Captain Kenrick."
    Both men bowed first to Sarahann and then to Cassia before they exited the room.
    Sarahann sighed. "You'd think they would have discovered something."
    Cassia didn't know what to say. It was hard to think past him being gone. Let alone who had taken him and why. She began to get angry at that thought. Someone had taken him from her. They'd stabbed him in the back and left him to die.
    "How can no one know anything?" Cassia finally spoke up. "Why did he go out? There has to be a reason."
    "Yes, there does." Sarahann paced about the room. "But we have other things to think of. Go to your chambers and get Madame Celeste started. She has very little time to get your gown ready."
    Cassia chaffed at the bit. She didn't want to be a pin cushion. She wanted to figure out who had killed her father and why, but she bowed her head obediently and left the room. The group of guards saluted her.
    "Which one?" Cassia asked.
    "The door on the right," Maconahay said with a grin as he escorted her to her room. "Let us know if you need anything."
    "I will, Captain." Cassia attempted to give him a smile in thanks.
     

 
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Cassia entered her room and was yet again greeted with a crowd. Not only was the seamstress, the assistant and handmaidens there, but Witen and her two brothers were as well. The boys raced around the room.
    "They wanted to see you," Witen said in explanation.
    Tully and Faolan ran to her and she nearly catapulted backward as they grabbed onto her skirts, chattering excitedly.
    "Hold on," Cassia said. "I can't understand you if you're both talking at once."
    Tully pulled on her hand. "Look out your window." Cassia allowed him to tug her forward. "Our room is right next door."
    "We are soooo high," Faolan said as he took her other hand.
    She obediently followed them and looked out. The windows faced out and away from the mountain and over the valley giving the illusion the rooms were in the sky. Cassia leaned forward pressing her head against the glass to look down. She could just make out the front gate and courtyard. A stable sat inside to the left with a small gate open to the servants' wagons.
    "Don't you think?" Faolan tugged on her hand.
    "Yes, we're very high." She kneeled down to their level and pointed. "But look, see how the floor of the valley slopes away from the gate. We actually aren't as high as it seems."
    "We're on the top floor," Tully said importantly. "Captain Maconahay said the roof is the only thing above us."
    "Captain Maconahay would know."
    Cassia stared out the window again, glad she wasn't afraid of heights at least, normally she wasn't, but looking down a feeling of separation and smallness wound its way inside her. She was relieved Maconahay and his guards already knew the lay of the land. Though she had to wonder at how quickly they'd performed the task. She hadn't thought she was with Erich for that long.
    "Princess," Celeste said her back ramrod straight as she stepped forward. "I don't wish to hurry you, but we don't have a lot of time."
    Tully made a face.
    "She's right," Cassia said. "You boys need to return to your room with Mistress Witen."
    They groaned as Witen gathered them up and left the room with them.
    "I'm at your disposal, Madame Celeste," Cassia said as Ula and Yaffa hurried over to begin unlacing and unbuttoning the traveling gown she wore.
     As night began to descend outside her chamber window, she stood on the little table