The Twelve Kingdoms by Jeffe Kennedy Read Free Book Online

summer.”
    â€œThis is the one. The claret will be perfect. And if you’re wearing something the other ladies aren’t, even better. You made an impression of one kind this afternoon. Tonight you’ll underscore it. Today the noble weary warrior returned home. Tonight Her Royal Highness shines like a jewel in the heart of the Twelve. But first, let’s trim your hair.”
    â€œMy hair is already short.” But I obediently sat, bemused by her take on things. Danu taught that no trick should be neglected in battle. If primping would help me hold my own, so be it. “There are those braid supplements my ladies use, to make it look like my hair is put up instead of just short.”
    â€œNo offense, Your Highness, but it’s obvious what the intent is. It fools nobody. Everyone knows your hair is short. By wearing the hairpieces, you look as if you’re apologizing for it. You’re extraordinary as you are. Your strength lies in being exactly that.”
    Fringes of my hair fell on the white robe as she worked, looking like spatterings of old blood, deep red like the gown.
    â€œYou’ve apparently given this a great deal of thought.”
    â€œAmi—Princess Amelia, I mean—and I discussed it. She learned a great deal on her journeys about disguise and appearance as a method of displaying and holding power.”
    â€œAmi—and you might as well call her that when we’re alone, since I know you do anyway—has made a science of being beautiful. If I stick with my strengths, that’s not one.”
    â€œWhere is your circlet?”
    I swallowed a groan. “Don’t make me wear that thing.”
    â€œFormal feast,” she reminded me. “You’ll wear the Heir’s Circlet. Think of it as another kind of battle helm.”
    â€œJewelry chest should be in the bottom of the wardrobe, if no one’s moved it. You’ve been in my rooms longer than I have.”
    She went rummaging for it while I pulled on the gown and servants came in to light the lamps. The sunset chant went up from Glorianna’s Temple, bidding the day good-bye. By rights we should hear the song for Moranu’s moon, but none at Ordnung observed her worship, at least not openly. It had been interesting, those weeks at Windroven, to hear the rites for all three goddesses. Ami was intent on restoring the balance of the Three, though I didn’t quite understand why. But if she thought I’d missed the changes she’d been making in Glorianna’s church, then she didn’t know me well enough.
    More likely she counted on my not caring. Which, in all truth, I didn’t. Glorianna, with her pretty pink roses and promises of life everlasting, had never held much significance for me. The High King had declared Glorianna’s worship supreme in the Twelve Kingdoms, and as long as Ami’s actions upheld his law, I had no problem with her machinations.
    For myself, I privately looked to Danu, goddess of high noon and the bright blade. All the warriors did, no matter the time we spent bending a public knee to Glorianna.
    With the great exception of Uorsin, who’d declared Glorianna’s church preeminent, but rarely gave her worship more than lip service. He had his reasons, no doubt. Still, it had pierced my heart in an odd way at Windroven, the sound of the “Song of Danu” at high noon. Something I hadn’t heard since the day Kaedrin left.
    â€œGood goddesses,” Dafne exclaimed. “You keep the crown jewels in the bottom of your wardrobe?”
    She had the little chest open on a side table and she drew out a glittering strand of rubies.
    â€œSalena’s,” I explained. “They came to me upon her death. I was ten and more interested in swords, so they meant little to me. Recall that we weren’t to mention her name, or her very existence, for quite some time. I didn’t know what to do with them and that seemed