The remaining four ladies were not just unsettled, they were furious. Incensed. For years, they had served their queen faithfully, enduring her temperamental moods and sharp reprimands, yet never had she crossed such a brutal line without cause.
Something had clearly upset her deeply, that much was obvious. One did not simply wake up and accuse the closest members of one's household— women who had tended her since her coronation— of theft without reason.
Nheera might have been temperamental, even ruthless on her worst days, but she was not typically reckless. Underneath all her cruelty, she possessed a calculating mind. She strategized. She planned. She moved like a queen who never struck without first deciding precisely where the blow would land.
But this time had been nothing like the others.
