Free Web NovelChapter 194: Chapter 194
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.
Nheera had torn through her chambers in a storm of fury, rage twisting her elegant features into something feral as she flung cushions, overturned tables, and hurled priceless ornaments to the floor in her frenzied search. She had demanded answers, demanded confessions, demanded explanations for the one thing she could not find, the ring she always wore on her finger.
Her ladies-in-waiting had known she was deeply attached to it. They had thought that it must be a family heirloom, a relic from her lineage like the crown jewels. It was the only explanation they could conjure for her obsession with the piece. They had never known the truth, the power the ring held, or the ways Nheera had quietly used it on those within the castle walls.
But in witnessing her unhinged desperation, her fear disguised as fury, one fact became terrifyingly clear, this was not about a simple theft and something far more dangerous was at play.
The ladies-in-waiting had long endured her tyranny in silence. They had stood back while she manipulated, schemed, and tormented Ragnar in front of the court. They had held their tongues through her fits of malice, excusing her behavior as the burden of a crown too heavy for any one person to bear. But watching two of their own dragged out in chains without evidence of any wrongdoing, without a hearing, had made them rethink their complacency to the queen’s actions.
If Nheera could turn on them so suddenly, who was to say any one of them wouldn’t be her next victim?
Now none of them dared meet her gaze. They moved with stiff, mechanical precision, each trying to shrink away, to become more invisibility. Being a lady-in-waiting to the queen was a prestigious appointment coveted by noble families across Lamora, one of the highest honors a woman could achieve. But that prestige meant nothing now. Their rank felt less like privilege and more like a battlefield, one where they could be struck down at any moment by the very woman they served.
After the incident, armed guards were stationed outside Nheera’s chambers day and night. Every person who entered or exited her rooms was noted by name and thoroughly searched to ensure nothing else vanished. These new measures, however, felt useless when the queen’s most valuable possession was already gone.
A soft knock disturbed the oppressive quiet of her chambers.
One of the guards stepped inside, his posture rigid as a drawn bowstring, his eyes locked firmly on the floor. It wasn’t only the ladies who feared provoking her wrath, everyone did.
"Your Majesty," he said cautiously, "the king’s advisor is outside your chambers. He requests an audience. Shall I tell him you are indisposed, or should I send him in?"
The shift in Nheera’s expression was immediate and chilling. Her scowl darkened, and for a heartbeat the guard seemed to stop breathing. She was in no mood to entertain anyone, not while her ring remained missing, not while the culprit still walked free under her nose.
A dismissal balanced on the edge of her tongue.
But she hesitated.
"Let him in," she said finally, each word clipped. Laheir had proven useful in the past, despite his grating presence. If he came at such a time, he must have something worth hearing.
"As you wish, Your Majesty." The guard bowed again, deeper this time, before retreating. Moments later, Laheir stepped inside, his footsteps echoing in the silence that greeted him. freeweɓnøvel.com
Nheera regarded him with cool disdain as she lounged lazily across her luxurious settee, feigning boredom.
"Why have you chosen to darken my mood even further by coming here?" she asked, her tone flat and dripping with disinterest.
Laheir’s face was more austere than she had ever seen it. Stern lines cut sharply into his features, his lips pressed into a thin, unforgiving line. His eyes, usually steady and unreadable, now shone with something colder.
"While you have been busy sowing fear in the hearts of those who serve you," he said, voice dangerously calm, "I have been doing something far more valuable, trying to save us both from complete ruination."
Sensing that this was a conversation best held in private, Nheera turned to the ladies-in-waiting hovering nearby
"Out," she commanded.
They scattered at once, skirts swishing as they fled to avoid the queen’s temper, leaving her alone with Laheir.
His expression didn’t waver. "You busy yourself chasing a ridiculous ring while everything around us is collapsing. The king has all but named Ragnar his successor in front of the entire court, and you’ve done nothing. You are content to watch Hairan lose his birthright if it means being allowed to continue searching for meaningless things that have only ever benefited you."
Nheera’s fury rose swift and sharp. "You forget yourself. I am your queen."
"Then act like it." Laheir shot back, his voice carrying a bitter edge. "Because while you were distracted, the king has ordered an inquiry into Yannick’s ties to the rebellion. And if they uncover anything leading back to my family, you know exactly what will follow. And you also know," he added, stepping in just close enough to test her nerve, "that I am not the kind of man who goes down quietly."
