The Gray Wolf Throne. Cinda Williams Chima

      The Gray Wolf Throne

      A Seven Realms Novel

      Book Three

      Cinda Williams Chima

      Dedication

      For my maternal grandmother,

       Dorothy Downey Bryan, a gifted musician and

       indifferent housekeeper who had the second sight. Grandma

       had a lap that would accommodate several small children,

       but she always kept a shotgun in the closet.

      And in memory of Ralph M. Vicinanza,

       who left us too soon.

      Contents

       Cover

      Title Page

      Dedication

      Chapter One

      In the Borderlands

      Chapter Two

      Picking Over Old Bones

      Chapter Three

      Bad News and Good News

      Chapter Four

      A Welcome Home

      Chapter Five

      Old Enemies

      Chapter Six

      Simon Says

      Chapter Seven

      The Lady Sword

      Chapter Eight

      Endings and Beginnings

      Chapter Nine

      A Hunt Interrupted

      Chapter Ten

      The Price of Healing

      Chapter Eleven

      Secrets Revealed

      Chapter Twelve

      Bequest

      Chapter Thirteen

      Walking Wounded

      Chapter Fourteen

      Word Games

      Chapter Fifteen

      The Price Of Deception

      Chapter Sixteen

      A Way Forward

      Chapter Seventeen

      The Games Begin

      Chapter Eighteen

      A Web of Lies

      Chapter Nineteen

      A Calculated Risk

      Chapter Twenty

      Lucius and Alger

      Chapter Twenty-One

      Back in Aediion

      Chapter Twenty-Two

      Making a Point

      Chapter Twenty-Three

      Making Show

      Chapter Twenty-Four

      Farewells

      Chapter Twenty-Five

      Homecoming

      Chapter Twenty-Six

      Agreeing to Disagree

      Chapter Twenty-Seven

      On the Loose in the Palace

      Chapter Twenty-Eight

      Love Letter from Arden

      Chapter Twenty-Nine

      A Game of Suitors

      Chapter Thirty

      Allies

      Chapter Thirty-One

      Strange Bedfellows

      Chapter Thirty-Two

      For the Good of the Line

      Chapter Thirty-Three

      More Strange Bedfellows

      Chapter Thirty-Four

      Second Thoughts

      Chapter Thirty-Five

      A Bad Bargain

      Chapter Thirty-Six

      A Dangerous Dance

      Chapter Thirty-Seven

      Coronation

      Epilogue

      Acknowledgments

      Credits

      Copyright

      About the Publisher

      CHAPTER ONE

      IN THE BORDERLANDS

      Raisa ana’Marianna huddled in her usual dark corner at the Purple Heron, picking at her meat pie. She’d learned to stretch a meal and a mug of cider over an entire evening.

      It was risky to sit out in the common room of a tavern every night. Lord Bayar’s assassins would be searching for her. They’d failed to kill her at Oden’s Ford, thanks to Micah Bayar, Lord Bayar’s son. But the High Wizard’s spies could be anywhere, even here in the border town of Fetters Ford.

      Especially here. Bayar would prefer to intercept Raisa before she crossed the border into the Fells. It would be tidier that way, her murder easier to conceal from her mother the queen and her father’s people, the Spirit clans.

      Still, she couldn’t hide out in her room all the time. She needed to be visible to the people she wanted to find her. Somehow she had to get home, reconcile with Queen Marianna, and confront those who meant to take the Gray Wolf throne away from her.

      The name Rebecca Morley was no longer safe. Too many of her enemies knew it. These days she called herself Brianna Trailwalker, a nod to her clan ancestry. Her story was that she was a young trader returning from her first journey south, held up by the turmoil along the border.

      After a month in the limbo of Fetters Ford, she knew the regulars at the Heron—mostly pilots from the ferry service on the river, and the blacksmiths, farriers, and stablers who serviced travelers along the road. Locals were in the minority, though. The town churned with the comings and goings of wartime.

      Raisa scanned the room, picking out the strangers. Two Tamric ladies occupied a corner table for the second night in a row. One was young and pretty, the other sturdy and middle-aged, both too well dressed for the Heron. Likely a noble lady and her chaperone fleeing the fighting to the south.

      Three lean young men in Ardenine civilian garb played cards at a table by the door. Four had come in, but one of them had left a while ago. Several times, Raisa looked up and caught one or another of them staring at her. Apprehension slithered down her spine. Thieves or assassins? Or just young men showing interest in a girl on her own?

      There were no easy answers anymore.

      Most of the rest of the patrons were soldiers. Fetters Ford swarmed with them. Some bore the Red Hawk of Arden, some the Heron of Tamron, others