21

“He will do worse things than stand at the gates of the kingdom if I don’t go, Bindi,” I told her, dreading what lay ahead of us.

“He has no right to you,” Lex growled, red-faced with anger.

“He thinks I’m his property,” I told Lex. “But I will speak with him.”

I knew there was no avoiding Polonius. If I refused to speak with him that day, he would have probably attempted something more dangerous in the future. We had to pretend we were willing to negotiate.

“Aria,” Lex cautioned.

“You know we can’t ignore this.”

“I don’t like it,” Lex said with a scowl.

“Neither do I,” Bindi said. “What do you want me to do?” She looked at me.

“Take us to him,” I commanded. “Keep those crossbows handy, though,” I added with a smile.

“You know I don’t like this, my queen,” Bindi grumbled.

“We’re both going to have to get used to doing things we don’t like,” I said before we marched to the gates of the city, heavily guarded.

It didn’t take long to walk to the border between our kingdom and Brahman’s Pe