The Throne Legacy: An Incasta Novel (co-written)

The Throne Legacy ~ Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Nikita frowned and pursed her lips, then grumbled to herself and threw down her embroidery onto her footstool. On the other side of the room Lady Craft peered at the princess over her book.

“Everything alright, Nikita?” Craft asked.

Nikita looked up at her. “Oh, I’m fine. Just got another stitch wrong.”

Craft nodded and returned to her book.

After a moment, Nikita scooped up her embroidery and swept out of the hall, her two guards falling into step behind her. There had been something on her mind ever since her trip out to the city the day before. The symbol burned in her brain and she desperately needed to find out what it meant. If it meant anything at all.

She quickly returned to her chambers and placed her embroidery in its place before heading to Shards’ chambers. The Duchess was bound to have some ideas - she seemed to know things, things that Nikita had no idea how she knew.

Nikita knocked lightly on the door before entering and found Shards in the outer chamber. She was stood at her desk which was littered with scrolls, all opened and apparently discarded. Shards herself was reading one of these and, as Nikita entered, dropped it onto the table with the others before turning to the shelf behind her. It seemed to Nikita that there were a lot of scrolls on the desk - so many that Shards’ large, secret, book was completely covered - yet the shelves on the opposite wall were still bursting with them.

“Shards?”

The Duchess was muttering to herself, though Nikita only caught one phrase. “Got to be here...somewhere...”

“Shards?”

The Duchess spun around, a bone-handled knife in hand. Where the weapon had come from, Nikita had no idea, she had not seen Shards holding it before. When she saw Nikita, Shards lowered the knife and it disappeared again, back to whatever hiding place she kept it in.

“My apologies, I did not realise it was you,” Shards said politely, hopping down off the ladder she had been stood on.

“I’m sorry to disturb you, it seems you are in the middle of something,” Nikita replied, indicating the piles of scrolls with a sweep of her arm.

“Oh no, it is fine,” Shards smiled. “Can I help you with something?”

“As a matter of fact, you can,” Nikita said, fidgeting nervously.

“Well, what is it?” Shards asked after a moment.

“I was out in the city yesterday, looking at the preparations for the celebrations, and saw something that... I do not understand.”

“Well, I do not know if I can help you, tell me what you saw,” Shards said, removing scrolls from her chair so she could sit.

“There was a person at the edge of the street, I do not know what they looked like, they were cloaked. In the person’s hand they held a strange symbol, made of twigs that had been bent into impossible shapes. It was a triangle, with other shapes attached to each side, on the inside of the triangle. I have never seen it before. I thought...perhaps...you might have some idea...” Nikita told her, wringing her hands together.

Shards thought for a while, her hands in her lap and her head down, looking at the table. Eventually, she looked up at Nikita. “I do not claim to know much about this sort of thing. But I believe what you saw to be a symbol from times old, before anyone alive now can remember. I have my suspicions as to what it might be, though I do not want to tell you if I am not correct.”