Silence followed...a pin drop silence that did not arrive so much as it settled—slowly, deliberately—until it filled every corner of the vast chamber like an unseen weight pressing down on every shoulder present.
Then every eye turned toward Valerian, not because he was king and certainly not because he was the most powerful man in Virelia.
But because for years ever since the existence of the heir had become known to the court and kingdom alike, there had been one question nobody had ever managed to answer. One question that had survived countless balls, countless gatherings, countless nights of drunken speculation among nobles who had nothing better to do than dissect the lives of royalty.
A single question that refused to die no matter how many times it was buried beneath etiquette, ceremony, or threat of punishment.....
Who was the mother of the king's heir?
