“Half,” I say.
“And what a half it is,” he agrees, voice dripping with derision. “Tell me about Dragonsbane.”
I tell him how she tries to undermine me every chance she gets, how she paints me as a well-meaning but incompetent child who cannot possibly rule, and how she acts like my loving aunt who only wants what’s best for me and SteelTown.
“What do you think she does want?” he asks.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I think she wants to help SteelTown—it’s her country, after all—but she also wants to profit from it. Richard said she charged SteelTownn families for safe passage to other countries. Helping them, but profiting. And she’s trying to marry me off to someone royal. She said they would have the troops needed to take SteelTown back, but I’m sure there’s something else in it for her f
