CHAPTER TWENTY
Gareth sat in his father’s throne room, on his father’s throne, looking down at the dozens of councilmen and lords and commoners before him—all with their own problems—and was miserable. Months had passed since he had assumed the throne, and with each passing day, he felt more tortured, more paranoid—and more alone. He had ousted his closest friend and advisor—Firth—long ago, relegating him to the horse stables and forbidding him to see him, and he missed him. Removing Firth was the right thing to do—he was reckless and had become a liability. After all, he remained the only one who could connect Gareth to his father’s murder, and he did not want to be associated with him anymore.
He had brought in a half dozen of his friends to be his mentors, and it was these people who
