CHAPTER ELEVEN
Dowager Queen Mary stood in one of the smaller committee chambers of the Assembly of Nobles, trying to mask her impatience as she waited for her sons. Trying to mask other things too, because every moment that she waited was another in which she might find herself coughing up blood, looking weak in front of men who could not see her that way.
Even now, her physiker hovered quietly in one of the doorways, disguised only by the presence of other servants and courtiers. There were others there too, so many that they could have used the main Assembly chamber and filled it: Assembly members, minor nobles, ship captains, representatives of the surrounding towns, and of course, generals. In a land where they had more than a hundred free companies, there was a proliferation of gen
