CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Stephania was serene as she made her way to the Hall of Knowledge, gliding as the elegant heart of a coterie of guards and handmaidens, nobles and spies. She’d always seen the value of information, and this was the place where she could find out almost anything she wanted.
She just hoped that it held answers that could save her child.
Some of the nobles looked as though they hadn’t walked so much in years, and Stephania smiled a little at forcing them to make the effort. It was good for a ruler to keep those around her a little uncomfortable.
A ruler. Stephania didn’t get tired of thinking that. When she’d been just a noble, Stephania had assumed that royalty was a tiny step, and it was, but it was more than that. It was a shift in state, taking her from being one of th
