Chapter 14: Item One

I opened it in front of the King. One sheet of heavy paper. A woman's handwriting. Elegant. Unhurried. Commander Voss, My father is old, stupid, and now in a Crown cell, which is where sentimental men belong. I have no interest in owning you. That was his century's ambition, not mine. You should know two things. One: yours is not the only bloodline that was hunted. Ask your King what happened to the other one — the line that could hear a lie. Ask him why there is no living record of them....