PETTY

Excerpt

Dusk Peterson

I must admit to concerns about our future. King Varick is understandably much cast down by the recent events; he has always loved his elder brother dearly, just as I have always loved those two young men as though they were my own heirs. Varick, good man though he is, does not have Prince Corbin's skill in military matters, and now he is deprived of Corbin's advice. It would be a wretched thing if York, the Wolf of Fossenvita, were to win victory over us; he is a vicious ruler, as we knew even before he imprisoned Corbin.

My only hope is the one I hinted at earlier in my letter; you are a wise enough woman to understand my hope without my having voiced it. Yet at the same time, my hope is a fear, for even before recent events, it was becoming clear that a breach was occurring between Corbin and Varick, and that the two brothers, for all their love of each other, were becoming enemies in the field. I could not take Corbin's part in this battle; his solution to the world's troubles – that we should simply stop fighting the Fossenvites – seemed naive to me. Moreover, Varick is now my liege lord, since he is regent King. Yet it tore at me, to watch the two of them fighting each other in their last public conversation together.

And now, in all likelihood, the Wolf's whelp is let loose amid the sheep. What harm he may do to the petties he hides himself amongst, I do not know, but I send this letter to you in hopes that you may pass on to other petties my message: Do not underestimate Prince Firmin. He is as young as Corbin and Varick, yet he has already shown himself to be as sly and destructive as his father York.

And if my other suspicion is true . . . If it is true, then we may have even more to fear, for Corbin dead is a matter to greatly grieve at, but if Corbin remains alive, then he is far more clever and dangerous than any of us had suspected.

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