The Blue, Beautiful World by Karen Lord EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Author:Karen Lord
- Language: English
- Genre: Action & Adventure Literary Fiction
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
T H E E M I S S A R Y K E P T on digging his own grave, centimeter by centimeter,
word by word. He had been ill served by a poorly trained spy service, but
that was no excuse. A coronation was a time for traditional platitudes and
ceremonial courtesy, all the small flourishes and grace notes that such
formal occasions demanded to ensure that the usual hierarchies were firmly
in place and the new names alongside the ancient titles would be honored
and respected.
It was certainly not a time to bring up family gossip.
The newly crowned monarch all but glowed with attentiveness, and her
attendants, knowing the trap well, made no attempt to hustle the emissary
away and move the next dignitary forward. They waited. One idly adjusted
the fall of ice-blue fabric that poured from the monarch’s left shoulder to
puddle at her feet. Snow white her robe, ice blue her mantle, platinum
bright the embroidery on her vestments, telling in symbol and sign all the
tale of her dynasty.
The dynasty the emissary presumed to speak of.
How her mother must be proud of her…at last.
How their blood had returned to the purity of prior generations…
eventually.
How reassuring it was that her brother—apologies, adopted brother—
would no longer embarrass the chronicles of their line with his whims and
oddities.
The monarch made no reply but smiled and smiled until at last the
emissary, uncouth as he was, faltered in his performance, like an actor who
realizes he must have missed a cue somewhere.
“Esteemed Lady, where is your brother?” No nonsense about his
adoption then, the old fool. Simply a direct question that she could answer
freely in the comfortable knowledge that the information was too late to be
of any use to anyone.
She matched the now-sincere smile on her lips with a gleam of hungry
humor in her eyes. “Paris, my dear ambassador. Did you not know?”
—
I N PA R I S , T H E streets were screaming.
Not literally. But nearly. The sound reverberated from every paved road
and brick wall. A vibration of thudding feet strummed through lines of
traffic stopped by bodies moving too thickly to be pushed aside by mere
motors and machinery. Up ahead, a few cars still managed to press forward
through the crush of the crowd. One car, anonymous with dark-tinted
windows, made as if to break away. The crowd scented quarry and surged
toward it.
Another car took advantage of the space temporarily created to nudge
its way into an alley. To the uneducated eye, in the darkness of evening, this
vehicle appeared to be normal in every respect. The make and age were
common, and the occupants were visible behind clear glass—but then the
left rear window rolled down, and the high-tech VR glass flickered,
dropped its display of an upset and frustrated family of four, and showed
instead the pop star, his driver, his manager, and his security.
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