Miranda
For several long seconds, the screen continued showing the empty space where the king and queen had been standing.
Guests crowded around the fallen microphone while attendants hurried after Thoren. The camera shifted as though the person operating it could not decide whether to follow or remain on the reception, then finally settled on Kael speaking urgently to one of the technicians.
The silence in Blackstone broke all at once.
“She was poisoned.”
“No one poisoned her. She looked sick before she fell.”
“Did you see where she put her hand?”
“She was holding her stomach.”
“That does not mean anything.”
“It might.”
Voices overlapped from every direction as people twisted in their seats to speak with one another. The same residents who had spent the ceremony refusing to admi
