The Gray Wolf Throne
The third book in the critically acclaimed Seven Realms epic fantasy series from Cinda Williams ChimaHan Alister thought he had already lost everyone he loved. But when he finds his friend Rebecca Morley near death in the Spirit Mountains, Han knows that nothing matters more than saving her. The costs of his efforts are steep, but nothing can prepare him for what he soon discovers: the beautiful, mysterious girl he knew as Rebecca is none other than Raisa ana’Marianna, heir to the Queendom of the Fells. Han is hurt and betrayed. He knows he has no future with a blueblood. And, as far as he’s concerned, the princess’s family killed his own mother and sister. But if Han is to fulfill his end of an old bargain, he must do everything in his power to see Raisa crowned queen.Meanwhile, some people will stop at nothing to prevent Raisa from ascending. With each attempt on her life, she wonders how long it will be before her enemies succeed. Her heart tells her that the thief-turned-wizard Han Alister can be trusted. She wants to believe it—he’s saved her life more than once. But with danger coming at her from every direction, Raisa can only rely on her wits and her iron-hard will to survive—and even that might not be enough.The Gray Wolf Throne is an epic tale of fierce loyalty, unbearable sacrifice, and the heartless hand of fate.
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The Gray Wolf Throne
A Seven Realms Novel
Book Three
Cinda Williams Chima
Dedication
For my maternal grandmother,
Dorothy Downey Bryan, a gifted musician and
indifferent housekeeper who had the second sight. Grandma
had a lap that would accommodate several small children,
but she always kept a shotgun in the closet.
And in memory of Ralph M. Vicinanza,
who left us too soon.
Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Chapter One
In the Borderlands
Chapter Two
Picking Over Old Bones
Chapter Three
Bad News and Good News
Chapter Four
A Welcome Home
Chapter Five
Old Enemies
Chapter Six
Simon Says
Chapter Seven
The Lady Sword
Chapter Eight
Endings and Beginnings
Chapter Nine
A Hunt Interrupted
Chapter Ten
The Price of Healing
Chapter Eleven
Secrets Revealed
Chapter Twelve
Bequest
Chapter Thirteen
Walking Wounded
Chapter Fourteen
Word Games
Chapter Fifteen
The Price Of Deception
Chapter Sixteen
A Way Forward
Chapter Seventeen
The Games Begin
Chapter Eighteen
A Web of Lies
Chapter Nineteen
A Calculated Risk
Chapter Twenty
Lucius and Alger
Chapter Twenty-One
Back in Aediion
Chapter Twenty-Two
Making a Point
Chapter Twenty-Three
Making Show
Chapter Twenty-Four
Farewells
Chapter Twenty-Five
Homecoming
Chapter Twenty-Six
Agreeing to Disagree
Chapter Twenty-Seven
On the Loose in the Palace
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Love Letter from Arden
Chapter Twenty-Nine
A Game of Suitors
Chapter Thirty
Allies
Chapter Thirty-One
Strange Bedfellows
Chapter Thirty-Two
For the Good of the Line
Chapter Thirty-Three
More Strange Bedfellows
Chapter Thirty-Four
Second Thoughts
Chapter Thirty-Five
A Bad Bargain
Chapter Thirty-Six
A Dangerous Dance
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Coronation
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Credits
Copyright
About the Publisher
CHAPTER ONE
IN THE BORDERLANDS
Raisa ana’Marianna huddled in her usual dark corner at the Purple Heron, picking at her meat pie. She’d learned to stretch a meal and a mug of cider over an entire evening.
It was risky to sit out in the common room of a tavern every night. Lord Bayar’s assassins would be searching for her. They’d failed to kill her at Oden’s Ford, thanks to Micah Bayar, Lord Bayar’s son. But the High Wizard’s spies could be anywhere, even here in the border town of Fetters Ford.
Especially here. Bayar would prefer to intercept Raisa before she crossed the border into the Fells. It would be tidier that way, her murder easier to conceal from her mother the queen and her father’s people, the Spirit clans.
Still, she couldn’t hide out in her room all the time. She needed to be visible to the people she wanted to find her. Somehow she had to get home, reconcile with Queen Marianna, and confront those who meant to take the Gray Wolf throne away from her.
The name Rebecca Morley was no longer safe. Too many of her enemies knew it. These days she called herself Brianna Trailwalker, a nod to her clan ancestry. Her story was that she was a young trader returning from her first journey south, held up by the turmoil along the border.
After a month in the limbo of Fetters Ford, she knew the regulars at the Heron—mostly pilots from the ferry service on the river, and the blacksmiths, farriers, and stablers who serviced travelers along the road. Locals were in the minority, though. The town churned with the comings and goings of wartime.
Raisa scanned the room, picking out the strangers. Two Tamric ladies occupied a corner table for the second night in a row. One was young and pretty, the other sturdy and middle-aged, both too well dressed for the Heron. Likely a noble lady and her chaperone fleeing the fighting to the south.
Three lean young men in Ardenine civilian garb played cards at a table by the door. Four had come in, but one of them had left a while ago. Several times, Raisa looked up and caught one or another of them staring at her. Apprehension slithered down her spine. Thieves or assassins? Or just young men showing interest in a girl on her own?
There were no easy answers anymore.
Most of the rest of the patrons were soldiers. Fetters Ford swarmed with them. Some bore the Red Hawk of Arden, some the Heron of Tamron, others carried no signia at all—either sell-swords or deserters from King Markus’s army.
Any of them could be hunting Raisa. It had been a month since she’d escaped Gerard Montaigne, the ambitious young prince of Arden. Gerard hoped to claim at least three of the Seven Realms by overthrowing his brother Geoff, the current Ardenine king, invading his former ally Tamron, and marrying Raisa ana’Marianna, the heir to the Gray Wolf throne of the Fells.
Any day, they expected to receive word that the capital of Tamron Court had fallen to Gerard. The prince of Arden had laid siege to it weeks ago.
When Raisa arrived in Fetters Ford, she’d planned to ask the local Tamric authorities to send a courier to the garrison house at the West Wall in the Fells. They in turn could send her message on to her father, Averill Lord Demonai, or to Edon Byrne, Captain of the Queen’s Guard—perhaps the only two people in the Fells she could trust.
But when she arrived in the border town, there was no authority. The garrison house was empty, the soldiers fled. Some might have gone south to the aid of the beleaguered capital city. Likely, most had melted into the general populace to await the outcome of the war.
