The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

crumbled under his crushing rule.
    Change had come to SeLenicca. Dramatic, catastrophic, and none too soon.
    The SeLenese had long believed that they were the Chosen of the Stargods. The land was theirs to exploit. Nurturing the land, growing crops, and raising livestock had been delegated to lesser peoples in other countries. By the time Miranda came to the throne, the Chosen of the Stargods had bled SeLenicca of all her natural resources. They had nothing left except their arrogance, their prejudices, and their lace.
    Dared she believe that she and the meek woman who had allowed all that to happen while she closeted herself with her lace were one and the same. Did she want to be that woman?
    What other reason for one and all to desert her and her young daughter in the palace when they fled the kardiaquakes and the fires and the flooding? What other reason than to condemn her for their troubles?
    Miranda.
    “I’ll do better when I return. But first I have to find the strength to be the kind of queen my people need. I need to remember everything, not just bits and pieces glued together with supposition.”
    A noise alerted her to the presence of another. She wasn’t ready to face Zebbiah and Jaranda yet, so she continued staring blankly into the fire. Part of her senses remained focused on the shuffling steps and wheezing breath of the intruder.
    Not Zebbiah.
    She listened more closely and shifted her eyes, but not her head, to catch a glimpse of whoever hovered behind her, near the pack beast and the panniers; the panniers filled with her lace pillow and countless yards of priceless lace.
    “You there!” She stood abruptly and whirled to face the caravan leader.
    He held a long strand of lace, as wide as two joints of her pointing finger.
    “Thief!” she screamed as loud as she could.
    The leader took off running, trailing the lace behind him.
    “Stop, thief!” she screamed again.
    Loud footsteps ran closer. Men crowded close to her. Off to the side she caught a glimpse of Zebbiah running in pursuit.
    “The leader stealing?” someone whispered behind her.
    “What have we let ourselves in for.”
    “We can’t continue with a thief for our leader.”
    “Is it truly theft to steal from a Rover and his mistress?”
    The thief stumbled, tripping over the long strand of lace he tried desperately to gather as he ran. Zebbiah tackled him. They both landed facedown in the dirt.
    “Leader, I accuse you of theft from the queen!” Miranda announced. She fought the hole in her gut that felt like he’d stolen her soul as well as her identity when he stole the lace. “The presence of Tambrin lace in your hand is all the evidence we need to convict you.”
    Stunned silence rang around the campfires at her pronouncement.
    “You are sentenced to exile. Escort him from the camp,” she ordered.
    “But who will lead us? Who will guide us?”
    “You caused this!” the stout merchant woman with two plaits from the boat shouldered her way to Miranda’s side. “You and your slutty ways. If you’d married a true-blood we’d not have had your outland husband bring the wrath of the Stargods down on our heads. If you’d acted the queen and ruled rather than surrendering to your sorcerer husband, he’d not have ruined our beautiful land. Now you consort with another outlander. Aren’t true-bloods good enough for you? We should exile you!” She raised a fist as if to hit Miranda.
    The former queen stood straight, facing her accuser.
    Excited whispers broke out among the men and the few women in the caravan. They retreated a step or two, leaving Miranda alone in the circle with her accuser.
    Jaranda broke into wild cries.
    Zebbiah wrestled the purloined lace from the thief.
    “It seems to me, I am headed into exile, as are you and the rest of these people. What more can you do to me?” Miranda finally spoke. “But thievery from me is only a symptom of this man’s dishonesty. Do you truly wish to risk traveling so far with him? Do you truly wish to be led by a man who will steal from each of you as easily as he does from me? I am no longer your queen. Decide for yourselves how you will treat a thief. I am going to eat my dinner.” She sat down on her rock beside the fire once more.
    “Somehow, I thought you’d find a rod of iron in your backbone once you started to remember,” Zebbiah said quietly. He cuddled Jaranda close to his side.
    Miranda took the lace from him and began rolling it into a neat coil,