Avner scowled. After all he had gone through, it hardly seemed fair to punish him for something he had done in what felt like the ancient past-but he resisted the urge to say so. He knew Tavis well enough to realize that complaining would only make matters worse.
"I've thought of just punishments," Brianna said, "Basil, the royal libraries are a mess. Your sentence shall be to clean and organize them."
The verbeeg's eyes lit up. "With pleasure!" he said. "How many volumes do you have-approximately?"
"We have exactly two thousand three hundred and twelve," Brianna replied. "And I should warn you that the one thing we do possess is a complete list. If even one comes up missing-"
"They won't," the verbeeg promised. "Who needs to steal when he can borrow?"
"What about me?" Avner asked, hoping his punishment would be something just as fitting.
Brianna smiled. "Once your arm is better, I think you should stay here to clean out Blizzard's stall-for a year."
"A year!" he gasped.
"Is something wrong with that?" Tavis inquired.
Avner quickly swallowed his shock. "No, of course not," he said. "I was just thinking that a year will be a long time, away from you and Livia and the others back at the inn."
"I don't think you'll be missing them at all," said the new queen. She clasped Tavis's arm, then added, "I intend to keep all of you very close at hand."
