Erased by My Family at Seventeen, I Heard Every Lie at Eighteen novel · Chapter 17 of 24
Chapter 17: The King's Table
The king's dining hall at Highcastle had a table for twenty and only seven chairs set.
Linnea saw her family before she saw the king.
They sat in a row along one side in their good clothes.
Her father was at the end, her mother beside him, then her two brothers.
They had been well fed.
They looked like people who had not slept in two days.
"Lord Commander," King Osmund said from the head of the table. "Recruit. You honour me."
He rose and drew out a chair for her himself.
It was between her mother and her father.
Theron took the chair across from her, and the king's clerk stood against the wall behind the king with his hands folded.
Bread was brought, and wine, and a roast.
Nobody touched the roast.
Linnea sat with her hands in her lap, saying the rhyme.
One for the river, two for the oar.
Beside her, her father's mind came through the rhyme as a low, steady ache: I did this. I did this. Forgive me.
She did not look at him.
On her other side, her mother was breathing very fast.
"I hope you find the Watch to your liking," the king said, cutting his bread. "It is not a gentle life."
"No, your majesty."
"You kept your head in front of the Corps. My senior listener tells me you have a gift for quiet."
Linnea said nothing.
"I have always been curious about the Blomqvists," the king went on. "A line that keeps the records of a whole river and tells nobody what else it keeps."
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