I Will Never Be Yours novel · Chapter 5 of 24
Chapter 5: The Council Table
On the second night the housekeeper put a jug of wine in my hands and told me to pour.
"One of the girls has a fever," she said. "You're steady and you don't talk. Left of each guest, and don't spill on the King."
"Which guests?"
"The Council."
I had taken a pinch of Alder's powder at dawn, and my blood was still dull and quiet.
I told myself that was enough.
The long hall was lit with candles, and eleven elders sat at the table with the King at the head.
Alder had the seat at his right.
I went round the table with the jug, one chair at a time, keeping my eyes on the glasses.
An old man with a white beard drank without looking at me.
A woman in a grey suit watched the King and nobody else.
Nobody noticed the maid, which was exactly what I wanted.
I was filling the glass of the man beside the King when the white-bearded elder cleared his throat.
"We have discussed the northern tariffs, and the rogue question, and the matter of the harvest," he said. "Now we should discuss the Luna's seat."
The King went still.
"We have discussed it," he said.
"Three years ago, my King. It is time."
"It is not."
"The Crown needs a queen," the woman in grey said. "The packs need someone to bring their grievances to who is not you."
"I have one."
"You have a grave with nobody in it," the old man said, not unkindly. "Three years. Nobody has seen her. Nobody has heard a word from her. If she were alive, she would have come."
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