The Elf Prince Is My Baby Daddy novel · Chapter 2 of 32

Chapter 2: The Queen's Glass

The court laughs until the Queen's star-glass shows three lights in her; Corvan reads the Blood Law, Linnet refuses to give up her babies, and Ilvar says he'll marry her.

For one long breath, the only sound in the great hall was wine dripping off the edge of the high table.

Then the golden woman laughed.

It was a lovely laugh, light and musical, and it gave everyone else permission.

Laughter rolled down the long tables.

"Oh, how sweet," said Lady Aurelia Marrin. "Darling, you didn't tell me you'd hired a jester."

Ilvar was on his feet.

He hadn't said a word. He was staring at the star-silver pin on the cord at my throat.

The old man with the rings set down his cup.

"Guards," he said, in a voice as reasonable as a schoolteacher's. "Remove this person. Gently. She's clearly unwell."

Two guards in blue came down the steps toward me.

I didn't move.

"I'm not unwell," I said. "I'm pregnant. There's a difference. I'm a midwife, I'd know."

"A half-blood midwife," said the old man, "from some ditch in the south, who has seen a drawing of the prince in a broadsheet and decided to try her luck."

"Rushford," I said. "Not a ditch. A ford. Your soldier knows it well. He bled all over it."

A guard took my arm.

"Let go of her," Ilvar said.

He didn't shout. He didn't have to.

The guard let go.

Ilvar came down from the high table. The whole hall watched him walk to me.

Up close he looked worse than the drawing. Thinner. Shadows under his eyes.

He stopped an arm's length away.

"You came," he said, very low.

"You didn't."

Something went across his face, fast.

"Your Highness," the old man said. "Please. Lord Chancellor Corvan Marrin begs you to remember where you are."

So that was Corvan Marrin. The bride's father.

"I know exactly where I am," Ilvar said, without looking away from me. "Is it true?"

"Which part? That you're a prince, or that you're a father?"

"Linnet."

"It's true. I heard them myself, three days ago. Three distinct heartbeats. I checked twice because I didn't believe it either."

Aurelia had stopped laughing.

"This is absurd," she said. "Anyone can buy a trinket off a market stall and tell a story. Ilvar, really."

A dry old voice cut through the hall.

"Bring her here."

At the top of the dais, on a carved chair I'd taken for empty, sat a very small, very old woman in silver.

The Queen.

Every elf in the room stood up.

I didn't know whether to curtsy, so I just walked forward, because she'd told me to.

The Queen held out a hand. A guard put a glass globe in it, the size of an apple, clear as water.

"Do you know what this is, child?"

"No, ma'am."

"Star-glass. It shows the light of star blood. Hold it to your belly."

"Your Majesty," Corvan said smoothly, "there's no need to dignify..."

"Corvan. Be quiet."

He went quiet.

I took the glass. It was cold.

I pressed it against my stomach, over my dusty dress, with five hundred elves watching.

Nothing happened.

Aurelia smiled.

Then the glass warmed in my hand, and three small lights woke up inside it.

Silver, silver, silver.

Like three stars coming out over the river at dusk.

Someone in the hall dropped a plate.

The Queen leaned forward and looked at the lights for a long time.

"Well," she said. "Ilvar. You've been busy."

A few people laughed, then stopped when nobody else did.

Aurelia's face had gone the color of the tablecloth.

Ilvar came up beside me.

He reached out slowly and touched one finger to the glass.

The three lights swam toward his finger.

I hadn't been ready for that. My throat closed up.

"They know you," I said, and hated how my voice came out.

He didn't answer. He just kept looking at the lights.

Corvan cleared his throat.

"Then the matter is simple," he said. "Your Majesty, the law is clear. The Blood Law, section nine. A child of royal blood born to a half-blood mother belongs to the crown. It will be taken at birth and raised at court, as is proper. The mother will be paid and sent home."

He smiled at me, kindly.

"You'll be well compensated, girl. More gold than your ford has ever seen."

I looked at him.

Then I looked at the whole room, at the floating lights and the silver cups and the five hundred faces waiting to see what the ditch girl would do.

"No," I said.

"I'm afraid it isn't a question."

"Then here's my answer anyway." I put my hand flat on my belly. "These are mine. I carried them up your mountain. I'll carry them out again. If you want them, you'll have to cut them out of me, and I'll be awake for it."

Nobody laughed this time.

"Guards," Corvan said, much less kindly.

The guards came forward.

Ilvar stepped in front of me.

"Touch her," he said, "and you'll answer to me."

"Your Highness," Corvan said, "you can't defy the law in front of the whole court."

"I'm not defying it."

Ilvar turned to the Queen.

"The Blood Law says the child of a half-blood mother," he said. "It says nothing about the child of a princess."

The Queen raised one thin white eyebrow.

"Ilvar," Aurelia said sharply. "What are you doing?"

He didn't look at her.

He looked at me.

"Then I'll marry her," he said.

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