He Sold Me Into Slavery, I Returned as Queen novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The List
The royal candidates' list is read before the throne, and the Queen stakes her life to bar its top name.
The final list of royal candidates was carried into the throne hall at noon, and the name at the top was Corvin Leland.
I read it twice from my seat beside the king.
When I was eight, Corvin bought me a honey cake on a festival night and promised to show me the lantern boats.
He held my hand the whole way, and he walked me to a slave trader.
He had grown up in my father's house, and he did it for my half-sister.
As long as I lived, she could never be our pack's only heir.
He went home and knelt in front of my father and sobbed that I had wandered off and gotten lost.
My father wrote my half-sister into the pack registry as his only child.
I was sold seven more times.
Nobody in this hall knew a word of it.
They knew me as Queen Solveig, the healer who had saved the king's life and been crowned for it.
Aldous Pellam, the Chief of Selection, read the names aloud in his slow, heavy voice.
"Corvin Leland, first in every round, betrothed to Rosamund Thornwell, the Thornwell pack's only daughter."
My fingers closed on the arm of my chair.
I stood up.
"Your Majesty, I ask that this man be barred from the final trial."
Lysander turned his head.
"On what ground?" he asked.
"He is morally unfit to stand before your throne."
The whole hall went quiet.
Aldous lowered the list and gave me a small, patient smile.
"Your Highness, that is a grave charge to make without a single witness."
"Corvin ranked first in this year's selection," he went on. "His papers for all three rounds were reviewed twice."
"He carries a pack guarantee from the Thornwell Alpha and a joint letter from his masters at Highmoor Academy."
I had seen that guarantee.
It carried my father's seal and a line saying he had raised Corvin like his own son.
Of course it did.
"If we bar the best candidate over one remark about his character," Aldous said, "the public will not accept it."
"Then look into him again," I said. "You won't have to dig far."
Councilors turned in their seats to look up at me.
Not one of them looked pleased.
Aldous bowed to the throne.
"Your Majesty, the trial is in three days."
"If the top candidate is turned away on the Queen's word alone, every ordinary candidate will wonder what his own name is worth."
Lysander did not answer him.
He looked at me instead, for longer than court manners allowed.
"You know Corvin Leland?" he asked.
My hand slid into my sleeve.
Under the cloth, a ring of tiny letters and a number was burned into my left wrist.
Lysander had seen the scar a hundred times and never once asked what it said.
It ached now, though the burn was fifteen years old.
"I wish I never had," I said.
Aldous's face went sour.
I turned to the king and spoke so the whole hall could hear.
"I stake my life on this."
"Suspend his place in the trial and look into his past."
"If I am lying, I will stand before the Court of Judgment and take whatever it gives me."
The silence went on and on.
Lysander knew I did not make promises lightly.
He had watched me make only one before, and it was to him.
At last he shut the list.
"Issue the order," he said.
Aldous's head came up fast.
"Corvin Leland's place in the final trial is suspended," Lysander said, and his voice was cold now.
"His papers are sealed from this moment, and no one touches them."
"The Court of Judgment and the Bloodline Registry will search his past together."
"When they have found the truth, I will decide whether he may swear an oath before this throne."
Aldous could only obey.
He walked out with his jaw clenched so hard that a muscle jumped in it.
One councilor muttered behind his hand that a queen from the plague sheds should stick to her herbs.
I turned and looked at him until he found something to study on the floor.
Lysander looked at him too, and the man went white.
"Say that again, my lord," Lysander said. "Louder, so the Queen can hear it."
When the hall had emptied, the doors closed on the two of us.
Lysander stayed in his chair.
"Can you tell me now?" he asked.
I got up and poured him a fresh cup of tea from the pot on the side table.
My hand did not shake, and I was proud of that.
"Not yet," I said. "On the day the court sits in public, you will hear all of it."
He frowned, but he did not press me.
He took the cup and held it without drinking.
"I trust you," he said. "I hope you don't make me regret it."
I smiled a little.
"I won't."
I had counted the days to this one for fifteen years.
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