They Hanged My Parents as Traitors, Now the Prince Needs My Heart novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Unfit

The Regent called the Council to the long chamber the next noon.

He called it a courtesy.

He wanted twelve old lords to talk about the Hollow Prince and see a sick man.

I was not invited.

I went anyway, in a clean apron, behind a tray of tea that Sioned had put into my hands.

"If anyone asks, you're the tea," she said.

Nobody asked.

I set the tray on the sideboard and stood against the wall.

The chamber ignored me, as it always had.

The prince's chair at the foot of the table stood empty.

Lord Aneurin Rees stood at the head and spoke in his soft voice.

He spoke about the feast, and the black lines, and the physician's report that the Hollow would reach the collarbone by Midwinter.

"After that," he said, "the prince will lose his mind and his human shape. I say it with grief. We must plan for it."

The old lords nodded.

One of them looked at the empty chair with real pity, and that was worse than the rest.

"I would ask only one thing of this Council," the Regent said. "That we do not let affection delay what must be done."

I put down the teapot.

"Lord Regent," I said.

Every head turned.

"The scullery girl," someone muttered.

"The file on my parents says you presented a confession," I said. "There isn't one in it. Where is it?"

The Regent smiled at me, thinly.

"This is not the place."

"The Council minute says the matter was concluded. It doesn't say by what. Who were the three witnesses, my lord? I can't find one of them in the Row."

A pen stopped scratching.

"Girl," said the Regent, and the old courtesy had thinned to a wire, "you will be removed."

"By whom?" said a voice from the door.

Nobody had heard him come in.

Cadoc was standing in the doorway with the afternoon behind him.

He crossed the room to the middle of the floor, and as he came, the air in the chamber changed.

It was heavy, and warm, and it pressed on the back of my neck until I wanted to bend my head.

Twelve old wolves shifted in their chairs, and one of them slid, helplessly, to his knees.

It was the command of the Crown.

I had heard of it all my life and never felt it.

"Aneurin will produce the confession," Cadoc said, "and the three witnesses, before the Moot. If he cannot, he will withdraw the sentence in front of the packs."

"Highness," said the Regent.

"Is it unreasonable?"

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