Exiled as Useless, I Healed the Demon General Who Fell at My Feet novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: The Cup

Kanae showed Vorhaan the feather at noon, and he crushed it in his fist.

"The Chancellor's hand," he said. "He writes that way. He's never signed anything in his life."

"Then it's a threat."

"It's a coward's threat." He took her chin gently in his fingers. "Stay by me tonight. At the banquet, every moment."

"I wasn't planning to wander."

"Good."

The Lord's banquet filled the Obsidian Court with nine hundred guests and a thousand candles.

Tables stretched the length of the hall under red banners.

Dishes Kanae couldn't name went by on silver trays, and a band of horn players made a sound.

She sat on Vorhaan's right with her back very straight.

Ishkra had dressed her in dark red silk, with her hair pinned up by someone who understood hair, and Kanae felt small in the heavy silks.

"Eat something," he murmured.

"I can't. I think every one of them wants me dead."

"Only about a third."

"That's not helping."

His hand found hers under the table.

At the head of the hall the Lord rose, and the whole court rose with her.

"A toast," she said, "to the Ashen Legion, and to its General, who walks again."

A servant brought the cups.

They were heavy black goblets, filled with a dark red wine, and a young demon in grey livery stood at Vorhaan's shoulder.

He was the taster, and he lifted Vorhaan's cup first and drank a mouthful.

He nodded.

Vorhaan raised his cup.

Across the hall, in a high collar of black feathers, the Chancellor lifted his own and smiled at Kanae.

It was a smug, triumphant smile.

"Vorhaan," she said, very low.

"I see him."

"Don't drink."

"A toast from the Lord's table cannot be refused. It would be an insult to her." His thumb pressed her knuckle. "It's all right. My taster has tasted."

He drank.

Nine hundred demons drank with him.

Kanae watched him set the cup down, and she counted.

Four seconds.

Five.

At seven, the color began to leave his face.

At eight, his hand slid off the cup, and his gold eyes went wide and fixed on hers.

"Kanae," he said.

Then he folded forward across the table and hit the floor.

The hall exploded.

She was on her knees beside him before she knew she'd moved.

His chest was heaving, and his skin had gone grey-white, and his lips were turning blue.

"Poison!" someone shrieked. "The General has been poisoned!"

"Get back," Kanae said. "Everyone get back!"

Ishkra was there, shoving courtiers aside with her ledger, and four Legion riders formed a ring around them with drawn swords.

Kanae got her hands on his chest.

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