He Freed the Kings He Once Chained, They Chose to Bind Him novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Unmasking
The Unity Feast began at dusk, with three hundred guests at long tables and Mariam at the head of them all.
She wore white silk and the old king's ring.
She kissed Ren's cheek at the door.
"There you are, love," she said. "I was so worried."
"I'm glad to see you well," Ren said.
Under his coat, the letter lay flat against his ribs.
Ryu stood at his shoulder.
Su Ming and Ken took the seats to his left, and across the hall the marshal stood with forty men along the wall, hands on their hilts.
A servant brought the first cask in on a cart.
Ken did not look at it.
He had spent the small hours in the cellar with a single lamp, scratching a mark into the two bad casks so he would know them by touch.
Mariam rose, and the hall quieted.
"My friends," she said. "Four crowns in one house. After the sorrow of this year, let us drink to peace."
Her cup-bearer, a thin young man, began to fill the golden cups down the high table.
Ren stood before he reached them.
"Before we drink," he said. "I have something to read."
"Ren, love." Mariam smiled. "Not now."
"Now."
He drew out the letter.
A murmur ran down the long tables.
"This is the dowager's hand," he said, loudly, in the voice he had used once in a hospital corridor when the wrong family waited. "Every cruel law of my father's reign came from this desk. Su Ming."
Su Ming rose.
He read out the dates, one after another, flat and exact, each one before the old king's hands began to shake.
He named the spring of the Border War.
He named the year the old Ren's tutor was dismissed.
He named the winter they had been chained.
"These aren't forgeries," Su Ming said at the end. "Every king here knows my face. I don't lie in a room full of crowns."
Keep reading free with an account. Start He Freed the Kings He Once Chained, They Chose to Bind Him from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.
← Chapter 17 · All chapters · Chapter 19 →
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend