The Elf Prince Is My Baby Daddy novel · Chapter 13 of 32

Chapter 13: The Council

"Two days," I said. "Then we leave now."

Mam was already packing bread.

She came north with us in the back of the guards' hay cart.

She'd been left behind once, she said, and she wasn't having it twice.

She complained about every rut for two days.

The High Council sat in a round room under the palace's tallest tower.

Thirty lords at a horseshoe table of white stone.

The Queen in her chair at the open end.

Corvan Marrin in the middle of the curve, with a stack of papers and his rings on show.

Aurelia sat at his elbow in white and gold.

They'd left one chair in the middle of the floor. For me.

I didn't sit in it.

"The charge," Corvan said, in his reasonable voice, "is simple. The princess left the Academy at midnight without leave. She missed two days of lessons. She rode to a border town and stirred up a mob against riders of this council."

"Your riders," I said.

"I'll come to you, princess."

"You won't need to. I'm right here."

A few of the lords looked at their hands to hide their faces.

Corvan smiled.

"The Trial of Light is a test of a student. A student who runs away is no student. The contract is void. I ask the council to say so."

"She missed my class," Aurelia said. "Twice."

"I can't light an orb," I said. "It's not as if you missed much."

That got a laugh. A small one, from the lords at the far end, but they didn't stop it fast enough.

Aurelia's mouth went thin.

"May I answer, Your Majesty?"

"Please," said the Queen. "I've been looking forward to it."

I stood in front of the empty chair with my hands on my belly.

"The Academy has a rule," I said. "Any student called away for family need is excused, if a classmate keeps her lessons and signs for them in the book. My mother was accused of poisoning me. Then twelve of the Chancellor's riders went to search her house. That's family need where I come from."

"And who signed?" said Corvan. "Nobody, I think."

The door at the back opened.

Seren came in with ink on both hands and a stack of notebooks up to her chin.

She dropped two on the way down the aisle. A lord in a green coat picked them up for her.

"Me," she said. "I signed. Sorry I'm late. The stairs."

She set the notebooks down on the table in front of Corvan.

"That's every lesson she missed, in my hand. And that's the Academy book, with my name in it, the night she left. It's dated. I'm very neat with dates."

The room was quiet.

Corvan looked at the book. Then he looked at Seren.

"Miss Lisle," he said kindly. "How is your father?"

Seren went white under her freckles.

"Do give him my regards. His note falls due at Midwinter, I believe."

She swallowed. She didn't pick up the notebooks.

"He's well, my lord," she said. "Thank you for asking."

I wanted to hug her so badly my arms hurt.

"There's one more thing," I said to the council. "Your riders didn't search my mother's house. Their captain stood in her kitchen and aimed a loaded crossbow at my heart, in front of the crown prince. Fifty people saw it. Shall I send for them? They'll walk here. They walk everywhere."

Thirty heads turned to Corvan.

"My captain was recovering stolen herbs," he said. "He may have been overzealous."

"He was holding a crossbow at a woman carrying three heirs to your crown."

"Enough," said the Queen.

She tapped her cane once on the stone.

"I sealed that contract with my own ring. It ends on one thing, and one thing only. The trial. Not a missed class. Not a trip home. Call the vote, Corvan, and let's all have lunch."

Corvan called the vote.

He did it beautifully.

Eleven hands went up to void the marriage.

The lord in the green coat kept his hand flat on the table.

I knew his face.

Three weeks ago he'd sat by the wall with his head in his hands while I brought his son into the world feet first.

Nineteen hands stayed down.

"The motion fails," said the Queen. "Go away, all of you."

In the corridor, Seren sat down on a bench and shook.

"Your father," I said.

"It's fine."

"Seren."

"It's fine. It's my father's debt, not mine. I keep telling myself that." She wiped her nose on her inky sleeve. "Did you see Aurelia's face, though?"

"I saw it."

"Like she'd bitten a lemon and it bit back."

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