Chapter 31
Everyone Under Your Rule
Stellon
I’d barely finished bathing and changing clothes when the first of the regional lords arrived at Seaspire.
One after another, they were announced, having obviously leaned on their own Evanescers to make the trip to Seaspire so quickly.
Something very urgent was going on.
My minister of security knocked on the door of my suite, his face twisted in clear dismay.
“I know it is late, Your Majesty, but they are demanding an audience, I cannot get them to leave.”
“Very well, don’t fret,” I said. “Deliver the message that I will see them shortly in the throne room.”
Leaving my chambers, I sent a mental message to Pharis, who’d gone to his old room to clean up while Raewyn rested in a guest suite.
You ready for this, brother?
Not really, but the Three Pillars will handle it.
His response came through just as he turned the corner and shot a grin at me.
“I do hope Mareth’s already waiting down there with a man-eating lion or something,” he said aloud.
“It might take an entire pride, based on the reports of hysteria I’m receiving,” I said. “The Kingdom’s cracking at the seams. Let’s get this over with.”
We entered the throne room through the back door. Our sister was indeed there already, though sadlywithoutany large predators to assist our cause.
“What did you two break this time?” she asked in a facetious tone. “Judging from the sound out there in the hall, it’s the whole Kingdom.”
“Not yet,” Pharis told her. “But just wait.”
Once I was seated with my brother and sister standing at either side of the throne, I motioned for the footmen to open the doors.
A rabble of angry people spilled inside. It looked like the overlord of each region was present along with many of the minor lords from their territories. Some of them had brought their bond-mates as well.
I gestured for the closest of them to step forward and speak. It was Lord Espen of Westerly.
“Your Majesty, an Earthwife from a village near my castle paid me a visit tonight,” he began. He was so upset that spittle flew from his mouth when he spoke.
“She told me the Elves have been cursed. All of us. She said from now on it could take a thousand years for Elven couples to conceive, and most will only be able to produce a single child.”
Other angry voices joined his, not waiting for their own turn to address me.
“I was told the same,” Lord Solan yelled.
“I wanted a houseful of children,” his wife said in a plaintive tone.
“An Earthwife visited me tonight as well,” Lord Lalor of Windros said. “My Glenna is already an only child. Does this mean I will have no grandchildren? My line will die off along with my name?”
Another man, Lord Hyland, stepped forward. “I got the same news from the Earthwife of Warrentown. This cannot be coincidence. But is it true? She said it was because ofyouractions, Your Majesty.”
A roar of anxious chatter filled the room.
I stood and used my hands to press down on the air in front of me, calling for calm.
