This man was much older than Akil but had the same striking smile and dark features. Silver hair curled about the sun-brown skinat his temples. Like her own uncle, Amarande wasn’t sure if she’d ever met him, yet he was familiar enough she felt as if she had.
“They knew when to arrive and yet they did not, Your Highness,” answered his own councilor, Calan. That was when Amarande’s memory jogged—this was Asan, Akil’s uncle. Not one for the court, more for the pearl trade and the ships that came with it. She hoped he was simply a substitute for Sumira—that so much travel in her condition accounted for her absence. “It is precedent to begin without them.”
The Basilican council leader, Kirana, raised a placating hand. She’d been chosen the juror of the conclave and would lead the day’s agenda. “Let us vote. All in favor of beginning without Pyrenee?”
Amarande and Luca exchanged a glance and immediately raised their hands. If they were present after what they had just survived, Pyrenee’s eventual excuses were likely lacking. Blessedly, Zavier of Basilica and Asan of Myrcell were also in favor.
Kirana rustled a parchment and began. “Excellent. First order of business is the finalization and recognition of new monarchs. Let us begin first with Myrcell.”
“I, King Regent Asan, will rule Myrcell for the time being. It is understood by all parties that I will remain regent until the birth and confirmation of Akil’s heir by Queen Sumira, and into the child’s life until adulthood.”
“Welcome, Your Highness.” The greeting was given in a crowded series echoed around the tent. But then Amarande turned and addressed the new king regent.
“And of Dowager Queen Sumira?” Asan had the same easy smile of Akil but Asan’s charm had hardened into something more acidic over the years and with proximity to the throne. “She agreed to these terms? She very clearly requested regency of her own at our previous meeting.”
Suddenly it was as if the entire section of the tent occupied by Myrcell held its breath.
“Her Highness is satisfied with my succession, as you will see in this decree.” Asan revealed a roll of parchment, then handed it to Amarande to read and pass around. Indeed, Sumira had signed the letter, which parroted Asan’s words.
Oh, how Amarande wished the woman had come to the conclave to speak her truth rather than hide behind a prepared statement. She didn’t know what it was to be with child among a pit of vipers who questioned your truth at every turn, but Amarande could understand how this was the best choice for one in such a vulnerable position, even if she didn’t think it would be a choice she would accept. Amarande could not begrudge Sumira that decision.
“Perhaps next we should hear from our host, Torrence,” Councilor Kirana offered, diplomatically.
Luca was prepared. “In a ceremony yesterday afternoon in this very location, the people of the former Torrent formally recognized myself, Luca, son of King Lotyoa and Queen Elixane, gone these seventeen years, and recognized Otsakumea—wolf cub, crown prince—as king and sovereign ruler of the reformed Kingdom of Torrence.”
Again, came a round of “Welcome, Your Highness” from all parties save for Basilica.
Instead, from that corner, Zavier clamped a hand on Osana’s wrist when she made to welcome Luca, his stare growing colder than a Pyrenee winter. “I have a question for the new king of Torrence. Is it true you slaughtered my older daughter, Celia, when she was acting as Geneva’s proxy as Warlord?”
Luca faltered in answering, clearly stunned that his very first royal interaction was a shot to the heart and an implication of murder. His proclivity for believing the best in people had allowed him to forget that the nobility was always brutal. Especially as an introduction.
“You’ve been misinformed, Uncle.” Amarande’s voice was calm even as her nostrils flared. Her fingers squeezed into aching fists within her voluminous skirts. “She fell to her death within the firepit of her own volition while tryingto murder the Otsakumea.I can personally confirm that.”
“I did not push her into the flames, no, Your Highness,” Luca added, finding his voice. “But I do take responsibility. I led the fight. Her spirit lives on my conscience.”
The ice of Zavier’s stare did not crack, yet his reply was of another tack. “I was not expecting honesty.”
Luca’s brow furrowed.
“Honesty is our only way through this, Your Highness.”
From Zavier’s side, Asan waved a hand.
“This is true, young king, but given all of our recent grievances, we could go in a circle until sundown.” Asan pointed to Zavier. “His grandfather poisoned the wine that killed my nephew and his brothers, aunts, uncles, cousins, and that grandfather.” He gestured to Amarande. “She killed Prince Renard, then in turn Prince Taillefer murdered Queen Inés, and then, if I am understanding this correctly”—he gestured to a crinkled parchment timeline—“both Celia and Luca had a hand in Taillefer’s death.”
“And Renard killed my father, let us not forget,” Amarande added, because as many times as she said it, no one seemed to register the words. “With his dying breath and while wearing the title of king, Taillefer confirmed Sendoa was murdered by Renard using poison stolen from his workshop.”
That clarification to some who hadn’t heard it didn’t garner the anger Amarande expected. It was, after all, the strike that sent them tumbling into this mess and left them all so unprotected as a union of kingdoms. Yet instead Amarande’s cold truth was met with clear exasperation from Asan, who was obviously eager to move on, point made.
“The point being,” Asan summarized, “that we all have lost someone, and all of you are to blame.”
“Yes, take Myrcell out of it,” Zavier chided with a sardonic eyebrow to his neighbor.
The Myrcellian did not waver nor back down, expression and insistence intact. “We’re innocentthistime. Not every time, but this time.”
“Untrue.”
All heads spun to Ferdinand and his cutting disagreement. He didn’t flinch, just straightened and trained his weary, loss-riddled features toward the bickering rulers—rulers who’d benefited from every murder in the past two weeks, as evidenced by their placement in this tent.
