Page 128 of Somber Prince

“More wine, Sweet One?” A Keeper with a wine carafe appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

“Thanks, but I already have some.” I gestured in the direction of our bench.

The Keeper moved on in search of other empty goblets as I filled mine with clean water from the fountain.

“The execution is this morning, before the sunrise,” a female voice came from behind the tall flower hedge to my right that separated the courtyard into sections.

I stilled, gripping my goblet tightly.

“The queen wants everyone present,” the voice continued.

“Even the Joy Vessels?” a male voice replied.

These must be two Keepers talking, though I couldn’t see them behind the hedge.

“There is no need to upset the Joy Vessels,” the woman replied. “The poor things are too emotional to handle something like that.”

“Why? They don’t know the prince to care much about his execution,” the man argued.

The goblet slipped from my fingers, landing in the fountain with a splash. My legs shook, forcing me to sit down on the ledge of the fountain. My stomach churned, threatening to expel the food I’d just had.

What did the queen do to Rha?

Chapter Thirty-Three

RHA

The guards didn’t dare restrain me when escorting me to the queen’s private wing, but they hovered close enough to make it clear I was not allowed to veer off course. Only I had no reason to do so. They’d taken Dawn away from me. I’d do anything to get her back. Even if that meant I had to face my mother.

Memories rose to the surface, with images popping in my brain like air bubbles as I walked the familiar corridors of Kalmena Palace. I’d played here as a child. I’d come this way to visit my father when he lay struck by the curse meant for my mother. The curse turned the strongest man I knew into a motionless corpse, with his spirit held prisoner to this world.

The familiar shiver of apprehension ran down my spine when we arrived at the doors of my mother’s study. The guards opened them, letting me enter alone.

Shrouded in a dark-brown veil, Queen Abeille reclined in a low chaise piled high with silk cushions and backlit by high panels of glowing honeycomb. The panels edged her sitting area from three sides, filling the air with the sweet scent of honey.

I waited for a tug at my heart, for a wisp of tenderness, for some visceral reaction in my soul at meeting my mother after so many years away, but nothing stirred inside me. Whatever tender feelings I might’ve had for this woman had either long been gone or lay securely dormant.

“Your Majesty.” I bent a knee as the etiquette required.

She heaved a long breath, watching from under her veil as I rose back to my feet.

“To mark your high standing in this kingdom,” she said, her voice low and strained, “you received a sarai of Joy Vessels of your own.” It wasn’t a question, but she paused, as if expecting me to confirm.

“I did, Your Majesty.”

Her pale-yellow eyes refused to meet mine, staring past me from under the embellished edge of the veil over her head.

“But you let them go.”

Her disappointment permeated the room. That was the main and often the only emotion I caused in my mother. I had managed to keep one Joy Vessel, the only one I truly wished to have. But I sensed that mentioning that wouldn’t make much difference at this point.

“You’ll be punished publicly by sunrise. Go.” The queen waved a dismissive hand. She sounded tired. “If recovered, all your Joy Vessels will become mine, to do with as I please.”

Alarm pierced the shroud of dull indifference I held for my own fate. I had expected a punishment when coming here. I was prepared to deal with whatever the queen would shell out for me. But I wasn’t going to part with Dawn.

“You can have them all but one,” I argued.

Queen Abeille raised her head slowly. For the first time since I came in here, she looked at me directly. The queen wasn’t used to arguments, especially from her own son.

---