Page 113 of The Kingdom's Crown

"Lord Roderick," I said, watching the man in question stiffen in his seat, head turning slowly to meet my gaze. "You and Lord Thomlinson were great allies."

"I—I believed so, Your Highness. However, I would never—"

"And it was you who first arranged to have my Chosen Daniel Farraque join my service as steward to spy on me," I said, squeezing Daniel's hand and feeling the reassuring answer of his touch.

"Your Highness," Lord Roderick said, but his mouth remained open and empty of anything to add.

"You also expressed great prejudice against Kimmery's two-natured citizens. You called them beasts, if I remember correctly."

"You do," Jack McCallum chimed in, his glare focused on Roderick.

"Your Majesty, I have served Kimmery fordecades," Lord Roderick gasped out, turning to my mother, his hands pressing down flat on the tables.

"Bryony?" my mother murmured.

"I have concerns regarding Lord Roderick's leadership in the north," I said softly to my mother, one hand raising up and resting briefly on the bruises on my throat. I'd spoken more just now than I had since being strangled and was starting to regret not letting Aric heal me a little more than he had, but my mother's eyes flashed down to my fingers and her eyes began to well again.

"What should we do?" my mother asked, brow furrowing.

The room was still, and I could feel the pressure of the dozens of eyes on us. It hadn't been intentional on my mother's part, she wasusedto taking advice. She'd been doing it with the council and my grandmother for the two decades she'd been queen. And now she had just revealed to everyone in the room that she would take mine.

I turned back to Roderick's stare, a strange thrill rushing through me at the power I suddenly possessed. Roderick and I had been butting heads since the moment we met. He'd had Emory at Aric's throat, and regardless of how it had turned out, he'd pressed Daniel into my life as a spy. With any control left in his hand, he would fight me at every opportunity.

But tearing him from the council would leave the other members feeling insecure, and insecurity would breed disloyalty. I had time to eliminate Roderick from their number, but it was possible I wouldn't have to.

"I trust the council to mediate themselves. I only ask that their continued goal is to carry out thecrown'sinterests," I said.

Roderick's eyes narrowed at me, lips pressing together in irritation, and I knew I'd made the right choice. The council had favor to gain from me now that I was named successor. If I balanced myself carefully with them, Roderick would topple in their ranks quickly, especially if he wasn't cooperative.

"Wisely considered, Your Highness," Sir Weston said, lips twitching with a smile, which faded quickly. "Now onto a more unsavory discussion."

Weston nodded to Head Guard Amos, who stepped forward from his post by the door. My mother's tears started up immediately again, and it was my eyes that Amos's met. "Princess Camellia is being kept in a cell in the north wing. We did…we did have to bind her hands. The royal mages have warded the room to prevent the influence of magic, but—"

"It's not a perfect system," Nathan interrupted quickly. "The queen's line power is… It has more influence on magic than magic does on it and—"

"But why is she bound? Why warded?" my mother cried out.

I ducked my head as the men in the room all gaped at her.

"I don't—I don't mean why is she in a cell," my mother said. "I just—Oh, this is all terrible!"

Her sobs broke free, the arms of her Chosen bundling her closer.

"I think there are concerns that if Camellia is able to use her Hunger, she might convince a guard to release her," I said carefully, watching my mother.

I ached for her in a strangely resentful way. My mother didn't like making decisions, and she didn't like making people unhappy. Choosing me over Camellia for the crown had to have been difficult enough, but for what came next…I didn't think she'd have the strength. And yet I wanted some acknowledgment of care from my mother. Just like Lily's attempted assassination, my mother hadn't come to see me while I recovered yesterday. She hadn't asked how I was today. She took her comfort from her Chosen, and that seemed to be where she expected me to receive mine.

"She is contained," Aric said, moving up to the arm of my chair. "Her Hunger is…festering is the word for it, I think. Princess Camellia's appetites have exceeded beyond a body's natural ability to consume."

"Her crimes against her Chosen went unchecked too long," one man on the council spoke up. "It is one thing for our queen's line to do what they like with Kimmerian commoners, but with lords’ sons? With foreignprinces? The risk of conflict is too high. And now that there is treason in the mix, she will have to be—"

His voice stopped abruptly at my mother's broken moan.

The castle physician stepped forward, hands clasped in front of him. "Gentlemen, Your Majesty, Your Highness, I had wished to speak to you yesterday, but events prevented this until now. I attended Princess Camellia yesterday morning over the matter of pregnancy, which quite frankly was an impossibility in her state. Having seen her now after just one night in a cell away from access to Chosen to feed her Hunger, I'm afraid…Your Majesty, Princess Camellia is dying."

"What?" I gasped, sitting forward.

My mother sat up too, one hand clapped over her mouth, staring wide-eyed at the doctor.

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