Page 313 of Heat of the Everflame

“The little girl said your King was expecting me?” I asked instead.

“Our Crown Council,” Hepta corrected. She looked amused. “His Majesty said your arrival would be full of surprises. As usual, he was not wrong.”

I frowned, wondering why the King’s advisors wished to see me—and how the King had known I would be coming.

“He told us much about you,” she added.

“That’s strange. I only met him once, at my coronation, and... well, I’m guessing you know how that went.”

As one, Hepta and the other Descended placed two fingers to their lips and murmured a word I couldn’t make out.

“A terrible tragedy,” she said sadly. “Such violence is a stain on our land.”

“Land that is already too deeply stained,” I mumbled.

She nodded. “Indeed. Peace is a virtue.”

“Let us seek virtue in all things,” the Descended chanted in unison.

Hepta led me into a large room with a long, narrow table bearing the snow-capped mountains of the Montios insignia. She gestured for me to take a chair at the far end, and she and the others took chairs along either side. Two older children walked in with trays, one setting paper and ink in front of a few seats, and the other distributing mugs of steaming tea.

“Would you like something warm to eat?” Hepta asked.

My stomach growled in hopeful answer, but I declined, too unnerved by this odd place to think of eating. I laughed nervously. “Does this mean you won’t be executing me for coming unannounced?”

Several heads jerked to me in surprise.

Hepta frowned. “Of course not. You are welcome here.” She relaxed back into her seat. “Perhaps an introduction is in order. My name is Hepta, and I am the Elder of the Crown Council of Montios. Seated here are my fellow Councilors, each of whom has been elected by our people.”

“Elected?” My brows rose. “Your King does not select his own advisors?”

“Montios governs itself differently from the other realms. Here, it is our Council, not our Crown, that makes decisions for our realm. The Crown is a member of the Council, but the rest of us are chosen by the people of Montios. If we cannot come to an agreement, the Crown’s will is decisive. Otherwise, they have only one vote, the same as each of us here.”

Unexpected admiration flowed through me. In the Umbros library, I’d read about mortals using systems like these, but I never imagined them existing among the monarchistic and power-obsessed Descended.

“That’s very, uh... fair,” I stammered.

“Fairness is a virtue,” one Councilor said.

“Let us seek virtue in all things,” the others responded.

A man rushed in, nearly tripping over his feet in the process. He gave a hasty bow to the group and darted toward me, then paused. His eyebrows rose high, his expression implying a question I didn’t understand.

“Um... hello,” I said hesitantly.

“Nector has taken a vow of silence,” Hepta explained. “But he will remove your shackles, if you’d like.”

“Oh, yes!” I gave him a bright smile. “I’d like that very much.”

His cheeks turned pink at the attention, and even pinker as his hand brushed mine to examine the iron cuffs latched to my wrist. He pulled out a stack of tools from his bag, carefully unwrapping each one from its cloth cocoon and setting them down gingerly to avoid the slightest sound.

“Thank you for intervening to help,” I said to the Councilors as he worked. “I’m not sure we would have survived, had you not come when you did.”

Hepta sighed wearily. “The army is getting overbold. The Fortos King has been pushing the boundaries, and now his soldiers do the same.”

“This is not the Blessed Kindred’s way,” a Councilor said with an angry sniff. “Fortos was given control of the continent’s army under the agreement it would act only with the consent ofallCrowns. These new rules are a disgrace.”

“New rules?” I asked.

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