The False Prince (The Ascendance Trilogy #1)(79)

“The king’s ring.” It was heavier than I’d expected, made of gold and imprinted with my family crest. It was too large and looked funny on my hand, like something I’d stolen rather than inherited through birthright.

Then he lifted from a ruby red pillow my crown, still wet from having been washed. “This is a prince’s crown. A new one will be commissioned for you immediately, but it will do for now.” He placed it on my head, this time with much humbler and gentler hands than had crowned me at the inn.

Conner went to his knees again and said, “Hail, King Jaron.”

“Hail, King Jaron!” the audience echoed.

“Be a better king than your father was,” Conner said softly. “You come to the throne at a time of great upheaval.”

“There is always upheaval,” I said. “Only the reasons for the troubles change.”

“You have the betrothed princess. She will support you.”

“She hates me.”

“So do I. And I just crowned you king.”

Conner smiled as he said it, but it probably wasn’t a joke.

“I kept my promise to you,” I said, still keeping my voice quiet enough so that only he could hear us. “You have the position you wanted.”

“You are the true king,” Conner said. “You may place me anywhere you desire.”

“So I shall.” Then more loudly, I added, “I want the prime regent, Lord Bevin Conner, arrested for the attempted murder of Prince Jaron four years ago. Arrest him for the murder of an orphan boy named Latamer. And also for the murders of King Eckbert, Queen Erin, and Crown Prince Darius.”

Whispers and hisses flew through the room. Conner turned to me with panic-stricken eyes. “No, I didn’t —”

From a pocket of my jacket, I pulled out a small vial.

“This is oil pressed from the dervanis flower,” I said. “It took me a long time to figure out what sort of poison might have killed my family. Entire nights searching through the books in your library. I’m not a great reader, that’s true, but if the subject matter interests me, I can comb through books quite quickly. Oddly enough, I found the answer in a book in your bedroom. Dervanis oil is tasteless and requires only a single drop to produce a lethal dose. But it doesn’t kill immediately. A person will go to sleep feeling fine and never wake up again. Dervanis oil is hard to come by, yet this was in a strongbox in your office.”

Conner shook his head, then his eyes darted left, and he thrust his hand inside his jacket. “As I always said, Sage, if I go down, so do you!” But he failed to find what he was looking for. He drew back and searched his jacket.

I released the cuff of my sleeve, and a knife he had hidden in his jacket fell into my hands. “If this is what you wanted, then I shall have to increase the charges against you.”

Two guards appeared on either side of Conner and each took his arm. “I can’t imagine the pleasure you must be taking in this moment,” he said nastily.

My temper flared. “Pleasure? I’m staring at the man who killed my family. Whatever I feel now, trust that pleasure is the furthest from those feelings.”

“You said you were my prince. Is this what that means to you?”

“I am your prince. But I am Carthya’s king. You’ll understand why, in the hierarchy of my titles, you must lose.”

“Why didn’t you tell me from the beginning? If you had told me who you were —”

“Then I couldn’t have unmasked you. I’d have doomed my own rule, just as my family was doomed.”

Behind me, Kerwyn sighed. Addressing Conner, he said, “What if Jaron had been only an orphan? Surely, you couldn’t have expected him to fool the court for long.”

“He didn’t need much time,” I said, keeping my eyes on Conner. “He needed a prince only long enough to get himself named prime regent. No matter what happened afterward, he would become the controlling power in Carthya.”

“Well done,” Conner said. “Jaron was always described as a clever boy, but I underestimated you.” I started to wave my hand to dismiss him, but Conner quickly added, “You are guilty of crimes too, Your Majesty.”

Facing him full on, I arched an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Even when you said you didn’t want the throne, you were all that time plotting to get it. You lied to me.”

Anger surged through me, and I didn’t disguise it well. I leaned close to him and hissed, “I did tell you lies, Master Conner, but none of consequence. I was telling the exact truth when I said I had no desire to be king! If there were anyone — anyone — I felt could take my place without the entire kingdom’s collapse, I would gladly step aside. If I could return to be that boy you snatched from the orphanage, I’d leave now and never look back. If you knew what it meant to be king —” I sighed and shook my head. “Of all Carthyans, I am the least free.”

“And what of my freedom?” Conner asked. “Shall I beg for mercy?”

“Beg mercy from the devils.” I spoke more calmly now. “You said you would sell your soul to them for this plan. Your plan worked, and the devils may have you.”

“If the devils have me, then you are their king,” Conner spat at me. “I will forever curse the day we met!”