Radiance (Wraith Kings Book 1)(26)
Ildiko studied the small portion impaled on her dagger’s tip. “A little muddy. A little briny. Mostly like someone took a fish, packed it in dirt and let it cook inside a sweaty boot.”
He winced at the vivid, albeit accurate, description. “You’d reduce the royal cook to fits of melancholy if he heard you say that.”
She shrugged. “He’s reduced me to retching with his repulsive pie. I suffer no guilt.” She lowered her dagger with the scarpatine still on it and pushed her plate away, a shudder wracking her slim frame. “I won’t lie, Brishen. It’s beyond foul, but I’m glad we did this now. I would have humiliated us both at the feast.”
Brishen shoved his half-eaten portion aside as well and reached for Ildiko’s hand. Her fingers notched with his, the skin of her hand so pale, he could trace the filigree of blue veins that ran beneath it with his thumb. “I don’t think that’s possible, wife.”
Her cheeks flushed an unsightly red. Three days earlier her response would have alarmed him into thinking she was ill. He’d since learned such coloration was similar to a Kai’s own darkening blush—an expression of anger, embarrassment or pleasure. The tightening of her hand on his assured him hers was one of pleasure at his words.
“You’ve a stronger stomach than I credited you with if you could eat the scarpatine without gagging.” It still surprised him. She’d been violently ill after watching him carve up the creature; he’d had no hope of her being able to eat it without growing sick a second time.
Ildiko untangled her fingers from his and patted his hand. “I doubt the Gauri court is that much different from the Kai one. If the nobility aren’t spying on each other, they’re maligning each other. Everything is fodder for gossip and ridicule. Unless you want to be the topic of conversation among bored lords and ladies waiting to sink their claws into you, you eat what’s served to you and act as if it pleases you. I learned early to hold my breath when I chewed and breathe through my nose when I swallowed. And I always made sure my goblet was full.”
She winked at him and lifted her dagger to poke at the now still slab of scarpatine. “This is one of the most horrendous things I’ve ever eaten, but it’s nothing compared to King Sangur’s favorite dish—a pea soup I will swear until I’m dead was made of and prepared by packs of rotting demons. The kitchens served it to us once a week without fail, though I don’t ever recall anyone having to battle a vicious pod of attacking peas just to gulp down the soup.”
With her words, the lingering concerns Brishen had about her ability to withstand another round of Kai food vanished completely, along with any doubts he harbored about her adjusting to this new life. She stood beside him now in the dining hall, frightened but resolved. Not only would this Gauri woman survive in the Kai world, she’d thrive.
A herald announced the king and queen’s arrival. The chatter in the hall ceased abruptly, and as one, the guests bowed. Ildiko pressed against Brishen’s side. “I hope the queen doesn’t decide to roast me for a pie.” Amusement colored her voice, but Brishen heard the thread of fear as well.
He pressed her hand to his side with his elbow. “I’ll skewer her if she tries, wife.”
A soft giggle teased his ear. “You can’t skewer her. She’s your mother, Brishen.”
“And a deadlier adversary I have yet to face,” he replied.
They straightened as the monarchs passed, and Brishen’s skin prickled under the weight of Secmis’s stare as she leveled a narrow look on him and then Ildiko before taking her place next to her husband at the high table. Brishen’s brother Harkuf and his wife Tiye followed, taking their places to the right of the king.
Brishen nudged Ildiko into step behind the heir apparent. “We sit on the queen’s side,” he said.
Ildiko’s grip tightened on his arm. “Lovely,” she muttered.
The feast began as most feasts like it did—bloated with ritual and artifice. The nobility maneuvered amongst themselves for the choicest seats, arguing over whose rank and family ties entitled them to a spot closest to the high table. Brishen sighed and fiddled with his eating dagger. This happened at every state dinner and celebration and was one of the things he didn’t miss when he escaped court to his isolated estate.
Ildiko sat on one side of him, rigid and silent, staring straight ahead. Secmis sat on his other side, her claws drumming a beat on the tabletop as everyone waited for Djedor to start the feast with an official welcome of Brishen’s wife.
This time Djedor omitted any insults regarding Ildiko’s appearance, and kept his formal acceptance of her into the Kai royal family mercifully brief. Brishen guessed his father was hungry and didn’t want to waste any more time on the niceties when there was hot food waiting to be served.
His formal declaration of recognition, however abbreviated, bequeathed power to Ildiko she didn’t previously possess. She might be Gauri human in appearance, but she’d just become Kai where it truly counted—court ranking. She was officially a hercegesé now, a true duchess. Brishen relaxed in his seat, relieved. Now they just had to get through the interminable dinner and whatever nastiness Secmis decided to throw at them.
They didn’t have to wait long. The queen fired her first volley just as the servants set down bowls of soup. “You humans are very pale,” she said in Common. “Only our diseased sport that shade.”