Rise of Fire (Reign of Shadows #2)(27)

King Tebald entered the room. I heard the whisper of robes over the floor as he cut a path toward the dais, a small retinue following him.

Suddenly he stopped before us. “Chasan, what are you doing sitting here?”

The prince rose to his feet. “I thought I would sit here tonight, Father, and visit with our new guest.”

At this, low murmurs broke out through the room. My cheeks heated; I knew this was a breach in etiquette.

“Guest?” Tebald said blankly, as though he had no memory of visitors, much less me.

“Yes, Father. You recall the prince of Relhok’s companion.” There was no response, and even Chasan sounded uncertain as he added, “Luna.”

“You’re the girl from today.” There was a touch of wonder in his voice.

“Yes, Your Highness.” I self-consciously brushed a hand over my hair near my ear. Clearly I had undergone a transformation.

“Stand,” he commanded.

The bench was pulled out so quickly I nearly fell. I’d almost forgotten the existence of the king’s guards. Sadists. Apparently they were never far.

The prince caught my arm, steadying me while turning me to face his father, but he said nothing. I’d almost prefer to hear his arrogant tone right then. In that moment, I realized the prince did not frighten me nearly as much as his father did.

The king stepped forward. No one else moved or spoke, making it simple to mark him in the now deathly silent hall. He held total dominion, and that unnerved me. He could do whatever he wanted and everyone else would just sit back and watch no matter how they felt about it.

“Turn around.”

I hesitated a beat too long because the guard stepped forward again, grasping my arm and tugging me in a small circle. The king was so close. I could hear the puff of his breath.

“Father?” Chasan voiced.

“It cannot be,” the king muttered so quietly I knew he was talking more to himself than anyone else. Wariness crept over me. My pulse hiccuped at my neck, fighting to break free from my skin.

Chasan spoke beside me. “What? What is it, Father?”

“You are the very image of her,” Tebald whispered. His fingers grazed my cheek and I flinched.

“Who, Father?”

My heart dropped to my feet. Before he said anything I was already beginning to suspect that he knew. Perla’s many words came back to me. She had told me stories of my parents, and I had always hung on every word.

Your mother had many suitors. Nobles from all over the land wanted to marry her. Princes and kings . . . but she chose your father.

A woman like that, my mother, would be memorable.

“Avelot.”

At the hushed sound of my mother’s name, I lifted my chin high.

“The late queen of Relhok?” Chasan finally asked, his voice rife with bewilderment.

“Yes. This girl is identical to her. The mirror image. That face. Those eyes. Everything about her. The curve of her lips.”

My hand drifted, touching my mouth. Perla had made similar remarks, and I always thought her merely embellishing, or trying to forge a connection in my mind for the mother I would never know.

“Father, the king and queen died at the start of the eclipse. As did so many.”

Those words woke and shook me from a lifelong slumber. No. My parents did not die at the hands of dwellers. I could have understood that. Not the betrayal. Not their slaughter at the behest of someone they trusted. Anger that I thought beyond me after all these years burned like a fever through me.

“If this is not her, then it’s her child. The one she was carrying at the time of the eclipse. She would be of a like age,” the king intoned. “The child must have survived, and this is she.”

I dragged in a shuddery breath, astonished at how accurately he had deduced the truth.

“That’s not possible,” the prince said.

“It is possible. I know what I see before me.” King Tebald’s gaze roamed over me, and I felt his absolute certainty. He knew. I could deny it. I could let his son continue to tell him he was wrong. But he knew.

“The queen did not survive the dweller uprising on Relhok City. She never gave birth.” Prince Chasan spoke in a coaxing tone, as though his father were feeble-minded. He wasn’t even addressing me and yet his words hit a nerve. My last frayed nerve.

I couldn’t hold silent. Not with fresh outrage pumping through me. And did it really matter? There was no hiding the truth anymore. The king knew.

“No,” I growled, straining forward as that last nerve snapped free. “Dwellers did not kill my mother. Or my father. My parents were killed at the hand of the royal chancellor, the false king who now sits on the throne of Relhok.”

A long pause followed my outburst before voices erupted all around me. My bravado fled in the volley of sound. The din was overwhelming and made me cringe and shrink into myself.

The prince grabbed my elbow, his grip once again hard, as it had been on the Outside. He swung me to face him. “Luna, what the hell are you—”

A steady clapping thundered through the room, close and deep and resounding. “I knew it! Splendid. Brilliant!” Tebald cheered. The buzz of voices ebbed at the king’s applause. “The true heir to the kingdom of Relhok stands before us.”

Cold washed through me. My secret was out. Suddenly the light around me felt brighter, hotter on my skin. Sounds were more jarring, painful to my ears, the smells more overwhelming.