The Heart Forger (The Bone Witch #2)(124)

“What do you say on your behalf, Tea?”

“I will accept any punishment you choose, Your Majesty.” How could I sound so cold and informal? “My life is in your hands to do as you see fit.”

“Kance.” Kalen moved to stand beside me. “You know as well as I that Tea had no choice but to act as she did.”

“It does not matter. She lifted her hand against the king.”

“Your father killed his own brother to take the throne, Kance. Both his brothers. Even worse, he conspired with a Faceless to risk the kingdom in his quest for power. By your own logic, he too is guilty of treason.”

“He was my father, Kalen!” Kance’s shout echoed in the room. “He took you in when you lost your parents! He treated you like you were his own son! I looked to you as my own brother, and this is how you repay him?”

“Your father’s mistress was responsible for summoning the very daeva that killed our mothers, Kance! Telemaine threw my father in prison when my father discovered the plot, and the king had the Faceless compel him to carry out their orders! The king allowed Aenah to poison you. He clawed his way to the throne on the bones of his own family, including yours. You owe him nothing!”

“Don’t you think I know that? Whatever my father has done, I cannot allow people to besmirch his name. But how can I determine if he was in his right mind throughout all this, that the Faceless didn’t compel him as well? Now we will never know! Whatever accusations have been made against him, he was a good father, Kalen!”

“He was a good father to one of us, yes,” Khalad said from behind us.

“Even my own brother turns against me?” Prince Kance snapped.

The Heartforger shook his head. “I was never against you, though he tried to make it seem that way. He capitalized on your guilt for taking the throne. Father was good to you, Kance. He would have had you rule in my place, with or without my silver heartsglass.”

“But why? There was no reason to prevent you from being king.”

“Our father was enlightened in many ways, Kance, but he shared one thing in common with the intolerants of Drycht. You suspected as much the day you took sick.”

Kance rubbed his temple. “Why didn’t you tell me about this, Khalad? Surely you did not think that I shared in his prejudices?”

“Because it should never have been a problem to begin with. I had no obligation to tell anyone about my personal life if I chose not to. I confessed to Father in the hopes he would understand. It is one thing to be treated well because he thinks you can do no wrong, Kance. It’s another thing entirely when he decides you’ve outlived your usefulness.”

“You can have the throne, Khalad. I never intended to take it from you.”

“And that is exactly why I never told you, Your Majesty.” Khalad grinned. “I would have made a horrible king. Father and I agreed on that much. To be the next Heartforger is all I want. I’ll help people my way, and you’ll help them yours. But please—forgive Tea. She has served you faithfully. Do not punish her for your father’s crimes.”

The young king’s hands were trembling; for all his anger, he was finding my sentencing difficult, and my heart twisted, knowing what I had done to bring him such pain.

When he finally spoke, even his words shook. “Return to Odalia at your own peril, Dark asha. I do not wish to see your face in my kingdom for as long as I live, for any reason. Return here, and I’ll wield the executioner’s sword myself if I have to.”

I nodded, struggling to hide my tears and failing miserably.

“Now leave.” The new king’s heartsglass glowed a bright red, fierier and more royal than I had ever seen any king’s.

“You are being unfair, Kance,” Kalen said.

“I am doing what must be done for the safety of my kingdom, Kalen. I do not need your approval.”

“But you need Telemaine’s. That’s what you have always wanted but rarely gotten.”

“Do not raise your voice to me, Kalen!”

“Barely even a week, Your Majesty, and already you sound so very much like your father. Has the crown always been this heavy?”

The two cousins locked gazes; Kance was angry and Kalen sad. But after several moments, the fury drained from the royal noble’s face, and he turned away. “I have been asleep for so long that I no longer recognize my own friends upon waking. I release you from your vow to protect me, Kalen. I cannot ask that from you any longer, knowing what my father did to yours. Do whatever you wish. The same goes for you, Khalad.”

“Then I shall stay here awhile longer,” Khalad decided. Kance looked surprised. “I haven’t been around as much as I should have, given my duties as the forger’s apprentice. We have some catching up to do, Kance.”

The king hesitated. “I would like that.” Kance looked back at me again. “Go with the gods, Tea.” There was not as much anger in his voice, but the regret in its timbre hit me harder. “May you one day put to rest the demons that still hold you.”

? ? ?

“Why didn’t you defend yourself?” Fox asked me as we left the palace. “You know you had no choice in what happened.”

“But I did. I shouldn’t have raised a hand against Telemaine. Guilty or not, he was the king. Kance deserved every chance to hear the old king’s deception from his own mouth, with his own words. I took that away from him.” I closed my eyes. If you had been stronger, a voice inside me whispered, if you had been better, then Telemaine would be sane and Polaire would need not be dead. “Shouldn’t you be with Inessa?”