Hosting a ball to celebrate the declaration of Fate as Crown Princess was one of the dumbest ideas Dane's council had ever come up with, and they were full of dumb ideas.
The ball would begin each evening shortly after sunset, just after Fate went to sleep each night. So it would be a ball to celebrate someone who couldn't be there, which meant it was a facade; the real purpose, once again, was to whore out the king now that the period of mourning was over.
Well, they could try. He would rather hold a knife to Geoffrey's throat and force his half-brother to take the crown from him before he ever married another.
It was a good opportunity, at least, to mend the relations with Qeyea and Serras after the way things were left between them last time. But the benefits ended there. It was too painful a reminder of the last ball he'd attended.
As always, the guests trickled into the palace in the weeks leading up to the ball. Every day, he spent hours in the throne room, greeting guests and complimenting pretty maidens, thanking them for joining in the celebrations on behalf of his daughter, who was running around probably having a meltdown somewhere because the palace cooks wouldn't let a little princess chop vegetables.
And if he tried hard to listen, he was sure he would catch mocking whispers drifting from some group of senile bullheaded men about how he would anger the gods by naming a girl as the crown heir.
He couldn't be more relieved when, three days from the ball, Princess Enora of Meltec approached him and asked for a word, pulling him away from the tediousness of the throne room.
After exchanging simple pleasantries in the private sitting room, the princess embarked on the conversation that would forever alter the course of his life.
"My niece went missing after the war two years ago," she began. "It was only recently that I discovered her whereabouts. She must have left with the Uveillans on one of their ships and hidden her identity. Last I heard, she is now one of King Jyu's concubines. A High Consort, to be exact."
"Jyu?" Dane had maintained sporadic contact with his former friend and ally, and was glad to see that he'd sent gifts and a small delegation to the ball despite not being able to personally attend himself, now that he was king. The news of the Meltecan Seer running off with Jyu, however, immediately raised his hackles.
Princess Enora straightened, her expression sombre. "After the war, your council explained to all of us what my niece had told them about Lady Cassandra's souls and how it opened up a portal to demons." Dane nodded and she continued. "It never sat quite right with me, the whole coincidence of it all. How it occurred here, when all of our countries gathered for your celebration. How, out of all of us, there is one person who has greatly benefited from the entire event, and it happens to be the one furthest away from your kingdom."
He had never looked at things in that light, and now he did, it couldn't have been even more obvious. "King Jyu."
"King Jyu, who was a ninth prince. Who sailed back to his kingdom as a valiant hero who had helped yours in a war against demons. Who managed to crush his tyrant brother's armies and usurp the throne with swift ease, made possible with his impenetrable armour and weapons so sharp they could skewer metal like a hot knife through butter."
"Those armour and weapons..."
"They sound awfully familiar, don't they?"
Dane gripped the arms of his chair so tight his knuckles turned white. The hard, impenetrable skin of the creatures they'd fought. The long, sharp fangs that could crunch into armour and shields with unnatural ease. "They harvested the beasts' corpses."
YOU ARE READING
Bride to the Cursed: a Snow White retelling
Fantasy[COMPLETED] When a king makes an order, he expects it to be followed. When King Dane divorced his wife, he expected her to get out of his sight and stay out of his sight. Not reappear three months later in his bed, spouting nonsense about being a 'l...
