The King & the Stable Boy

XXI: The King's Mate

Noah

"You're entire schedule for this week is swamped, my dear. You'll be announced in four days from now, on William's Birthday. The kingdom just thinks they will be gathered and hearing of his plans for our future and go through the formalities of saying long live the king and so on. You'll be an entire surprise to most of them. Today we plan on revealing you to the staff, tomorrow you're to be fitted, and the day after you may have some downtime depending on whom else needs your attention. The day before the announcement the Lords and our most trusted allies will be coming in to meet you formally. Questions?" Nana asks.

I shake my head, trying to stay awake.   After the trip to the cabin, the stables all but burned down, Roman has been training me in our fight matches harder than ever, not to mention William's surprise testing. Last week didn't kill me, but this week just might.

"Noah!" a voice booms barging in. "You're being announced to us little people today. Get up, Clarissa's already laid out your attire."

I look up to see Samara in a peppier mood than usual and suppress a groan.

"What happened to him?" she asks Nana.

"Hasn't gotten much sleep lately, I'm assuming." the former queen says, shaking her head.

I watch Samara's brow furrow and almost spoke up in protest, but was too late as she already started doing whatever spell she memorized.

In her hand was a chalice with a black substance in it.

"I'm not drinking that," I tell her.

"It's not the eye of newt and blood of a shifter, it's just burnt bean juice. It's supposed to have some energizing effects and if humans can drink it without a problem so can you."

I sigh, preparing for the worst, but drink it, almost immediately wanting to spit it back out.

"It's sour!"

"Finish the damn brew. Stop being a bitch."

I glare at her, finishing it than pushing the chalice away from me.

"There you happy you old hag?" I spit.

"Yes, now come along doggy, we have work to do." she says, walking out.

I growled at the second demeaning term but still went after her, towards William and I's bedroom. In any other mood, I would have kept the insult game going but today was not the day.

After I got in the suit, she pushed me down into a chair and attempted to tame the beast atop my head, quite aggressively I might add. Eventually, she gave up doing it manually and just muttered some spell, making the hair instruments go to work on their own.

"Perfect." she exclaims, turning me towards the looking glass so I can see it for myself.

I didn't hate what I saw, nor did I love it. I looked different. Different in a good way, but a different that I wasn't ever sure I'd get used to.

Whatever Samara forced me to consume seems to have finally kicked in as I felt a spike in energy.

"There you are," Clarissa says, walking in. "William is about to announce you in the courtyard. It's a bit windy out so here is a cloak. The crowd will be standing downwind from you, so they won't be able to scent you. Put the hood on the cloak up, give them an aura of mystery." 

"Thank you," I say, draping it over my shoulders, attaching it at my right shoulder using the broach Clarissa holds out.

"Hold on. What is this?" the designer gasps, grabbing my left hand to inspect the ring decorating the fourth finger.