“What?”
He cocked his head. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you trust it now.” He held up his thumb and pointer finger with barely any space between them. “Just a little.”
I squinted. “Fine. A little.”
And then he was hugging me, spinning me around.
As he put my feet back on the ground and we started walking toward the castle, he said, “Fine. We train. But I do need to remind you that if the princes can avoid your help in this, then they will. It is not as if you have to take on the king alone.”
I stopped walking and looked at his back. “Do you really think I’m naïve enough not to notice that magic not being able to be used on me or whatever I’m touching doesn’t give us a rather hefty and distinct advantage?”
Owen stilled and turned toward me. “But Krew doesn’t—”
“Krew,” I interrupted, “can be mad at me all he likes for taking an active role in taking down his father, but as long as he is living and still here to be mad at me, do we honestly care?”
Owen smirked. “Fine.”
I grinned. “Fine.”
So we trained. And we’d keep training. So that when the moment came for the princes to take down their father, I’d be anything but a useless princess.
CHAPTER21
Two days later, Owen woke me from a well-deserved nap to inform me the consorts were being beckoned to sit in on the closing session with parliament. The eventual queen would sit in on all those meetings once crowned, so now that the Assemblages were down in numbers, the king deemed it necessary we attend to observe.
I groaned, so not in the mood for anything other than sleep after a hard training session with Owen. But Silvia came in right behind Owen, preparing to get me ready.
I just wasn’t in the mood for a fancy gown and parading in front of a bunch of old men who were supposed to be bettering Wylan, when very few actually did.
Really?I sent Krew while Silvia applied my makeup.We have to come sit in on parliament?
You don’t want to spend more time with your husband?
I would love to spend more time with you. In a variety of different ways. But in the throne room with parliament is not one of them.
I’m listening.
I pressed my lips together to keep from laughing. Within thirty minutes, I had my hair and makeup done, and was wearing a consort appropriate dress.
By the time we made it down the stairs, I had found Renna.
“Ready for this?” Renna asked.
I shrugged. “Does it matter? Ready or not.”
Renna wrinkled her nose. “My father used to serve on parliament. From everything he has told me, it’s very boring, sorry to say. Not looking forward to it.”
The consorts were all lead up to one of the balconies. The throne room looked less like a throne room than I had ever seen it. Parliament sat in two sets of seats facing one another with the king and princes up at the dais in their extravagant chairs.
I tried to pay attention as I sat down. My heart entirely skipped a beat when I heard something about a shopkeeper smuggling goods, thinking of the bakery and the agreement among shopkeepers in Nerede, but it turned out they were talking about a shopkeeper in Rallis who had been forging documents to keep more of the profits himself.
Then they moved on to discuss a tax increase. It seemed half of the room was for it, and half against.
I could think of three or four small businesses in Nerede which would crumble if faced with having to give away more of their rations. Most of Nerede needed what little ration we were given to make ends meet. I knew for a fact most spent it on food.
And if they intended to increase the taxes, thus reducing the ration allotment, with the intention to better things in the lower levels of the kingdom, that would be one thing. The tax increase might cancel out the reduced ration if it truly helped the people of Nerede in terms of something like bettering our roads or fixing our roofs. But from what I was hearing, they were only increasing taxes to pay for some new homes in Savaryn, and an entire section of existing Savaryn homes getting updated.
And by homes they meant mansions.
