Page 14 of The Broken Elf King
“Half human?” Haig looked affronted at what he’d scented. “Can you really trust a human on your staff?”
The king groaned as if he was already tired of this question. “She’s taken a protection vow. I’m not an idiot!”
Haig reeled back at the snap and I kept quiet.
Haig’s son, Aron, the one who looked just like him but younger, stared at the quill in my hand. “She can read and write?” He sounded surprised.
Okay, I’d had quite enough of this.
“Yes,shecan,” I said in Old Elvish. “Inthreedifferent languages,” I finished in New Elvish.
The king grinned and the council looked flustered at this turn of events. A long silence stretched out and I cleared my throat. “The king has informed me of his excitement at taking a wife and I am eager to help,” I lied, which caused the king’s grin to fall. He knew I’d just lied but I was hoping the council didn’t. The king was anything but eager.
Haig nodded. “Yes. A wife and heirs are of the utmost importance now.”
“Unless of course he no longer wants to rule, which is why he’s delayed taking a wife?” Foxworth said. I remembered him by the nervous eye blinking he kept doing.
The king’s eyes narrowed. “I am eager to shut you all up.”
Ouch. The king was kinda hot when he was laying a smackdown on his council.
Haig cleared his throat and pulled a folded letter from his robes, handing it to the king. “A list of a dozen of the most influential families in Elf City.” Haig nodded. “Their daughters are all single, cleared for breeding, and eager to meet you.”
I choked on my own spit atcleared for breeding, coughing and smacking my chest wildly. The king looked mildly concerned but I waved him off and took a sip of water.
“Apologies,” I said.
The king opened the letter and glanced down at it briefly before handing it to me.
The names looked familiar. Frowning, I flipped to the schedule of meetings today. Right after this conference we had one called theProspective wives family meeting. The attendees’ names were the same.
“My lord, we have a meeting with these families next,” I told him.
He looked surprised, but then covered it.
Haig nodded. “I took the liberty of inviting their parents to a roundtable. They can tell you about their daughters and you can pick the top five to invite to a joint dinner.”
My eyes widened. “Dinner all together?”
Haig looked down his crooked nose at me. “Yes, in the interest of time. What would you know about courting a queen?”
It was a challenge; he’d been rude to me since the second he walked in here. I needed to nip it in the bud now or he’d forever think me a pushover. My gaze flicked to King Raife, and he nodded the slightest bit as if sayinggo get ‘em.
I shrugged to Haig nonchalantly. “Oh I don’t know, considering I’m the only one in this room with breasts, I guess I know more than any of you.”
Now it was King Raife’s turn to choke on his own spit. It sounded like a laugh which gave way to a cough.
Even stuffy old Foxworth cracked a grin. I’d gained the respect of one of them, I guessed I couldn’t ask for more.
Haig opened his mouth to rebuke when the king spoke: “It’s settled, then. Five different dinner dates. Getting to know each woman separately. I wouldn’t want my future wife to feel as if I chose her in the same way I choose my cattle.”
I gave a triumphant nod, making a meeting note and ignoring the icy glare from Haig.
I wanted whichever woman Raife chose to have a fair shot at winning his heart. She deserved dinner with the king alone.
Haig stood, prompting the others to stand as well. “I want an engagement by next month. We have counseled you since you were a new king at the tender age of fourteen. This is what’s best for all of Archmere and you know it. No more messing around!” Haig pounded his fist on the table and then they all left.
My eyebrows rose, and when the door closed I looked over at the king. “If they talked to the Nightfall queen like that, she’d behead them.”
