Page 96 of Kingdom of Feathers

“Don’t play games, Your Majesty,” Sir Gelding went on smoothly. “I heard you this morning, when you told the princess that if her father knew what you were proposing to her, he’d have you arrested for conspiring against his crown.”

Basil stared at the enchanter in growing anger. The man was more devious than Basil had given him credit for. Wrapping his lie so carefully around a thread of truth was a clever trick indeed. The knowledge that he really had witnessed what had passed between Basil and Wren that morning ignited a different kind of anger in Basil, and he took an involuntary step toward the enchanter.

The guards were instantly on him, and Sir Gelding permitted himself a small smirk.

“And what did the princess reply?” King Lloyd’s voice was harsh and tight.

“Lloyd,” whispered the queen pleadingly. “Are you really going to do this here?”

But the king ignored her, seeming as hypnotized by Sir Gelding’s lies as the rest of them.

The enchanter once again looked appropriately pained. “I regret to say, Your Majesty, that she was…enthusiastic in her response.”

The whispers had become open gossip, and again Basil could see Wren’s embarrassment.

“Lies!” he called angrily. Could any of these fools really have any doubt as to Wren’s purity of heart?

The baronet raised an eyebrow. “Do you truly deny, King Basil, that you were seen passionately embracing Princess Wren in the gardens this very morning?”

Basil felt his own face heat, and knew that it must make him look ashamed. But in reality he was simply furious—how dare this snake make the kiss he and Wren had shared seem sordid?

Before he could respond, however, a commotion drew everyone’s eyes to the entrance to the audience hall.

Five swans were trying to fight their way into the room, their wings flapping furiously and their angry bugling filling the air. The guards at the doors raised their weapons, shouting in alarm as the birds dove at them with beaks outstretched. With a gasp, Wren ran toward the door, tugging on the arm of the nearest guard, who’d raised his spear as if he meant to use it.

His distraction cost him his ground, and the swans poured into the room, trumpeting loudly as they flew in agitated circles above the shocked crowd. One of them kept dive-bombing people, and Basil had the strangest conviction that it was the same one who’d attacked him when he kissed Wren. In spite of everything, he gave a small grin at the sight of a well-dressed lady hiking up her skirts and running across the room, shrieking wildly as the swan chased her.

Another loud trumpet cut across the pandemonium, and everyone turned to the door to see a sixth swan framed in the entrance. Wren’s most petted swan, the injured one, had arrived, and it waddled slowly and apparently painfully down the length of the audience hall. Wren ran to the bird, concern on her face, but it kept coming until it stood right beside Basil. He had to admit, for a bird, it had a real presence.

“Your Majesty,” came a pained voice from the crowd, and Basil recognized one of the more pompous of King Lloyd’s lords. “Surely the birds must be removed from the building.”

Wren glared the man down, and to Basil’s surprise, King Lloyd seemed to have little more patience with the complaint himself.

“Leave the birds,” he said to the guards in general, several of whom were trying to catch the swans. “They’re the least of my concerns. Wren.” He fixed his daughter with a hard look. “Is there any truth to what Sir Gelding said?”

Basil could see Wren poised to shake her head vehemently, but the wording of her father’s question made her pause. He understood why—there wassometruth to it. That’s what made it such a clever lie. Basil didn’t doubt that, like his, Wren’s thoughts were drawn vividly to the passionate embrace the baronet had alluded to. But while he applauded Wren’s honesty, he winced at the knowledge that her failure to immediately deny it all must make her seem guilty. She again reached for her pocket, apparently forgetting for a moment that her slate wasn’t on her.

“Your Majesty,” said Basil angrily. “Is the princess truly to be blamed for my decision to declare my feelings to her this morning? I promise you on my honor that I never dreamed of inciting her to treason against you. I have never had the smallest desire to annex Mistra, and whatever my feelings on the matter, I am perfectly aware that as your heir Princess Wren is bound by her duty to her kingdom, and not free to pursue a future in Entolia with me.”

“So what you’re saying,” King Lloyd interjected, his lips compressed into a furious line, “is that with no intention of any honorable proposal, you embroiled my daughter in a public embrace?”

“I…uh…” Basil floundered for a moment. That wasn’t at all what he’d been trying to say, but it was, most uncomfortably, accurate. After all, that was the reason he hadn’t intended to kiss Wren in the first place. But what could he say? That King Lloyd’s overt absence of faith in his own heir had left her with a lack of confidence that was heartbreaking to behold, and filled Basil with a determination to kiss her pain away?

Something told him that wouldn’t go over well with the irate king before him.

“By his own admission, Your Majesty.” Sir Gelding suddenly reentered the conversation. He seemed a little distracted, however, his eyes on the swans now clustered protectively around Wren. Remembering what the baronet had said about the swans having magic on them, Basil glanced at his own people. Both the merchant enchantress and Sergeant Obsidian were watching the swans as well, their foreheads creased in concentration as if trying to make out a riddle.

“That’s nonsense,” Basil cut in quickly, making the most of the enchanter’s distraction. “I haven’t confessed to anything sinister, because there’s nothing sinister to confess. Your Majesty, as I believe Princess Wren has already told you, there’s considerable reason to think that Sir Gelding is himself behind the mining operation taking place at the battlefield. He’s wearing fire jasper on his hands right now!”

“Absurd,” snapped Sir Gelding. “These are rubies, family heirlooms. You are merely trying to deflect, Your Majesty, and it won’t work. Too many others have witnessed your trysts with the princess.” He glanced around the crowd. “Lady Anneliese,” he said, his gaze settling on Wren’s friend. “I know you’ve seen them often together.”

There was a moment of silence, as everyone turned to the noblewoman. Her face paling under the scrutiny of so many eyes, she moved slowly toward Sir Gelding. But she didn’t reach him, stopping instead when she was alongside Wren.

“I do not believe the princess has done, or ever would do, anything to harm Mistra’s interests. I was with her at the front lines, and I trust her when she tells me that there is reason to believe Sir Gelding is involved in the deception there.”

The baronet’s face went white, then immediately red in his anger. “How dare you?” he breathed. “You promised your loyalty to me.”

The noblewoman held her head high. “A terrible mistake,” she said coldly. “I don’t know how I ever thought I could marry you. Having known what it is to have the love of a good and honorable man, I must have been mad to think I could bear to be your wife.”

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