“Thank you to whoever put us together,” Kinan said earnestly. “Waking up together was perfect.”
Perian smiled, his eyes twinkling. “I’m glad. I might have…impliedthat it was necessary.”
This made Kinan laugh, and he came over to give Perian a hug. “It was the best. All my dreams come true.”
Cormal felt his face heat, but it made warmth glow in his chest, too.
Over the last forty-eight hours, everyone had slowly woken and spent time resting and eating, until only Cormal and Kinan were left. Now everyone was awake again—and that meant there was onemorehurdle: the Queen and the Council.
“We’re not speaking to anyone today,” Kinan said authoritatively. “We’ve barely woken up. I want to make these changes as soon as possible, but it won’t do any good to rush into this still recovering and unprepared.”
Cormal couldn’t disagree with any of that.
“Do make sure to speak to your mother, Prince Kinan,” Brannal said. “She’s been very anxious.”
Kinan waved this aside. “Oh, yes, I’ll talk to Mother. But no official royal business until at least tomorrow.”
He yawned and seemed surprised. This set Cormal off, too, and everyone laughed.
“How about we leave you to continue to recover?” Brannal suggested, his expression strangely soft. “You know where the doctor is. And you can call on any of us should you need anything.”
Kinan nodded and yawned again.
“Will you come on a picnic with me and Perian tomorrow?” Renny asked hopefully.
Kinan smiled at his sister. “Yes, of course. I’d love that.”
There were more hugs, and then Cormal and Kinan were suddenly alone in the sitting room once more.
Kinan held out his hand. “Let’s see if we can think of something fun to do in bed, shall we?”
With a grin, Cormal allowed himself to be pulled along.
The Royal Council was composed of ten elected councilors, one from each of the ten districts in the country. There were two council chambers. One was for internal business and had a huge round table so that everyone could see one another and discuss things ostensibly as equals. (The Queen’s seat was still better than everyone else’s.) Summus, Secundus, and Tertius each had a spot at that table, as well as the Captain of the Guard and his second-in-command.
The second room was the room where the Queen and Councilpresidedover people; it was where they met when there were visitors and when, quite frankly, they were trying to look impressive. It was where they’d heard the testimony against Fomadin. And it was where the Council was now arranged in the three rows of tiered seats. There were spots up there for the heads of the Mage Warriors and Warriors, too.
Onadal, Yallon, and Delana were seated on either side of the Queen, but Cormal, Kinan, Brannal, and Perian were down on the floor. Yannoma, Trill, Molun, and Arvus were in one of the antechambers. They’d agreed that introducing additional elements as necessary was better than throwing everything at them at once.
They all knew that putting Yannoma in the room with them right away would probably result in nothing whatsoever getting done.
Cormal had had regular dealings with the councilors as Summus and Secundus, often reporting to them and the Queen on demon-related activity. He supposed it could be arguedthat trend was still continuing, depending on how you defineddemon,which was really the whole problem.
“We can’t condonedemonsin our districts,” the councilor from the fourth district was saying, clutching at their chest in a move that Cormal found entirely theatrical. “It’s absurd.”
Cormal made sure to keep his voice even, despite the desire to lob a few fireballs that was creeping up his spine. “You certainly don’t have to, if you would also like to deprive your citizens of the best healers.”
They’d laid out all the facts to the councilors about the Prince’s recovery and the reason that it was possible, including the… misunderstanding that had resulted in the loss of Life Magic and the vilifying of carnalions.
“That’s not fair!” they immediately blustered.
Cormal tried not to roll his eyes. He wondered how he’d ever thought he could manage in the role of Summus. One little fireball wouldn’t hurt anything, would it?
Thankfully for continued diplomatic relations, the Queen interceded.
She had the best seat at the center of the top tier, and Cormal enjoyed how the councilors had to keep turning to look at her before going back to glaring at Cormal and everyone on the floor. (There was apparently a strict schedule that governed which councilor sat where between the bottom and middle tiers, but the Queen kept the top tier for herself, her family, and the heads of the Mage Warriors and Warriors. Cormal was entirely certain it was to prevent the councilors from squabbling like children.)
The Queen said, “What I think you will find is unfair, Councilor, is the idea that you would benefit from the work of Life Mages while also barring them from your district. Surely, you see that is an unacceptable double standard.”
