Page 66 of The Crown’s Temptation

Something is wrong with you, Asharin, I thought to myself.

I should have turned around, but instead I walked into the room.

The laughter stopped. Every eye in the room turned toward me. One creature blinked all eight of his eyes in sequence. Another lowered his mug with great care. Then the one at the head of the table grinned, slow and wide, the kind of grin that had nothing friendly in it.

"The prince's little pet."

“Which prince?” Another one sneered. Another one with a hand growing out of his forehead stood with his mug raised in the air. “They say the golden princess fucked all four on her wedding night and now she has quadruplets. A bastard for each one.”

The room roared with laughter.

I rolled my eyes. “Twins,” I said.

The room went silent.

The creature narrowed its eyes. “Perhaps you’re missing ears in addition to common sense and a brain. What you are referencing is biologically impossible.” I paused. “And I have twins. Not Quadruplets.” I tilted my head. “I hope you don’t do anything in this palace that requires counting.”

I couldn’t help myself.

“…or attractiveness.”

The whole room roared and jeered.

“You bitch,” the creature shouted.

I looked around the room. My body was beginning to ache from the effort of standing and I desperately needed to cough up more black gunk but refused to do it in front of them. Moreover, if this was to be my new life, then I truly did not have much to lose.

Fuck it.

I cleared my throat. “I have spent time in Veynar taverns, Alarna’s court, and a ship full of Threns and none of it prepared me for how profoundly boring you all are. Is this truly how you spend your leisure hours? Dice and broth? No wonder the gate stays closed. Nothing interesting lives here."

The silence that followed was a different kind than before.

Perhaps it was a dangerous silence.

I found that I didn’t care. “I want the woman released,” I said with an authoritative tone that was likely unfounded given that I could barely stand.

"On what authority?" The creature at the head with skin that was bright red leaned back. “Being the Rathmor's whore?"

Laughter from every corner.

"Word in the lower taverns," another called out, grinning, "is they pass you around like a loaf of bread. Everyone gets a turn."

The room roared. All I could think of was if this was where they ate their meals, the lower taverns must be full of horrors I hope to never see.

I waited for it to die down. "The dice," I said. "I'll win her."

The creature tilted his head. "You'll win her?”

"Unless losing to someone who can barely walk offends your dignity."

He pushed the dice toward me.

I needed to cough. “Is no one to offer me a cup of ale? The next time I’m fucking King Sevrin and Prince Colsar and your new King Teorin I will certainly tell them to keep you locked away forever⁠—”

“Here you go, cunt.” A creature slammed a mug of ale down next to me on the table.

I had to cough. Badly.