Page 9 of A Courage of the Chosen

I shake my head, ignoring the way ‘your majesty’ makes me want to recoil. “The soldiers are needed elsewhere. Wherever Raghnall is, he’s likely with his real armies now. If he’s spotted in the palace, arrest him. But if not, your forces shouldn’t be wasted searching him out.”

“Your forces,” Hector says, as he takes his seat to my left, and I’m immediately comforted by his presence, at least I have one ally on the council. Only yesterday, I’d stood opposite him on a field, ready to fight him, and the soldiers who follow his command.

Time is a funny thing, some days pass by in the blink of an eye, and others, like today, stretch longer than they should.

“So it’s true then, General Hector? Do you believe her story?” The man with teak eyes, who hasn’t spoken an awful lot, asks.

“Every word that Elsie spoke to you is the truth. I saw Tavish’s dark magic myself.”

They know Hector, he leads the royal armies, and has sat with them in this room for who knows how long, but even his admission isn’t enough to sway them. They eye him like they’re seeing him for the first time, and not liking what’s before them.

Hector rubs a hand over his tired face, my own body nearing exhaustion. We haven’t stopped since yesterday morning. “Whether you believe her or not, we need to accept the fact that everything we thought we knew about the Dorche is wrong.”

No one says a word.

Hector continues anyway. “Their crimes against us cannot go unpunished any longer. It’s time for war.”

Chapter 3

Elsie

Once things have quieted down after Hector’s declaration, each of the council members introduces themselves, and what their role is for the crown.

Lady Calder, the first one that spoke besides Hume when we arrived, oversees all trade that occurs within Elfayne. Taxes, imports and exports all fall under her remit.

The only other female council member, Lady Navin, is incredibly open about her dislike and distrust of me. She oversees the managing of the palace staff and day to day running of court, and acts as the go-between for the lords and ladies across the realm, and the crown.

Her clear contempt is seconded by the oldest Seelie on the council, Lord Fettis, who has a habit of resting his hands on his belly when he thinks he has the upper hand. Lord Fettis is basically an accountant with an over-inflated ego and monitors the crown’s finances.

The hardest man to read in the room is Lord Garside, the Seelie with teakwood eyes. He’s responsible for ensuring the law is upheld, and that a fair trial is given to those that break it. Everyone shuts the hell up when he speaks, and I find myself trying to determine exactly why that is so that I can replicate it.

The last Seelie to introduce himself is Lord Haddow. He oversees all the healers and provides historical context for the council where required, and his knowledge is as impressive as his mustache.

Once I’ve got their names straight, their attention turns back to me as they wait expectantly for the full details on my family’s history. So, I tell them everything I know. How I witnessed Tavish murder my granny, their rightful queen. How I’d been taken and tortured beneath this palace while skirting over some of the horrors inflicted on me.

I tell them that they’ve nothing to fear from the rebellion that met the royal armies yesterday. That their invisible war against the Dorche is one of the reasons they haven’t overpowered this world yet. I tell them about Callahan, and the lie they were fed to have him painted as the villain. It was harder than I thought to speak about him, but I did what I always do, and shoved those ugly feelings into boxes in the back of my mind, where the prowling animal that screams for vengeance wraps protectively around them.

I tell them what transpired at the battle, omitting the part where Tavish took the Craobh Beatha. Only Hume knows it was in my possession, so I can hide from that reality a little while longer.

They need to know the Dorche have it when we begin preparing for all-out war. But for right now, I’m keeping that shame to myself. I’m not ready to face it.

They all take their turn to interrogate me. Question after question, some of them different iterations of ones asked before in a blatant attempt to trip me up and find the holes in my story to see if I’m lying. I answer all of them, my replies consistent, clipped, and increasingly exasperated as it becomes obvious they aren’t going to be easily swayed.

I want to scream. And then take a nap to hide away from it all.

After hours of their relentlessness, the conversation shifts, and Hector faces Hume across the table with a stern expression.

“I find it hard to believe that as Raghnall’s advisor, Hume, you would have no knowledge about his powers.” It’s not a question, and the accusation is thick in Hector’s tone, but Hume is quick to respond.

“That’s assuming what the girl says is true. Which it isn’t. Therefore, there would be nothing for me to know.” His reply is smooth like butter, and laced with enough incredulity to pass as genuine to everyone else.

“Lord Renfrow has been a loyal servant to the realm and the crown for the past sixty years. There is no reason to doubt him,” Lady Navin interjects from her seat on Hector’s left.

Hume leans back in his chair, arms folded and a smug grin on his mouth as Lord Fettis lends him support as well. “The only person here we shouldn’t trust is the woman occupying the king’s chair, until she can validate her story.”

I have to fight the rolling of my eyes, and Rach sighs again loudly behind me.

Hector’s jaw twitches, and given we aren’t going to make any further progress tonight, he suggests we bring the meeting to an end. He and I are still coated in the blood of our enemies, and everyone else needs time to process what’s been discussed. I shoot him a grateful glance. After the battle, and using so much of my magic, I’m beyond spent.