Chapter 57: Court of Nobles

THUMP.

Soren’s small body collided with her knees, and the momentum sent Karina rocking backward on her heels. She caught him instinctively, her arms wrapping around the tiny snake cub before he could crumple to the marble floor.

"Oh—got you! There, see? I’ve got y—OW."

Sharp little teeth sank into the pad of her index finger.

Not hard enough to draw blood. Just hard enough to make her yelp and nearly drop him.

"Soren!" she gasped, more startled than hurt.

Soren released her finger immediately, then squirmed backward out of her arms so fast he nearly fell again. He scrambled a few feet away, plopped down on the floor, and glared at her with enormous eyes, his little forked tongue flicking out once in what could only be described as unrepentant defiance.

Daerys made a small, satisfied noise. "Good."

"Daerys."

"What? He bit you. It was deserved."

"It was not deserved," Karina said, cradling her finger and inspecting it. No blood. Just two faint indents in her skin, already fading. "He’s three."

"Old enough to have opinions," Daerys said primly, crossing his tiny arms.

Valen, still slightly out of breath from his wrestling match with Rynan, crept closer and peered down at his baby brother. "That was actually kind of impressive."

"It is NOT impressive to bite Mama!" Rynan protested, appalled.

"I didn’t say it was good. I said it was impressive."

Karina pressed her lips together to keep from laughing, because laughing would be the wrong response here. Her son had bitten her rather than let her pick him up.

She crouched lower instead, keeping her distance this time, and held out the same finger he’d bitten. "Soren. I’m not going to grab you again. I promise. But do you think you could come say hello properly?"

Soren stared at her finger like it might be a trap.

Then, with suspicious dignity, he slithered forward and pressed his nose to her knuckle for exactly one second before darting back behind Daerys’s leg.

"Progress," Karina whispered, her throat strangely tight.

"Your Majesty."

The voice came from behind her, cutting cleanly through the moment.

Karina straightened and turned.

A woman stood a respectful distance down the corridor, hands folded in front of her, spine drilled straight by years of court posture. Deep plum robes trimmed in silver. Dark hair coiled into a braid pinned with small pearl combs. Her face was familiar. Something the old Karina recognized.

Wait.

The sharp cheekbones. The faint scar along her jaw. The way she held her hands.

Delphine Harrington.

Not a friend exactly. A minor court secretary Karina had quietly helped years ago, smoothed over a scandal involving her brother’s debts, said the right word to the right people, asked for nothing back. Delphine had thanked her once, stiffly, clearly unused to kindness with no strings attached, and vanished back into the machinery of court life. Karina hadn’t thought about her since.

"Delphine," Karina said slowly. "It has been a while."

Something flickered behind the woman’s composed expression, surprise, maybe, that she had been remembered at all. Gone as quickly as it appeared. "Your Majesty remembers me. I’m honored."

"You look well." Karina glanced at the boys, all four now watching the newcomer with varying degrees of suspicion. Daerys, predictably, looked the most unimpressed. "Is something wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, Your Majesty." Delphine’s tone stayed perfectly neutral. "The Council of Nobles asked me to extend their concern. It has been a week since your return, and you have not yet held audience. There are.....questions. About the succession. About the Sovereign of Shadow’s Edge. About whether the crown intends to address the attempt on Prince Valen’s life formally, before the nobility, rather than through corridor gossip."

Karina exhaled slowly. Of course they wanted answers.

"They miss their Empress," Delphine added, and there was the faintest, dry twitch at the corner of her mouth. "Or they miss having someone to blame things on. I confess I couldn’t tell you which."

"That," Karina said, "is probably both."

"Probably," Delphine agreed flatly, and without flattery. Something Karina appreciated more than she could say.

"Alright," Karina said finally. "Tell the Council I’ll hold audience. Tomorrow morning. I’ll answer their questions."

"I’ll inform them, Your Majesty." Delphine inclined her head and was gone as quietly as she had arrived.

Karina turned back to find Valen staring at her, his small face serious.

"You’re leaving," he said.

"Just for the audience, Valen. Tomorrow morning, in the throne room. I’m not going anywhere." Karina crouched to his level, cupping his face gently. "I know you’re worried, but it’s just a walk down the hall, and you can sit outside the doors with Aldric the whole time if you want."

Valen studied her, searching her face for a lie. Finally he nodded, though he didn’t look entirely convinced.

"Yes," Karina said again, softer this time, mostly for herself. "I’m going. Just there and back."

~

The throne room doors opened.

"Welcome, Your Imperial Majesty."

Karina stepped through the threshold and the doors shut behind her with a heavy, final sound.

Twelve nobles. Arranged in a loose crescent before the dais, silks rustling.

No Aldric. He was outside, exactly where she had told him to stay, his broad shoulders no doubt planted directly in front of the doors like a very large gargoyle.

Just her.

Karina swallowed.

You can do it, she told herself, climbing the steps to the throne. You’ve faced down a Dragon King, a would-be poisoner, and a snake toddler with a biting problem. You can survive a room of gossiping aristocrats.

She almost missed the faint, buzzing hum of Cheshire’s presence at the back of her skull. At least he would have had something snide to say to distract her. At least he would have been noise, something to be annoyed at instead of the suffocating silence of twelve pairs of eyes assessing her like she was a horse at auction.

She sat. She folded her hands. She waited.

One man stepped forward from the crescent. Older, silver-templed, dressed in orange robes stitched with a crest she didn’t recognize.

"Lord Edmund Vellworth," he introduced himself with a bow. "Speaker for the Council. Welcome back, Your Majesty. It has been.....an eventful season."

"It has," Karina agreed carefully.

"We won’t waste Your Majesty’s time with pleasantries." Vellworth’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. "We’ve heard something. A rumor, though it carries more weight than most."

Karina kept her face still. "Go on."

"That you annulled your union with the Sovereign of Shadow’s Edge."

The room seemed to lean in, all at once, like a held breath given shape.

Karina met his gaze steadily.

She nodded.

Twelve nobles gasped in unison.