Though, with them was a striking woman with red hair, alabaster skin, and an emerald-green outfit and hat that rivaled (but didn’t beat) Mom’s and my own.
Loren led me to where Mom was standing at the front row of chairs. Ansley was at her side. Mary at her other side. Loren’s friends moved to gather around us.
It struck me then that the packed room was not packed only with rich people. There seemed a mix of grand to not-so-grand to normal outfits declaring a mix of economic statuses.
Apparently in King Noctorno’s realm, the aristocracy not only didn’t carry on blithely thinking they had the run of the country. When they did something wrong, they also weren’t judged privately, in the company of people they thought were their peers.
They were judged publicly in the company of all their peers.
Loren’s squeeze of my elbow reminded me to curtsy, which I did, beside him as he executed a courtly bow.
And it was then, the din from outside rose again, this time with jeers and boos.
Dad-not-Dad was arriving.
My throat closed in panic, my gaze found Mom’s, she was as pale as I felt, and it all began.
It felt like a whirlwind. Like I was seeing it through a flurry of snow, what was happening playing out in the center of a snow globe I’d shaken like crazy.
Edgar came in, dressed to the nines, but with a guard on either side, and some tall, slender man accompanying him.
They came to stand in front of the king and queen, just off to the side, and another man joined them to the other side. He was the opposition.
They didn’t have tables or papers or anything.
Edgar was going to stand trial.
Literally.
Fortunately, we didn’t have to stand while watching it.
We were told to sit. We sat.
Some guy in a uniform came forward and cried out a bunch of stuff that eventually hit me was the litany of charges against Edgar, the only one of which penetrating my haze was “conspiring the attempted murder of four citizens of the realm and suspicion of murder of anonymous by burning!”
I fully came into the room when the uniform guy demanded, “Now, sir, tell the king how you plead!”
And Dad-not-Dad bellowed, “Innocent!”
Aunt Mary, sitting between Mom and me (this wasn’t what I’d want, but she’d horned in), reached out and took both our hands in both of hers and held them together in her lap (okay, so maybe it was good Aunt Mary being right there).
It was then Dad-not-Dad boomed, “This is utter rubbish!”
The slender guy at his side got closer with some urgency, but Edgar stepped away from him and addressed Noctorno. “This is a disgrace.”
“My lord, see to your client,” the king rumbled to the slender guy.
He tried to do that, but Edgar sidestepped him again.
“I am a peer of your realm, sir,” he said to the king.
“Every person in this room is a peer of my realm,” Noctorno replied.
Well then.
There you go.
Dad seethed, “That’s frankly outrageous!”
“I suggest you collect yourself,” the king advised.
Dad-not-Dad swung a pointed finger our way and shouted, “They aren’t even of this—”
I got tense.
I felt Mom’s hand jump.
I also felt Loren get tense beside me.
And Edgar started choking.
As in, a fit of coughing that was deep and guttural and hurt just to hear. It did this to me, and I didn’t like the guy.
“Get him water,” the queen bid softly.
Someone rushed to Edgar with a glass of water, but he lashed out, the tumbler went flying, water splashing all over the marble floor, the glass shattering, and he’d gotten himself together enough to state, “I will be heard! And they are liars! Swindlers! Frauds! They do not even come from this—”
He started choking again, worse than before.
But something struck me when he did it this time.
Because…
Oh my gods.
Was this…?
I sat forward and looked toward Mom.
She sat forward and looked toward me.
We turned back to Edgar when he tried to force out, “They are from a—”
Gasps all around, including from me, when a bubble of blood bloomed from his mouth.
“My word,” Aunt Mary murmured in horror.
“Call a physician,” the king bid.
But Dad-not-Dad was now opening and closing his mouth, no blood coming forth, however his eyes were bugging out.
I wondered if he was choking, but he stood still, calm(ish), and it hit me that he was moving his mouth like he was trying to speak.
However, no words were coming out.
Holy shit.
Right, one thing was absolutely and undeniably certain.
I was never bringing that curse down on Mom and me. No way. No how.
I wasn’t going to do it before.
But…yikes.
Another man approached Edgar. Dad-not-Dad allowed the man to examine him, even clutched on to him, still appearing like he was trying to talk.
In the end, the guy turned to Noctorno and reported, “Elevated pulse, but that is all, Your Majesty. The coughing brought the blood, I believe. But outside the curious fact he doesn’t seem to be able to speak, I can find nothing wrong with him.”