"Should has nothing to do with it, princess," I murmured, and then found my own tongue useless as she turned green eyes to me. "Plenty of people wouldn't feel comfortable with a stranger."
Not that I'd minded the idea of bedding the princess on little more than a handful of words and an order from her. And it hadn't been any of the girls I'd met before I'd thought of when asked to perform earlier. It'd been her, pristine and polished and cold on her throne as she examined me in the great hall.
She's not cold at all though, I thought. Princess Bryony was warm to the touch and a little frightened, and she'd been stiff as I kissed her. It irritated me that Aric had seen how deep her discomfort went before I had.
"It's not right that a woman from the queen's line be like 'plenty of people,'" she said quietly. "But won't someone explain what you mean about the Hunger not being responsible for the kingdom's greatness?"
I dropped my eyes to my lap. Reassuring the princess that she wasn't broken was one thing. Explaining to her that Kimmery was…
That might be something like treason, and I wasn't a fool enough to speak. My eyes slid to Prince Thao. Perhaps someone of his rank might be able to get away with the words? Except he looked pale and preoccupied, pacing back and forth along the side of the bed.
"Kimmery does a great deal of trade, Your Highness," Cosmo said, sitting up. "Most of your labor comes from the north. Your citizens are paid very little and taxed very highly and that money is what ensures that the view outside your castle windows looks so…prosperous."
I bit my own lip as I watched Princess Bryony turn bright red, her eyes wide and her hands clenching the fabric of her skirt. There was shock and anger on her face, but also shame as she stared back at Cosmo, like she'd known such a thing might be possible but hadn't had to face the words before now.
"I don't—How can this be the case? Are you certain?" she asked, high and breathy. Her eyes glanced to Wendell, who nodded or bowed, or both at once.
"We come from the north, princess," Aric said, reappearing in the doorway. "Cosmo and I see every day what it costs Kimmerians to keep the capital shining and our queens coming on their Chosen's cocks."
"Aric," I snapped, and he raised an eyebrow at me.
"There are women and children working themselves into their graves, and you want me to apologize to the girl who lives in this?" he asked, swirling a hand through the air, eyes scanning over every ornate inch of the princess' bedroom.
He wasn't wrong; even I knew that. There was a reason why most men looked forward to the thought of being a Chosen, and it had less to do with bedding royalty than it did a lifetime away from labor. That was half my own hope in coming to the palace for the choosing.
"You know it isn't her fault," I said, glowering at Aric and ready to rise and toss him out and over the balcony until a light hand landed on my wrist.
"No, he's right. I had no idea," Bryony said with an open gaze directed to Aric. "But I should have, and that's my first failure to my people. It will be worse if I do nothing now that I've heard. I just…I have no proof that Kimmery is as well cared for as I've heard, but I have nothing but your word saying otherwise and…" Her brow furrowed, lips parted on a word that never found its voice.
She gathered her skirt in her hands, and Cosmo and I hurried to help lift her from the bed.
"You're going to…to do something now?" Thao asked, stepping forward. I didn't understand why the Mennary prince looked so nervous. I'd noticed it as soon as I'd entered the waiting room, after seeing the princess for the first time, and it had yet to abate.
"I'm going to go and…think. Make a decision," Bryony said softly, smoothing her silks. She couldn't meet our eyes, and I wished I was the kind of man who might insist on joining her, reassuring her more. But she probably didn't want a stablehand as a witness to her worries.
"We could make a show of it," Wendell offered, glancing at the rest of us. "You wouldn't even need to be in the room if you weren't comfortable. If they're going to look at your sheets—"
Bryony's nose was scrunched as she shook her head. "I don't want to lie, especially not if that's what the queen's line has been doing this whole time. You may—" Her voice wobbled and she pushed away from the bed, heading toward the private door on the far end of the room. "You may do as you please. I'll be back before the morning. Just don't let anyone else in, and try not to tell them anything until I've made a decision."
Her dress swished with every quick step away from us, candlelight rocking up the walls as she passed and all but ran through the doors, locking it shut behind her. Gone. The princess was gone, and my dream of being a Chosen was burst like a bubble. My eyes slit and turned to Aric Martin, his own gaze fixed on the locked doors that hid the princess.
"You could've been kinder to her," I said.
He blinked but didn't bother turning to me. "I could have. Maybe she needed to hear the truth."
"What does this mean for her? Pope, you'd know best," Cosmo said.
Wendell Pope, who was tall and handsome and practically glued to the prince's side as they whispered to each other in a rapid foreign tongue, whipped his head up and looked between the far doors and Cosmo.
"I wouldn't," he said, but when we all remained staring at him, he frowned. "She may…she may have to abdicate the throne. Or she may be able to convince the crown to give up the notion of the Hunger."
Aric scoffed at that suggestion. "The Hunger has reigned in this kingdom for hundreds of years, excusing the royals from any responsibility to their people."
"And now you have a princess who does not possess it," Thao spat back. "If it exists at all."
Aric and Cosmo frowned at one another, and I glared at them both. "What? What does that look mean?" I asked.
"We were both…present for Camellia's second choosing. She…" Cosmo trailed off, and Aric continued.
"She's a beast possessed, is what she is. Either by the Hunger or her own whims, who knows. But if the queen wants to keep the Hunger, she has the perfect daughter in the younger of the two. Pope is right. They'll toss that little flower right out onto the doorstep to greet her starving people," Aric finished, his eyes drifting back to the closed door, a line furrowing on his brow.
4
Bryony
You failed.
You failed at the Hunger, which might as well be made up.
Kimmery is failing its people.
Can I be as I am and do any better for the kingdom?
Around and around the thoughts turned. I was curled in the window seat of my personal study, staring down at the rose gardens in full bloom, the fountains bubbling under moonlight, until the moon was sliding behind my grandmother's turret and the sun was turning the water pink with dawn. And I had made no real decision, only worn my lip bruised with worrying. At the very edge of the horizon, the Coraletti Sea was a shimmering line. I'd never wondered why the castle seemed to face south, but now I understood, all our faults lay in the other direction. Who carried the cost of my favorite view? Were my people really suffering as they said, or was that only what my grandmother would call a commoner's right to unrest?