Crown of One Hundred Kings (Nine Kingdoms Trilogy Book 1)

by Rachel Higginson

  “Aye.”

  “That is not fair. Future queens must be fair. Try again.”

  “Try again? You can’t be serious.”

  “I’m quite serious.”

  “You’re an impossible man, Taelon. And you’ve recently betrayed your closest ally. You made enemies with the wrong Queen, Rebel King.”

  I moved to brush past him, intent on opening the door and forcing him from my room, but he caught me around the waist and forced another squeak from me. Shiksa, tired of my theatrics, jumped from my arms and scurried beneath the bed.

  “You are not queen yet,” he reminded me in a rumble. “And until you are my sovereign ally, I think I’ll enjoy every second of frustrating a spoiled princess.”

  His hands landed on my hips, searing the skin beneath my robe with the heat of his palms. Our chests brushed against each other and I had never been more aware of the differences between his muscled chest and my softer one.

  I pushed at those distracting muscles. The open collar of his tunic revealed a strong throat that I wished I could ignore. “You’re playing with fire, Taelon. What if one of the servants discovers us? Like this?”

  His eyes darkened and his head dipped closer to mine. “Say it again.”

  “It will be the scandal of the century! Could you imagine—”

  His chuckle interrupted me. “Not that rubbish, Tessana. Say my name again. Say it in that way. As though you know me. As though my name were something familiar to you.”

  Tingles rushed through my blood. I licked suddenly dry lips and watched my fingers curl into the fabric of his shirt.

  I could understand why the name meant so much to him. In this one thing we were united. For him to call me Tess was fine. But when he used my full name… when he called me Tessana… that was something else altogether.

  “Taelon,” I whispered.

  His forehead dropped to meet mine. “Again.”

  “Taelon.”

  “I have thought about you so often in the last eight years, wondering what happened to you. I thought I had lost you forever.”

  I found myself melting into him. “You saved my life.” I had to shut my eyes to keep the tears at bay but still they leaked from the corners of my lashes. “And because you gave me the crown, you saved my kingdom.”

  A shuddering breath racked his lungs and he crushed me in a tight hug. My arms wrapped around him just as securely.

  I had pictured this moment a thousand times since the day we parted. I had imagined how I would run and leap into his arms. Or how I would sit upon my throne and offer him a curt nod and a conspiratorial wink. I had imagined him crying or laughing or not remembering me at all. But I had never imagined it quite like this.

  I had never imagined that he would be as deeply moved or worried as I had been. I had never imagined this fire in his touch that brought my skin to life and set my heart galloping.

  “I did what I had to,” he rasped against my skin. “I did what I had to do to protect you.”

  “You did protect me,” I promised. “Thank you.”

  After another endless moment, he pulled back and stared at my face. “And now you’re back. But what shall we do with you?”

  I wrinkled my nose. “You could start by letting me sleep.”

  His head tipped back and he laughed. When he looked at me again his eyes twinkled like the sapphires in the chandeliers. “I suppose I can do that. As long as you forgive me for my deception.”

  I moved out of his arms and brushed my hands down my robe. “Oh, no. I cannot do that.”

  He stepped forward and I instinctively stepped back. “Why not?”

  “Well,” I sighed, sidestepping a plush ottoman, “there are so many reasons.”

  He stalked after me, a quirk to his lips that I ignored. “Name one.”

  I reached back and my hand closed around the door handle. I yanked it downward and tugged. Hard.

  I tripped over my own feet when the door did not budge. Ignoring Taelon further, I clicked the lock open, hating that I still couldn’t figure out how he’d invaded my private rooms, and wrenched the door open.

  I leaned into the hall and found Haemon keeping watch. “Oh, good. You’re here,” I said to the guard. He turned to me, surprised by my sudden appearance and state of undress. “I have an intruder.”

  “You what?” He all but shouted. He stepped into the doorway, his sword already halfway drawn, and then stepped back when he saw Taelon waiting for him on the other side. “Y-y-your Highness?”

  “Don’t trouble yourself, my man,” Taelon grinned. “I was just leaving.” He straightened his tunic and walked slowly by me. He was just about out the door, my fingers were itching to slam it directly behind him, when he spun around to say, “This is going to be fun, Stranger. Hope you’re up for the challenge.”

  “The challenge?”

  He left my room and didn’t turn back.

  “What challenge, Taelon?”

  He waved without looking at me again.

  I let out a growl and finally slammed the bedroom door shut.

  19

  The next morning, I was up before the sun. The bed was too soft. The room was too quiet.

  When maids descended on my room with breakfast and fingers nimble and strong enough to suck all of the oxygen out of my lungs in an attempt to tie my corset, I was trying to figure out how Taelon had broken into my room the night before.

  “The king has requested your presence in the war room this morning, Your Highness,” one of the maids said quietly while she pinned my hair into a more elaborate style of braid than I usually wore, pulled over my shoulder with elegant twists to it.

  I stared at myself in the mirror above the vanity. I was forced to sit up straight because my corset had been banded around me so tightly I wouldn’t be surprised if my head popped off.

  They had dressed me in a pale pink day dress more expensive than all of my clothes from the temple combined.

  And they had performed some kind of magic on my face because I was no longer the pale, plain girl I remembered from the temple. My cheeks were rosy, my lips a matching color. Flecks of gold in my eyes caught the light and brightened the usual hazel to unnatural shades of emerald and jade.

  Mirrors were appropriately absent at the temple. I had grown up looking at my image after I’d shined the cookware. It hadn’t bothered me. Until now. Until I was to meet King Hugo in the war room and face his questions about my past and my future. The maid finished pinning dainty pink flowers in the tail of my braid and stepped back so she could survey me head to toe.

  “Am I presentable, then?” I asked her. I tried to fight the nerves clawing at my belly, but I couldn’t manage to talk any sense into myself. I had just seen Hugo last night. There was nothing to be afraid of.

  Yet the light of day put everything into an entirely new perspective. The crown lay on my bed. I’d taken it out earlier this morning to polish the travel-worn places. I’d found myself unable to do anything but stare at it for a while after I’d finished.

  Could this really be happening?

  After everything… Was I truly so close to home?

  The maid hummed her approval. “I dare say you are the most beautiful princess I have ever seen, M’lady.”

  I averted my eyes, embarrassed that she would call me beautiful and a princess. I hardly felt either. “No,” I said. “It’s your handiwork that’s responsible. Not me.” I found myself staring at myself in the mirror again. I placed a palm against my cheek just to make sure it was really me. “But I must ask what you’ve done with my face.” Realizing she might have thought I meant her insult, I added, “Only that I might replicate it every day forward.”

  “Your face?” A little bubble of laughter spilled out of her. “Your Highness, I did nothing to your face except add a small amount of rouge. That is simply what you look like.”

  “No,” I disagreed. I leaned forward and took in my appearance once more. “But I do look like my mother. I did no
t think that I did.”

  The light in the maid’s eyes dimmed as she placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. “I hope you don’t mind me sayin’, but what happened to Her Highness was a tragedy. Your whole family… I just can’t even imagine. It seems only right that you would grow to be as lovely as she. It is the least the Light could do for you after enduring such hardship.”

  I felt my eyes grow hot with emotion, but I forced the tears back. I couldn’t cry in front of a maid. What would she think of me? “You are very kind for saying that…?”

  “Matilda,” she bounced into a short curtsy. “My name is Matilda.”

  “Thank you, Matilda.” I let out a sigh and stood. My hands fell to my waist where the corset pinched and pressed. “You may tell his highness that I am ready now if he will receive me. Just as soon as I learn how to breathe in this thing.”

  Matilda tried to hide her smile. “Shallow breaths, mum. That should be better.”

  She left me to practice barely breathing and stepped into the hall. She returned a few seconds later to declare, “He’s already waiting for you. There is a footman and the Grandmaster of the guards to escort you.”

  I took careful steps in the direction of the door. “Do you know about my traveling companion? He was sent across the hall. I’m wondering if he has awoken.”

  She shook her head. “He hasn’t, M’lady. We tried earlier, but he threw his shoes at a squire and so we made the decision to let him sleep.”

  It was my turn to hide my smile.

  “Would you mind watching my fox while I’m gone? I think she’s hungry.”

  Matilda looked scandalized. “Pardon me?”

  “My fox,” I explained slowly, just in case she hadn’t heard. “She’s just a pup.” I pulled Shiksa from the plush blankets where she’d been sleeping as hard as Oliver. Her pure white coat was hot from the blankets and I couldn’t resist holding her against me for a minute while she whimpered her protests. “Her name is Shiksa.”

  “I-I-I…”

  I dropped Shiksa into Matilda’s hands. “Thank you.”

  Just like Matilda had warned, there was a tall footman and Haemon waiting for me in the hall. Both of them swept into a bow as soon as they saw me.

  “Er, thank you…?” I bit my lip. I didn’t know how to navigate my suddenly royal status. I had been treated as a commoner yesterday. Now people bowed and curtsied and dressed me in sausage casing.

  I stood there, waiting for them to lead me to the war room, but neither moved. After a long moment of awkward stillness, in which I realized something was required of me, Haemon covered his mouth with a fist and coughed.

  I looked at him helplessly.

  “After you, Your Majesty,” he said pointedly.

  Oh.

  “Of course.” I looked at the footman’s outstretched hand. How was I to lead them to a room in which I knew nothing about? “This way then?”

  The footman nodded as patiently as he was capable of. I resisted an eye roll and began a slow march down the hall. Once I began moving however, it didn’t take long for the other two men to fall into step beside me. I needed to remember: Royals move first. Even if they have no idea where they’re going.

  “Did you sleep well, Princess Tessana?” Haemon asked politely.

  “No.” It didn’t occur to me to lie or sidestep the truth. But after another covered cough by Haemon and the footman’s gasp, I realized my response sounded rude. “That is to say, I’m used to sleeping on the ground. And before that, my mattress was made of hay. So, you see, I’m not used to comfort.”

  Neither man said anything to that. I’d probably explained too much or said something I wasn’t supposed to, but it was too late now.

  I decided to press on. “What about you, Haemon? Did you sleep? I hope you didn’t stand outside my door all night.”

  His cheeks heated, even though I didn’t understand what I’d said wrong. “It is my honor to guard you, Princess Tessana. I would never think of sleeping when my service is required.”

  Ah, I had insulted his duty and his position. Well, this wasn’t the smoothest introduction to palace life.

  Maybe the Brotherhood of Silence was onto something.

  After a series of staircases and twists and turns down sunlit corridors, Haemon nodded toward a set of gilded double doors. “Here we are, Your Highness. His Majesty awaits.”

  A different footman opened the door and a herald announced my presence. I stepped into an enormous room with bookshelves lining every wall. There was a balcony halfway up and more bookcases along the second floor.

  For a moment I thought I’d wandered into the wrong room. If it weren’t for the swords and shields adorning the four columns and the massive war table in the center, I would have assumed I’d found the library.

  The war table displayed a detailed map of the realm in raised miniatures and painted replicas. A cluster of tiny black cedars indicated the Tellekane Forest and a section of rolling golden sand dunes the Burning Desert of Vorestra. Elysia sat in the middle where white topped mountain miniatures were raised and painted to sparkle like diamonds.

  Hugo stood behind the war table, his crown in place and a floor length fur robe buckled around his neck. His gold belt held three blades and he was wearing the Soravale crest of colors—a tunic meant for declaring war. And parties. Most royals wore their crest of colors during celebrations or royal visits from other sovereigns. Elysia had one as well.

  My father had worn it only when something important was happening or someone important had visited.

  “Good morning, Tessana,” Hugo smiled. “Or should I say, Your Highness.”

  I held up a hand, feeling overwhelmed and out of place in my pale pink dress. Like a rose lost in a briar patch. “No,” I laughed nervously. “Please don’t. I am still trying to remember that I am a royal. Calling me names is only going to make me anxious.”

  His tight smile warned that I’d said too much again. But Hugo was gracious enough to move on. “My general,” he waved his hand toward a very tall, very old white-haired scarecrow. The man turned to me with glassy eyes and bowed low. “This is General Stoginan. Please, General, meet our trusted ally, Princess Tessana Allisand of Elysia.”

  General Stoginan’s voice sounded like rocks being scraped over gravel. “Pleasure, Your Highness.”

  I curtsied. “Likewise, General.”

  Hugo went on. “You’ve already met the Grandmaster of our Royal Guard, Haemon Montrez. And of course you know my son.” I nodded to Haemon and had already turned to greet the fourth man in the room when I realized too late that it was Taelon.

  I had no choice but to curtsy to him as well. After all, Hugo had introduced me as their trusted ally. How awful would I be to ruin all relations between Soravale and Elysia on the first day of my return? It would have to be some kind of record.

  Maybe it was worth it.

  Taelon smiled at me and I nearly forgot all the reasons he vexed me. My skin tingled. This boy was the most frustrating of all males and yet my body reacted to him as though he were lost treasure and I was a dragon.

  “Princess,” He murmured as a way of hello.

  I nodded, adding a regal tilt to my chin. “Rebel King.”

  Hugo’s boisterous cough split the room in half. I heard Stoginan lean into Haemon and mumble, “I wonder what she means by that.”

  Haemon’s response was a quick, “A joke from their childhood I’m sure.”

  Taelon’s eyes sparkled, but he managed a discreet head shake. Apparently, his other activities were not public knowledge.

  I decided the best course of action was to push forward and generally avoid talks of rebels and kings and such. “Your Majesty, thank you for seeing me again.”

  Hugo’s smile was filled with affection, “My dear, I am merely amazed to behold you. After all this time, it’s hard to believe you’re real. And yet here you stand. Were the last years horrid? Have you wished for nothing but palace life since you were forced to leave?”


  “No,” I cried. “No, please don’t think I was away suffering. I was quite comfortable. The Brotherhood of Silence took excellent care of me.”

  “Good.”

  “And you marched all this way?” General Stoginan asked. “From Heprin?”

  “Nearly,” I answered. “For the last couple weeks my traveling companion and I were fortunate to acquire the escort of the Rebel Army.”

  Stoginan nearly choked on his thick tongue. “Truly? The rebels helped you?”

  “Yes, truly.”

  His eyes bulged from his narrow face. “Didn’t they try to take the Crown of Nine from you? Ransom you? I cannot believe those uncivilized boors acted peacefully toward a royal.”

  “I traveled in disguise. In fact, only yesterday did I reveal the precious cargo I had with me. The Rebel Army never knew of my true identity or the invaluable crown hidden in my satchel. They escorted me safely through Tenovia. On several occasions I watched them give liberally to the poor along the way, and once I witnessed them save a Tenovian village from a fire set by the Ring of Shadows.”

  He made a snorting sound. “And here I thought their skills were limited to raping and pillaging.”

  I cleared my throat and avoided looking at Taelon lest I start laughing. “I can assure you, General, I was neither a victim of raping nor pillaging.”

  I had the great privilege of watching the General’s entire face turn the color of a ripe strawberry.

  Taelon stepped in to rescue the conversation, “The princess is headed home, General. She wishes to return to Elysia and take her rightful place on the Seat of Power.”

  “Of course she does,” the General agreed. “That seat belongs in the Allisand bloodline. Your uncle, pardon me for saying so, is a dangerous monarch.”

  “How so?”

  The General’s eyes shifted around the room. They didn’t seem capable of landing on one thing. I watched him look to the books, then to the map of the realm. Then to his shoes. Then to my shoes. “Forgive me for saying anything, Your Majesty. It is not my place to have an opinion.”

  “Please speak,” I implored him. “I have been secluded for so long. I don’t know what to expect and the only information I’ve been able to acquire is gossip. Hearsay. Nothing more. I would love the opinion of someone with your authority and experience.”