The Kingdom's Crown (Inheritance of Hunger #3) - Kathryn Moon Page 0,107

behavior poses if left unchecked."

"Oh, Your Highness, this petty rivalry is too—" Lord Thomlinson began, but his tongue tangled to quiet with the slight lift of the queen's hand.

"Not yet, Thomlinson. I don't believe there is one of us here who is unaware of Camellia's behavior, and I've been concerned it might be growing more volatile," the queen said slowly. "You have proof, Bryony?"

"I have testimony," Bryony said.

"Your Majesty, might I suggest that testimony brought to us by—"

"By my daughter, Lord Thomlinson," the queen said, holding Lord Thomlinson's stare as he swelled and turned red with embarrassment.

"That man in chains was locked up for trying to kill the princess, Your Majesty!" Thomlinson spluttered.

The queen paled and turned back to stare across the open table at Darby. "Did you really?"

For the first time since I'd met Atticus Darby, he looked a little ashamed of himself, head bowing briefly. "I did, Your Majesty."

"Then I think we will hear from you first," the queen said.

Bryony let out a little sigh of relief and her hand reached out for her mother's, but the queen only shook her head and Bryony's gesture dropped lamely to her side.

"I take it my daughter hurt you in some way?" the queen asked Darby.

"Not hurt—not…" Darby went pale and swallowed. Sam had this same reluctance to speak, and I wondered if it had more to do with this pain of having to relive, confess to what they were subjected to, than any kind of stoicism or pride. "The princess was…young and demanding," Darby said, and Thomlinson and his cronies scoffed at the far side of the room. "I suppose she was a normal princess, at first, but it hadn't been a few months when her appetite for pleasure became a constant. She had favorites, and when she'd worn them out, she learned she could use her Hunger to force them to…to continue."

There was a blush rising up the queen's throat, but she held her chin high as Darby went on.

"I wasn't a favorite. Only a witness. I saw the way she seemed to burn men up. Paul Kent, Thomas Gensley, Jeremy Gibbens, and others, until they were too weak to eat, even for the Hunger to make use of them. And they'd be sent away."

"All queens have had their enthusiasm—" Lord Thomlinson tried but was quickly cut off.

"None so many as the princess, though," Sir Weston said, bowing briefly to Bryony's mother. "Excuse me, Your Majesty."

"It's true," Queen Peony said weakly, waving her hand and nodding at Atticus.

"Sometimes…she didn't even want sex, she just wanted to fight, to hurt men. Or do the two together." Darby frowned as the queen nodded, some acknowledgment of what she'd already known. "She had her second choosing, and she seemed calm for a time. She made a favorite of…of one of the men, and he revealed he was two-natured. She used to make him fly around the room to entertain her. Made him let her pet his feathers. Then she wanted to pluck them. And then one day, she broke his wings." Darby paused as Queen Peony gasped. "These games of hers piled up, Your Majesty. I don't know how much you want—"

"They were my wings," Sam said, drawing the focus of the room.

I stepped back as Sam moved forward, his stare focused absently on the window facing the city.

"She broke my wings when I asked her once if I could fly at night," Sam said.

"Your Majesty, this man has just revealed that he hid his status from the kingdom!" Thomlinson cried, jumping up from his seat.

"And why shouldn't he? Why shouldn't any two-natured?" Bryony called back, cheeks sporting twin spots of angry red. "The two-natured are thrown into horrible labor conditions, or into the army. There are incredible consequences for them to live openly, and why?"

"Enough!" Queen Peony snapped, and Bryony seemed to choke abruptly on her words, eyes falling to her lap. The queen's eyes flicked back and forth between Sam and Atticus before finally settling on Sam.

"Is that all?" she asked.

"All?" Bryony mouthed, eyes widening.

"She took me with her to the Winter Palace. I couldn't…I couldn't serve her anymore, I was so…tired. But she left me there and told me I should kill Princess Bryony," Sam murmured, and the room burst into layered arguments.

"I heard her mention as much when she returned," Atticus rushed to say.

"Your Majesty this is—"

"Really, Your Highness, what did you have to promise these men—"

"Outrageous claims!"

The queen remained pale in her seat, seemingly frozen, when a