I’m not exactly sure how to answer, so all I say is, “Yes.”
“Not that I didn’t enjoy your harp playing,” he adds with a grin.
“I’ve gone off that instrument, truth be told.”
His keen eyes gleam. “I’m sure you have, Doll, and I don’t blame you in the least.”
My heart skips a beat, and I steal a sideways look at Slade, but he’s still watching Manu, his attention unwavering, his expression closed off.
“The dinner is delicious,” he says, sopping some of the gravy up with his bread. “Much better than that sugary glue that Fifth Kingdom seems to be so fond of.”
“Yes,” Slade says, speaking up for the first time. “And yet, your queen sister has decided to break our trading agreement and slow our imports. This does not please me.”
Silence screeches in with the tine of Manu’s fork scraping against his plate.
One second passes. Two, three, four.
The pause is gluttonous, eating up the space between us all, making the air bloated and uncomfortable.
Manu sets down his utensils. Then his friendly disposition. In the span of a second, he’s gone from an amicable dinner guest to royal advisor. He’s so very different from that first dinner when I met him. The easygoing jokes, the almost contagious camaraderie. Queen Kaila is a force, someone you always have to watch your words around. But I wonder if everyone, including me, has underestimated her brother—and if that’s exactly what he wants.
“Alright, King Ravinger, I see we’ve made it to the serious part of our discussion. Though, I do appreciate you letting me finish most of my dinner first.”
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have, considering your kingdom isn’t giving my people the same courtesy.”
Shit.
My eyes snap to Slade, nearly freezing in the coldness of his tone. Manu doesn’t appear fazed in the least. Though, I suppose being a queen’s advisor means that he’d have to have many difficult conversations and train himself not to react. I wish I had that same perfected ability to keep my emotions and thoughts locked away from my expression.
Manu doesn’t rise to the bait. He steeples his fingers in front of him, looking back at Slade calmly. “You haven’t answered the queen’s correspondence. She’s trying to get your attention.”
“And which correspondence would that be?” Slade replies smoothly. “Would it be the demands or the threats? Because I can tell you now, I do not tolerate either.”
It’s a challenge.
A catechism.
A pointed statement to pierce Third Kingdom through.
Manu’s brow lowers. “The fact of the matter is, Your Majesty, you are harboring a traitor and a murderer.” He doesn’t look at me as he says it.
“Your claims are that Lady Auren killed King Midas,” Slade replies. “And yet, you weren’t in the room when his death claimed him.”
Manu’s gaze shifts from Slade to me and back again. “We have witnesses that state she stole his magic. It was clear to everyone in that room that the gold wasn’t in his control.”
My pulse thumps loudly in my ears.
“Again, did you see Lady Auren kill him?” Slade presses.
“Whether I did or did not is irrelevant, because it’s the entire point of the Conflux. She’s being called to Second Kingdom to stand trial, where all of the evidence and witnessed accounts will be taken into consideration,” Manu explains.
“And yet,” Isalee cuts in, “there wasn’t just one very public, very violent death of a royal—there were two that night. So what is being done about the death of Prince Niven?”
Manu turns to look at her. “The Lady Auren will also be investigated for his death.”
My eyes go wide.
A growl forges from Slade’s chest. “You know as well as I do she didn’t have anything to do with Niven. In fact, the person who truly should be questioned about the prince’s death met his own grave shortly after.”
“So you’re implying King Midas killed the prince?” Manu asks.
“Of course I am. Just as I’m implying he had a hand in King Fulke’s death as well. Yet he was never suspected for either.”
“Yes, it is quite suspicious,” Warken says.
“Which is exactly why you should bring her to the Conflux,” Manu replies. “You will be there to sit on the council and answer any insight, and we can properly question her.”
Warken arches a brow. “Surely, you don’t mean to force King Ravinger to attend the Conflux in the ruse of questioning him as well?”