“Truth”
The chancellor whispered to King Ajali and he nodded. She braced herself for the question.
“How many times have you lain with your lover?”
She blinked in bemusement. Heat flared across her cheeks. “I am not sure,” she said in a strangled voice.
“Untruth” the Serangite said flatly.
A throb started in her head.
“I am unsure as to how the amount of times is relevant,” her queen snapped leaning forward in her seat to glare at King Ajali’s high chancellor.
Saieke flashed her grateful look.
“It is necessary as my king is trying to determine if the princess is still suitable,” he said flatly.
Saieke trembled. “Dozens of times,” she said in a hoarse voice. “It is hard for me to keep track.”
“Truth”
There was a pause as the king and his chancellor conferred once more.
“You have claimed that you could not find a way to inform your king when he came back as it was distressing for you, we accept that. King Ajali is willing to overlook such a flaw of an impure bride. It is the purview of any princess to take a consort, and as such, we cannot hold you ill-accountable for it. Would you have any objections to proceeding with the ceremony, Princess? We have none.” The high chancellor voice rang true and resounded in the silence of the council room.
Cold fear sliced through her veins, wicked in its intensity. The king wanted her kingdom’s land and elixir enough to go against edicts and marry an impure princess. She could not. The trap tightened around her. “I do object.”
“Truth”
“On what grounds, Princess?”
She took a deep breath. “I love him, and I may carry his babe.”
There was an eruption of disbelief that swept through the chamber.
“Are you with child?”
“It is too soon to tell.”
“Truth.”
“We misunderstood you, Princess. You have been aware of your blood-oath to Nuria for two months now, is that not so?” the high chancellor of Boreas demanded.
“Yes.”
“Truth.” the Serangite drawled.
“Yet for you to suggest that you may be with babe would imply that you have lain with your consort recently. After you were made aware of the blood-oath by your king?” Azul demanded incredulity ringing in his voice.
She hesitated for an infinite amount of time. “Yes,” she whispered.
“Truth.”
Tears welled in her eyes when she saw the tracks that ran down her mother’s face. Saieke could not hope to lie with a Serangite examining her brain patterns with her psychic eye. She thought that she would have been examined by a healer and she could bend the timeline all she could, and said her lover had been prior to her kingdom’s pledge. The punishment to take a consort after one has been blood-oathed would be severe, if not death. She knew it would be death for the lover.
You are distressed an insidious whisper against her mind.
No, I am well. She wrenched her mind firmly away from the caress. She did not want Drac privy to what was happening. Saieke had never intended for her deception to come to light. She would be punished most severely under the laws of her kingdom.