“I’m really doing you a favor, Belin,” Tamin said. They stood beneath the bower. The stars were beginning to come out above them, and all the fairies were still in the dining hall except Belin, his brothers, and a shivering Violet.
“A favor?” Belin cried. “How can you possibly say you did me a favor? You just implied to the entire kingdom that I killed our father!”
“As if they aren’t already wondering,” Ilsin said. He opened a case tucked in his waistcoat and took out a cigarette.
“I keep telling you, Belin, a king can’t simply hide off in his own house and carve deer. Especially us. Father was ruthless, and you’ve got to be ruthless too, and that’s all there is to it. If you can’t stand up to me, how are you going to stand up to the half of the room who want to follow a Tanharrow?”
“That’s what she’s for!” Belin clapped Violet rather roughly on the shoulder. She jerked away and shot him a fierce look. Ilsin chuckled.
“That isn’t enough, and you know it. You know the rumors. There are more uprisings… talk of a whole network of rebels. They may have started here and there without much threat besides singing some old ballads, but look at that man Calden. He killed two of our tax collectors. Sure, the old ballads make such a deed sound heroic, but I doubt their widows think so. Father wouldn’t have tolerated that. You need to show them you won’t tolerate it either.”
“I’m supposed to drag him out here and have him killed in front of all those people after you made them think I killed Father?” Belin’s voice was quite a bit louder than Tamin’s. Any lurking spy would have had no trouble with him.
“So what if you did kill Father?” Tamin said. “Not to sully his memory, but think about the things Father himself has done. If they don’t fear you, you won’t last a day. None of us will. Ilsin and I will follow you if you show us it’s worth our while, all right? But we’re not going to let them get rid of us and put this imp on the throne.” He gave Violet the briefest condescending look.
Ifra dreamed of strangling Tamin. Belin could say the word, and Ifra could wipe that smug expression off his face in a moment.
Violet’s bottom lip was trembling.
“Oh, don’t take it personally,” Tamin said. “It’s just politics, you know.”
“I’m not marrying Belin!” Violet burst out. “I don’t want anything to do with any of you! I don’t care if every fairy in the world rots! I just want to go home!”
“Shh!” Belin jostled her again, cowing her into silence. There were three men, so much older than her, none of them sympathetic. And silent Ifra. He couldn’t even let them see that he cared for her. He just had to look to the distance, a silent bodyguard.
“All right,” Belin said. “Bring Calden. My jinn will kill him.”
Ifra’s fingers coiled into fists. It was all he could do not to show further reaction.
“But if I hear even a whiff of betrayal from you again, my jinn will kill you next.”
Tamin actually grinned at this. “That’s exactly what I want to see.” He turned to go, while Ilsin lingered, but Belin shooed them both away.
Violet started crying, but Belin didn’t pay her any regard. He watched his brothers walk away. Tamin left through the side of the garden, while Ilsin strolled slowly, smoking his cigarette, glancing back a few times as if to make sure Belin wasn’t going to change his mind. Time seemed to crawl, so slowly, and Ifra forced his mind blank. He would not think about killing a man in front of hundreds of eyes. In front of Violet.
The door shut behind Ilsin.
Belin was pacing the garden path, but now he turned to look at Ifra. “I thought this was what I wanted,” he said. “To be king. How grand it sounds. A chance to make everything right. But I can’t, can I? It doesn’t matter what my father did right. My brothers and I can never be good kings because of what he did wrong.”
Master, Ifra mouthed, a silent plea. Did Belin finally understand?
“Erris?” Violet whispered, looking between them. “Are you talking about Uncle Erris?”
“Yes,” Belin said. “Father wanted me to kill Erris after I married you, and… Tamin doesn’t believe I’m ruthless enough to do it. Well.” He looked to the door of the Hall of Oak and Ash. “He’s right.”