Shatter Like Glass-Cinderella Retold

Part Fourteen

Hearing the sound of approaching footsteps, Peder of Viridian looked up in time to see a servant woman reach him. She kept her head down.

"His majesty is ready to see you now," she said.

He straightened his back, nodded at her, and entered his uncle's bedchamber.

Emperor Ignus was once a man to be feared. In the past nine months, however, his health had declined steadily. His hair had grown thinner and thinner until he was nearly bald. The emperor's eyes were so sunken in Peder was slightly surprised they could be seen at all. The man wore thin nightclothes and slumped dejectedly against his elaborate headboard.

"My emperor," Peder said as way of a greeting. The man did not move. His chest was still rising and falling, so Peder knew he was not dead. Too weak to reply, perhaps.

"He is almost gone," a female voice stated.

The voice was what Peder imagined a cat's would sound like, or a snake's. Nevae rose from the chair near her father's bedside and slinked over to him. The black veil she had worn since her cousin and fiancé Emlen's murder partially concealed her face. She was no widow, but people were less likely to suspect her if she acted like one.

"Truly?" Peder asked, looking at the emperor instead of his cousin. She peered down at her father.

"If he were well, he would surely be cursing at you," she replied.

"Perhaps."

Her lips pursing into a rather sneaky smile, she said, "I know so." She wrapped herself around the bedpost. "I also know our uncle is to be emperor."

"Valin will make a fine leader," Peder told her. The people were not so convinced, and they made no effort to hide their disdain for the leading candidate. Once a Fairy kisser, always a Fairy kisser.

Nevae actually laughed. It was not an entirely unpleasant sound. Still, it sent a shiver up Peder's spine. He first heard it after she promised her baby brother would no longer be a nuisance in the household.

The child died in his sleep that night.

An accident, people said, but royalty never died by accident. Not in Viridian.

Tilting her head slightly, Nevae said, "The people hate him. We shall be gods blessed if we do not have an uprising the very day of his coronation. It took us years to conquer the Jaydians. We'll lose them in a morning."

"Valin is a good man," Peder insisted. Another laugh, another shudder.

She was still smiling as she replied, "When has that ever been a help here?"

The answer was never. They both knew so. Most emperors were brutal murderers, but the people adored them. Associate with a Fairy, even supposedly, and it would haunt you to your grave. Gods forbid they ever learned of who and what Peder really was.

Then there truly would be a rebellion. The thought of a half-Fairy in royal household . . . he would be burned for certain.

His cousin continued, "Valin has a reputation. Whether or not he truly took a Fairy as lover, the people loathe him for more than just the rumor." She tilted her head back. "The rumor is just the sauce on the meat."

"What do you suggest?" Peder asked, knowing he would regret it. From a young age, he learned that when Nevae singled you out and described a problem, her solution usually involved someone dying. He would not participate in the murder of his uncle, but if he knew for certain she intended to assassinate him, he could give proper warning.

"Do not make that face," she said. "Valin will live . . . this time. I merely think the people would appreciate another candidate on the table."

"Faban already declined," Peder reminded her. "He is the last person who could inherit the throne. All other possible heirs are not of age."