The Rogue Guardian

Chapter 73: The Council Meeting

Magali gave herself a blank-faced look over in the mirror as she pulled her hair back. A little too pale beneath her freckles, perhaps, but her expression was steady, almost bored. Good.

No one would know she was furious.

"Your Highness, the meeting begins in five minutes," Vain called through the door.

"Yes, thank you." She heard his footsteps moved away, and returned her gaze to the mirror. Three months ago she would barely have recognized this face. Blank, resolute. Where were the nervous half-glances and trembling lips? Transformed into stone. It was a process that had started when she finally dared to ask for combat lessons, and then begun in earnest when Morane began talking to her.

And where will it end? She asked herself.

On the throne. It would end when she was queen.

"Princess?"

That was Abram, his voice softer than usual. As the White Knight, he would have already heard the news that had sent her into a rage just a few hours before. No doubt he was rather shaken. She went to the door and let him in.

"There you are." He looked concerned.

"Where else would I be? There's a council meeting to prepare for." She straightened her cloak, letting the deep green folds fall neatly over her shoulders.

She had begun to dress closer to how her father's advisors did, in royal green and styles that were, if not simpler, then more austere. If she wasn't mistaken, her new choices of rich fabrics with far less frivolous decoration were beginning to be copied by the rest of the castle. It was only a small show of influence, but she thought Caer would have been delighted by it.

Her fingers twitched as she thought of Caer, but she resisted the urge to clench her fists in her skirts, to reveal how anxious she was. She had gotten better at self-control. Just not good enough to fool Abram.

He eyed the slight tremor in her hands. "I came to see if you wanted to talk about anything before the meeting."

To see if she wanted to talk? Or to get something off his chest? "Everything I have to say will be said in front of the advisors."

"Really? Everything? Like how Blaisze is a two-faced piece-of-crap bastard with snotty fashion choices?"

She gave herself a moment to react internally, to wonder how he knew she's said that. Then she gave her skirt an indifferent brush, as if there was any dust there to brush away, to avoid his eyes. "I could have Vain released from the guard for eavesdropping on me and reporting to you."

He smiled thinly. "Yes, I believe you could. If you have nothing to say to me, then, I will meet you in the hall." He left.

She pursed her lips at her reflection, then muttered, "He is a two-faced piece-of-crap bastard with snotty fashion choices. I stand by that."

Vain chuckled in the doorway, but she knew he wouldn't be laughing if he knew who it was he had heard her insulting. A lot of people in the castle would be very shaken once the news spread. "Are we going, then?" He asked.

"In one moment." She took the black enameled comb from the vanity and fixed it into her hair twist. "Vain?"

"Yes, Your Highness?"

"I will have you released if you eavesdrop again."

He went pale. "I—"

"From now on if Abram asks you something about me that I did not tell you openly and clearly myself, you will lie. I will have my privacy. If it is inevitable that you must accidentally overstep sometimes, you will at least do me the courtesy of not bringing half the castle with you." She felt her voice trailing off slightly at the end, and berated herself for it. She was the princess; she could certainly order her guards not to inform on her like common criminals. Vain's first loyalty was to her, not Abram (and now, certainly, no longer to Joshua). However hurt he or Abram might be at this, neither had the right to complain.