Desideria stood quickly, but not before she caught a wink from the prince.
Oh what a moron. Had he no idea what he’d just done? Stupid fool. Her mother wouldn’t rest until she had him in chains. In the end, it would be her mother laughing, not him.
Once the room was cleared of the Qills, every eye turned on Caillen who suddenly felt like he’d sprouted a second head.
The Gondarion governor curled his lip. “Sarra will want all of our lives after this. None of us are safe. Why couldn’t you keep your mouth shut? Better the Trimutians than us.”
“What have you done?”
“You idiot! How could you do this?”
“Damn it, Evzen, did you have to bring him here?”
Flabbergasted by their assault, Caillen couldn’t hear the rest of the attacks because they all melded together into a cacophonous amalgamation of insults. But it was the disappointed look on his father’s face that cut him. His father looked ashamed.
And that set his temper on fire.
That’s it. He’d had enough. No more of this shit. How dare they attack him, a lying, smuggling thief, for having morals. They were supposed to be the ones who kept the laws. The hypocrisy made him sick.
Rising to his feet, he flung his robes to the ground and glared at them. “Shame on you. All of you. I have met some of the lowest life forms in the universe. Beings who would sell their own mothers and children for the right price. And to say that I’d rather swap watered-down drinks with them in the back dive of hell than sit here and listen to you whine about the fact that you’re all willing to throw an entire system into war because you’re all afraid to stand up to one queen from one tiny empire. What kind of cowards are you? If this is your idea of diplomacy, then why have you bothered to sign League treaties? Why not just let the governments go back to the free-for-all they were before the League took power? No wonder the League runs over all of you.” He raked them with his own disdainful sneer. “This isn’t civilized. It’s selfish and it should be criminal. And with all due offense, I’d rather hang with the criminals than any of you. At least they have a moral code, fucked up though it is.”
Disgusted, he stormed from the room and left them there to condemn him for it.
If he was going to be judged, it would be for who he was. Not who he was trying to be. And if the Qill queen wanted his head. Let her take a number.
In the meantime, he had places to go, a life to live and a universe to set on fire…
9
Desideria watched as the Slexan governor bowed low before her mother. For the last half an hour, he’d apologized profusely for Prince Caillen’s actions and had assured her mother that the rest of them did not support the prince’s position.
Bloody cowards. She had no respect for them. At least Caillen had spoken his mind and the fact that he stood alone made him even more heroic in her eyes.
The governor had also promised her mother that the prince would be adequately punished for insulting her.
I’d pay money to see that. Prince Caillen didn’t seem like the kind of man to bow down before anyone. Never mind coming here to apologize in person like her mother demanded.
It should be entertaining.
After the governor left, her mother rose from her desk to stare angrily at them. She was still seething over her public set down and had ranted nonstop since their return to her office suite. “I’d leave this place, but I refuse to give that bastard the satisfaction of thinking he was the cause of it. I will remain if for no other reason than to be a thorn in his ass.” But it was obvious that staying here was the last thing her mother wanted to do. Not that she blamed her.
She didn’t want to be here either and a small part of herself that she didn’t want to acknowledge had enjoyed seeing her mother receive a little bit of what her mother been shoveling at her for years.
Go, Caillen, go.
The door opened to admit Pleba back into the room. She’d left right before the governor had shown up to attend some mysterious errand her mother had sent her on.
Pleba bowed low before she spoke words that shredded Desideria’s entire world. “As per your orders, I’ve sent for Desideria’s replacement, My Quen. Burna will arrive within the next four hours to relieve her of her post.”
Desideria pretended not to hear the words that stung so deeply they might as well be hitting her soul. Worse were the smug and snide looks the others turned in her direction. They were thrilled to see her sent home in disgrace. I should have stayed in my room. But she’d thought to prove herself by rejoining them for the earlier meeting and taking her post here.
Big mistake.
Obviously her mother had already made the decision to relieve her.
Fine. No doubt her mother would demote her back to child status as soon as they reached home. And for what? Trying to protect her? Yeah, that did make her feel a childish urge to scream out that it was unfair.