Chapter 9 #2
My parents hadn’t told me. I’d been scraping coins together, working day and night, like it was all on me. My throat felt tight. The part of me that felt betrayed warred with the part that understood and accepted their deception.
My parents hadn’t told me about my sister’s troubles because I’d only worry. I’d only push harder than I already was and wear myself down even more, to make more money.
“Okay…” I said slowly. “But you still haven’t told me whether I have a choice.”
He looked at me without blinking, and there was another layer underneath his cold stare. One that told me that if I failed at this impossible task, I wouldn’t be the only one to suffer.
So that was my answer. Finally, I was on familiar ground with the Assembly.
“You expect me to do what your best diplomats failed at? Is that all?” I already felt the rope tightening around my neck.
“No,” he said, and there was something quieter in his voice now. “You have more flexibility in the other matter. But we would…greatly appreciate it, in a monetary sense, if you returned home pregnant.”
I stood up so fast the chair scraped on the stone floor with a horrible screeching sound. “What?”
The chancellor’s hands moved in a soothing gesture. “It would be acceptable if you became a long-term mistress,” he said softly. “But our expectations are not that high. You’re beautiful, untouched, as far as we know, and unwed. Magical inheritance doesn’t care about stations.”
I couldn’t believe he would mention my virginity so casually.
Sex wasn’t something that the peasantry hid, but the upper classes acted like it was a secret that only happened in the marriage bed after legal contracts were signed.
I didn’t regret my innocence, but I also wasn’t guarding it like some sacred treasure people seemed to think it was.
I simply hadn’t found the right person to share that part of myself with yet.
But I shouldn’t have been surprised. To the chancellor, my body was nothing but an item in a ledger. “Why me?”
“Your mother produced seven healthy children with a mundane. Six are gifted. The seventh… We’re optimistic. Your sisters are also prolific breeders.”
“You’re comparing my mother and sisters to broodmares.” I barely controlled my tone. “And hoping to make me one.”
“Yes.” He didn’t flinch. “But if you do this, your mother will be a well-fed broodmare. Your father, a comfortable cripple. Tegil would receive schooling.”
I clenched my fists. I’d had only one year of proper magical training before too many siblings to care for had pulled me away. Now the Assembly dangled a better future for my baby brother like a carrot.
I was too angry for my voice to crack. It came out as steel. “Would I even get to be this child’s mother?”
“Yes. But the child must be raised within the fortress, under our tutelage. That is non-negotiable. You will live here and continue to work for us.”
Another pair of shackles clamped around my ankles.
I didn’t need to ask why they wanted me to bring home a child.
If the stories were true, magic had dimmed all across the world.
When Avanfell’s empire still stood two hundred years before, mages had controlled our island, Wynth, and the mainland for over a thousand years.
Back then, a mage could be touched by the powers of the gods.
That was why the Assembly was so insular, and why my family was rejected by them. They wanted their magic to breed true.
He went on, voice dripping with some slimy sort of satisfaction I couldn’t quite decipher without being able to read him. “There’s good reason to think at least one brother, maybe both, would be interested in bedding you.”
A thought struck me. “Do the princes know of your plan for their bastard?”
“No.”
I clung to that single word like it might save me from drowning in all the others. At least they hadn’t signed up for a mail-order womb.
I slowly sat down again, stuck somewhere between bursting into a ball of rage and overwhelming numbness at how powerless I felt. “How will I pass as a diplomat? I’m a peasant.” I’d use any argument I could to get me out of this.
Warmth reappeared in the chancellor’s smile, though now I could see it was manufactured instead of true geniality. “We’ll sell you as a high lady to the world. You already comport yourself like one.”
I raised one eyebrow. “Is that an insult or a compliment, Lord Chancellor?”
“Both.” He chuckled. “I can already tell you’ll be perfect, Mage, excuse me… Lady Isca.”
With a flick of his fingers, the small box on his desk snapped open. From it, he pulled a pouch of coins and placed it before me. “One for every month until we receive word of a single ruler on the throne. It will be larger if it’s a boy… You have six months.”
I stared at the bag. Then at him. Then back again.
“What happens if neither of those outcomes happen on time?” I asked.
His smile grew fangs again. But he didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. They’d kill me.
Ultimately, my hesitations and worries were irrelevant. I didn’t have a choice. I leaned over and grabbed the pouch, holding his gaze.
This was my family’s way out of poverty. The weight of the pouch I held in my hands was unmistakable. Even if it only held coppers, it was more than triple what we currently brought in from the market stall each month.
My secret was out. I had a new life.
As I pocketed the purse, I felt the faintest echo of Maeron’s satisfaction—utterly certain he’d won.
Yet now that I’d seen the first crack in his protections, something told me there might be more signs of weakness to come if I kept looking for opportunities.
I just had to last long enough to find them.
Even as I told myself this, the gods’ laughter echoed in my mind once more. My body, my future, had been stolen before I’d even stepped through the gates.