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.He would have heard of her and, like so many others, wondered just what she’d done to defeat Shadye without embracing necromancy herself.She felt his magic field touching hers lightly and stiffened, unsure of quite what he was trying to do.Read her mind? She tightened her defenses anyway, deliberately looking back at the King.After a moment, the intrusion faded away and disappeared.“And so you are welcome,” King Jorlem concluded.He glanced briefly at Emily, a flash of curiosity in his eyes.“You may rise.”Emily stood up.“We shall now proceed to the Great Hall for the welcome feast,” the king added.His face twisted into a grin.“We shall show you proper hospitality.”He stood up and took Alassa’s hand, as if he were her true father.Emily watched as he led her towards another set of doors, then started to follow them.The rest of the court followed in their wake.Chapter NineTHE PROTOCOL OFFICERS DIDN’T SEEM TO know what to make of Emily.On one hand, the official story explaining her origins placed her firmly in the servant class, suggesting that she should be eating with the other servants in the kitchen, at least until she was a qualified sorcerer.On the other hand, the widely-held belief that she was Void’s bastard daughter meant they risked offending an extremely powerful sorcerer by giving her less than full honors.And she was not only Alassa’s close personal friend–and quite wealthy in her own right - but she was also the student who had defeated a necromancer in a duel.Who knew what she would be capable of when she grew up?In the end, they’d put her at the high table, sitting next to the Crown Prince.Lady Barb and Nightingale had been given seats at a lower table; Lady Barb didn’t seem to mind, but Nightingale looked furious.He’d been effectively demoted by King Jorlem, Emily realized, after some thought.Seating was based on social class and the mere presence of a handful of guests upset all of the arrangements.It struck Emily as rather silly, although she had a feeling that it served a useful purpose.She just didn’t know what it could be.“I often thought that I would like to go to Whitehall,” Crown Prince Dater said.He seemed less inclined to take protocol seriously than the junior aristocrats; besides, he could talk to Emily without committing himself to anything.“But I had to stay home and learn how to rule.”Emily found herself liking the Crown Prince, even though she had the feeling that he was a skilled dissembler.The Allied Lands had quite a few cases of young heirs deciding that it was time to take the throne by assassinating their fathers–and, for that matter, fathers killing sons because they feared their ambitions.All of them were partly covered up in the official records, although the History Monks had recorded the truth.No wonder their books were banned in most of the kingdoms.“It was Hedrick who had the magical inclination,” Dater added, a moment later.“And he is courting your princess.”Emily glanced over at where Alassa was sitting, between King Jorlem and Prince Hedrick.Hedrick was handsome enough, in a bland sort of way, but the bored expression on his face didn’t bode well for any future romance.He could at least pretend to be interested in Alassa.His father, on the other hand, was bombarding her with questions, some of them clearly about Emily.Alassa didn’t seem to be uncomfortable talking about her friend.It probably served as a distraction from having to talk about herself.Hedrick had magic? Emily hadn’t sensed anything from him, but then he might not be powerful enough for it to register–or powerful and disciplined enough to conceal his power.He didn’t seem to be carrying a wand, a sure sign of poorly-developed talent, but he was wearing a sword…though that might have been protocol.Apart from King Jorlem and his children, none of the aristocrats carried weapons.The king could have ordered them all cut down in a moment.She glanced at some of the aristocrats, noting that some of them were staring at her, probably wondering just what made her so special.How many of them had magic? Some noble bloodlines worked hard to develop their magical talents, even to the point of inviting commoners like Imaiqah–and Emily herself, she acknowledged with an internal scowl–to contribute genes.Others were horrified at the mere thought of sullying their bloodlines with commoner blood
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