I was Lucan, and the dinner after the selection was the same dinner I had eaten a hundred times.
Candles. Wine. A hundred perfect smiles pointed at my face.
Vessa: Sit straight. And smile.
The noble daughters laughed at my mother's jokes before she finished them.
That was the trick of this court. Charm first. Contempt later, and always politely.
Oriane: Your Highness must be so tired of choosing.
Lucan: You have no idea.
Oriane smiled like I had paid her a compliment. That was how it went.
Every word I said turned into sugar in their mouths.
Then my mother raised her cup, and the whole hall leaned in.
Vessa: The crown and the dragons are one blood. My line bonded the first of them.
Vessa: We gave the beasts their names, their law, their keep.
The hall nodded. Nobles always nod at history that flatters them.
Then a flat voice came from the far end of the table.
Tansy: That is not what the pit records say.
The whole table turned. Gray wool at a table of silk.
My mother's cup stopped halfway to her mouth.
Vessa: The pit records.
Tansy: The dragons named themselves. The crown wrote it down later and called it a gift.
Tansy: The oldest bond mark in the ledger has no crown beside it. Only a hand.
Somebody dropped a spoon. Nobody moved to pick it up.
My mother's face did not change. That was how you knew it was bad.
Vessa: You read ledgers now, girl of Briar?
Tansy: I read. It passes the time between kneelings.
She said it with a straight face. The woman was not afraid of anything.
That was making me feel things I did not want to feel.
I should have stayed quiet. I had been trained to stay quiet.
But a laugh got out of me. One short, ugly sound, before I could stop it.
Lucan: Sorry. The wine.
The lie was thin and everyone knew it.
My mother's eyes came to me and stayed there, and my jaw went tight.
Vessa: My son finds our history funny.
Lucan: My son finds the wine strong, Mother.
Her smile came back, slow and sharp, like a blade being set down.
Vessa: Then perhaps the girl of Briar should teach us all. Since she is so learned.
Under the table I looked down the long board at Tansy.
She looked back. No smile. No fear. Just a cool, flat challenge.
Lucan: You just made an enemy of the crown.
Tansy: She made an enemy of a story. There is a difference.
Lucan: Not to her.
Tansy: Then she should tell better stories.
I laughed again. This time I did not stop it, and I hated how easy it came.
She turned back to her plate like I was not worth the rest of her evening.
That bothered me more than it should have.
Around us the court smiled and drank and slid their knives back into their sleeves.
I told myself it was only a laugh. Nothing more than that.
But I kept looking down the table for the rest of the night.