The False Prince: Chapters 38–54

"You are a thorough record keeper. More fit to be a king's scribe than a king, I think.”

Obviously, he didn’t think my impending death was very funny.

"Have you waited for this moment since we met? To force me into a situation where I must give in to your whims or else see everything I've worked for all this time go to waste?"

"Hail His Majesty, the scourge of my life,” Conner said to Roden and Tobias as he stomped up the stairs. "I fear the devils no longer, because I have the worst of them right here in my home!”

After another pause, he added, "What kind of king will you be, Sage? Tyrannical and fierce, like Veldergrath would be? Complacent and indifferent, like your father?”

Erin never had felt comfortable as queen of Carthya. It required her to hide much of her true spirit and zest for adventure.

As Jaron grew, Eckbert became increasingly angry and embarrassed by his son's antics. Instead of compressing himself into a model royal, as his father wished, Jaron rebelled further.

Heights never bothered Jaron, not even after the time he fell more than ten feet from a tower and had his life saved by an acroterion at the edge of the gable.

The regents were in an uproar, threatening to depose Eckbert if he didn't push their enemies back.

It would give him an excellent education and teach him proper decorum for a prince.

Jaron recognized his father immediately, despite his extravagant attempts at disguise.

Conner's regimen of lessons in the past week actually had been helpful.

According to him, I had seen their ship approaching and escaped in a rescue boat moored to the ship.

"There's more than enough for both of us.” She mouthed the word no to me, but I pretended not to see it and with my spoon dished her out a sizable portion, which I set on the plate where the bread had been.

Bile rose in my throat every time I thought of his cursed words.

I unfolded the papers and an inadvertent gasp escaped me.

It was a circlet of gold, with rubies set at the base of every arch, and was trimmed in braided gold bands. The crown had been made for me to grow into, so I suspected it would fit better now than it used to.

I argued that Tobias, Roden, and Imogen should come with us, but Conner expressly forbade it.

It was built of the large granite blocks from the mountains of Mendenwal and used the round, heavily decorated turrets of Bymar rather than the plain and square turrets common elsewhere.

Conner smiled, impressed with what he thought was my ingenuity.

If you concede that I win and give me that crown, then you and the others may go in peace.

Above us, we could hear the faint tolling of bells.

Because if civil war broke out amongst the different factions vying for the throne, Carthya's enemies would use the opportunity to advance on the country and destroy it.

Because if civil war broke out amongst the different factions vying for the throne, Carthya's enemies would use the opportunity to advance on the country and destroy it.

This was a vain and largely useless group, few who had ever worked a real day in their lives. Even if they knew of the risk and expense Conner had undergone to bring a prince to the throne, they would never appreciate the valiancy of his efforts.

Conner's words were smug and tilted toward the self-righteous.

I stood on the dais at the head of the room, the platform reserved for royalty or the courtiers required near them in this formal setting.

Kerwyn faltered a moment, then recovered.

Anyone who wished to venture high onto the ledges of Farthenwood would have found it.

"He sees nothing but a fraud, and so do I,” Veldergrath said from behind me. "This is clearly an impostor.”

"Talk with whom? A brazen servant, a ragged orphan, or a prince?”

"This is a prince's crown. A new one will be commissioned for you immediately, but it will do for now.”

“Be a better king than your father was," Conner said softly. “You come to the throne at a time of great upheaval.”
“There is always upheaval,” I said. “Only the reasons for the troubles change.”

"You are still young, Jaron. Perhaps a steward would be appropriate—”
"I'm king now. No one else.”

Her father is dead, but using my power as king, I posthumously declare him a nobleman of Carthya. She is a nobleman's daughter and will be treated as such.