Chapter 44

The queen was seated on her throne, impeccably dressed as always, not a hair out of place, and her crown was perfectly situated on her head. The rest of the council also appeared as if they’d been up for hours. Kit approached the throne slowly, with her head held high, as Eli had suggested, and she tried not to be in a rush or seem upset at all by the information she’d discerned earlier. The fact that Armant, the royal physician, stood across the room, in front of the council members’ thrones alerted her that whatever was wrong, it was serious, and Kit did her best to keep her breathing even.

She bowed and went through the process of greeting her mother, trying not to hurry through it to get on with the matter at hand. When she stood, she kept her shoulders back and her chin up, determined to keep her head on straight no matter what she was about to hear.

“Katrinetta, thank you for joining us. Finally,” her mother chided, rolling her tongue around in her mouth as if she was trying her best to keep from saying something rude. “I’m afraid I have some troubling information for you. I wanted you to be aware as soon as possible so that it can be handled, and we can move on with your Choosing without any more disgraceful behavior, I hope.”

Kit looked from her mother to her grandmother before her eyes flickered past her aunt and the other council members. None of them met her gaze. She didn’t dare look at Armant. “Yes, mother. What is it?”

“I will let Armant explain to you what he discovered this morning when your Representatives came in for their wellness examinations. Physician?” She turned her steely gaze on the dark haired man across the room, and Kit shifted as well, holding her breath.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” He cleared his throat. “My Princess, as you know, I examined each of the Representatives when they arrived at the castle. I took some specimen samples at the time—some fluid samples, that is—and I’ve been keeping an eye on them ever since. Some of them have had more time than others to react to… conditions.” Kit wasn’t quite sure she followed, but she trusted him, so she nodded. “One of them seemed peculiar to me, so I did some further testing on the specimen throughout the past few days. I had my suspicions already based on that sample, but when the Representative in question returned to my lab today, there was physical evidence that something was amiss.”

Kit turned and looked back at her mother. “Who is it?” she asked, though she knew the answer already thanks to the weeping woman in the hallway. “And what is the problem?”

Her mother looked at the physician for a moment, as if she might order him to disclose more. Instead, she sighed and told her daughter herself. “Jecobian Noblewood, Katrinetta. It was his specimen that the physician noted had abnormalities.”

Despite her suspicions, hearing Jecob’s name made her gasp. Kit reminded herself that she needed to stay calm. “And what is this affliction?”

The queen nodded in the direction of the physician to answer that, and Kit turned to look at him. It took him a moment. When he spoke, he stuttered out the first few syllables before managing to say, “Your Highness, there were visible, open sores. It’s… tingo disease.”

Hardly able to believe her ears, Kit rounded back on her mother. “Tingo?” she repeated. “For certain?”

Armant spoke up then. “Princess, if I may?” She turned back to face him. “I have seen dozens of cases of tingo in my time, particularly when I served as physician for the army. I am quite certain what Jecobian has is tingo. And… while it is in the beginning stages, as you know, it is highly contagious. I fear, Your Majesty, that if you would’ve come into contact with it—”

“You most certainly would’ve become infected,” the queen finished, and Kit turned back around to face her.

Thoughts of kissing Jecobian in the garden and then again in her own chambers came back to her. He’d pressed her to do more, but she’d abstained, knowing her mother was a stickler for the rules, especially when it came to the Choosing. She also knew what the prescribed punishment for entering the Choosing while infected with a venereal disease was, and she had no doubt in her mind what it was her mother would declare for his punishment before the queen continued, and Kit braced herself for what she would say next.

“Tomorrow morning, Jecobian of the Noblewood family, Representative from Eastbury will be punished for his crimes. And as you know, the punishment for a crime of this nature is death by beheading.”

Kit felt as if her heart had been snatched from her chest and dashed to a million pieces. Regardless of Jecob’s brash comments, the way he seemed to feel entitled, and the fact that he was certain he would end up the winner of what he obviously thought of as a contest, she had felt a true connection to him. He’d been the one to seek her out, to let her know he cared for her, and the thought of standing on the dais in the morning, watching him lose his head made her want to burst into tears.

Eli’s words rang in her mind, and she looked her mother in the eye, realizing that crying would do neither of them any good. If she was to spare Jecobian his life, she’d have to think of another tactic. “Your Majesty--Mother,” she began, trying to think on her feet as quickly as she could. She’d studied the laws surrounding the Choosing years ago, back before she even started her Exploration, and had only recently had a small refresher on them, nothing that went into detail. Still, something stuck out to her. “Doesn’t the law provide for an alternative punishment in cases such as this where the offender acted out of negligence and not malice?”

“What is that?” the queen asked, her eyes narrowing.

“If I may, Your Majesty, I think that Jecobian was likely ignorant of his diagnosis. I believe the law is there to protect a noblewoman from becoming infected by someone who is aware that he is carrying a disease. But in this case, Jecobian didn’t know he had tingo, did he, Armant?”

“How would the physician know what the man was aware of?” the queen asked before Armant could speak.

Kit turned to Armant anyway. “When you told him, was he surprised? Could you tell?”

“My Queen, if I may?” the physician asked, and her mother nodded permission. “In my professional opinion, Jecobian was quite surprised when I told him what the situation was. He said he believed he’d simply developed a rash from the slingball game he participated in yesterday. He said he had no other symptoms. I won’t go into detail about what those may be, but, no I do not believe he was aware.”

“Thank you, Armant.” Kit turned back to her mother. “Your Majesty, considering the circumstances, I request that you reconsider such a harsh punishment. There must be something else. Banishment, perhaps? Imprisonment? Certainly not being allowed to participate in the Choosing will devastate him. It is my understanding that you are rather fond of his grandmother and that you were quite pleased to find that Jecobian had been named the Representative from Eastbury. Isn’t that so?”

“Who told you that?” the queen asked, though her tone was more inquisitive than accusatory.

“Jecobian told me himself. Surely, there is something else that can be done.” She looked to the council then, but her mother did not. The queen did, however, seem to consider her daughter’s plea.

The queen was quiet for several minutes while Kit held her position, chin up, shoulders back, heart beating out of her chest, breathing raspy and ragged but disguised. After what seemed like an eternity, Rona said, “Very well. I shall consider it. I will let you pose it to the people.”