“That little girl,” Mahl says, shaking his head as he stares after his son and grandchildren in a pleased, paternal sort of way. “We’ll have to get her a little crown made, right away.”
“What?” I ask, laughing and looking after Vivi. “Why?”
“Can you not see it?” he asks, turning to me with a smile. “She is already a tiny Queen.”
I laugh at this, pleased and thinking privately that Mahl doesn’t know the half of it. “Don’t you think it will go to her head?” I ask. “To be given a crown? She will begin to think herself your equal, perhaps try to run the kingdom if you’re not careful.”
Mahl laughs at this as well, shaking his head. “It will make me laugh,” he says with a shrug. “Which, I think, is the point of grandchildren.”
I smile, leaning back against the velvet of my throne and taking
