The Fae King's Ruin

The King and Chickens

“So,” Dore purred, grinning at Aislin. “What have you been up to with the King of All Our Asses since you came here?” She pointed a long-nailed, manicured finger at her. “And do not bother lying. I am not blind— I have seen what’s going on between the two of you, no matter how brief. Now, spill.”

 “Dore!” Aislin hissed, blushing in mortification as she quickly looked around for anyone who might have heard her friend’s ridiculousness. 

She finally had some time alone with some of the people she invited from home after the exhausting circuit around the room. Avery had excused himself promptly after and told her to spend time with her friends, and since neither Res nor her cousin had anything left for her to do at the moment, she giddily went over to their small cluster by the enormous cake that the palace chefs had made.

The six-tiered monstrosity of vanilla chiffon and strawberry frosting towered over their group, garnering looks almost as much as they did. She couldn’t blame some of the Seelie faes for eyeing them sideways. This was, after all, the first-ever official event that had both courts in one single room. The whole situation felt like a ticking time bomb, but Aislin still held out hope that everything would turn out fine.

Judging by the looks on her friends’ faces, however, it was starting to go downhill fast.

Salema, one of the friends she’d acquired through being in the same etiquette class, flipped her hair back over her shoulder with a delicate sniff. “Honestly,” she muttered quietly so only they would hear. “You would think that none of them had ever seen an Unseelie before.”

Haaj, her brother and Aislin’s childhood crush, frowned at her at the top of his drink. “Sal, you promised to be on your best behavior.”

“And I am,” she insisted, before turning her sharp, greenish-brown eyes to Aislin. “Never mind Dore’s question about your relationship with the King. Are you being treated well here?”

All of their eyes swiveled to her. Her own widened in surprise. “I am,” she promised. “Well, I mostly keep to myself since I’m busy all of the time, but my maids—”

Dore rolled her eyes. “Let me guess: the only people you’ve actually befriended are the people required to attend to you. Have you ever even met the members of your fiancé’s court?”

Aislin sucked on her bottom lip. It would probably not be a good idea to tell them all about Countess Edith and her gossipy days, especially when she had just spotted her trying to flirt with Res a mere hop and a skip away from where they were, but what would she share aside from her interaction with her? Until extremely recently, she hadn’t really socialized as much as she originally planned to.

She explained it to her friends rather sheepishly, but the alarmed stares they gave her made her pause. Dorea held her hand. “No one had come clamoring to meet with you?” she asked, voice dropping to a whisper.

Clamoring? Really? “No, and I never expected them to,” Aislin said, blinking in surprise.

Salema shook her head of pin-straight black hair. “You’re going to be their queen. People should be lining up to meet with you.”

“Maybe it’s not just their culture.”

Haaj gave her a look, his dark, heavy brows pulling together in obvious disapproval at her naïvety. “Aislin, no matter the culture, power matters. And you are set to hold the highest female position in both courts.”

His sister nodded in support. “Clairybell has already been talking of applying to be your lady-in-waiting. She says her brother was going to get her in with General Aelthrys and that it was already a done deal.”

Aislin’s usually moderate face wrinkled in distaste. “I have not forgotten Clairybell’s insulting comment during my last birthday party. I already told Aelthrys I don’t have a need for a lady-in-waiting, and even if I did, she would definitely not be a shoo-in.”

Dore smirked at her. “Expect food poisoning when you come home, by the way. She is absolutely livid that you didn’t invite her to your engagement party.”

“Speaking of home,” Salema said. “Where will your official residence be?”

“Well, we haven’t quite really decided. But we did agree that we would divide our time equally between courts.” Aislin took Salema’s and Dore’s hands. “I’m really happy you three made it, and for retrieving the, er, ‘thing’ for me.”

Dore squeezed hers in return. “We wouldn’t miss it for the world. By the way, such a weird choice on an engagement gift.”

Aislin shrugged coyly, making her friends laugh. “You should stay for a bit after this,” she suggested. “I can ask Avery to give us a tour around Alfheim.”

“You call the King by his given name?” Haaj asked with a bemused grin.

“What am I supposed to call him?”

“Dear?”

The group turned in unison at the sound Aislin knew clearly belonged to her betrothed. She smirked slightly at the way he appeared after being mentioned and her heart started pit-pattering once she finally saw him. He grinned at her friends as he approached, his golden eyes reflecting its brightness, and with all the natural grace in the world, wrapped an arm around her waist as he stood beside her.

Off to Aislin’s side, Dore smirked at her. “Well, we know what His Majesty thinks.”

Never losing his smile, he peered down questioningly at Aislin. She only shook her head. “It’s nothing, really. But it’s a good thing you’re here. These are Salema and Haaj Scry. I grew up with them in Cetha, where their father owns the biggest fishing port.”

Salema and Haaj bowed and Avery nodded at each of them before curiously asking, “What kinds of fish are abundant in Mhoryga? Surely they’re different from the aquatic life here on Earth.”

“Very different, sir,” Haaj answered politely. “When our court first moved in, we actually had multiple deaths concerning meat consumption of almost every variety. It’s a good thing that, as alchemists, General Aelthrys and Princess Aislin’s parents have solved that problem and saved people from getting poisoned.”

Aislin nodded, looking affectionately at her friends. “That’s actually how the three of us became close,” she shared. “After etiquette school, I’d go to where my aunt and uncle are working with their father in tagging marine animals as poisonous or not and they would let us play in the marina for hours.”

Avery smiled widely. “Well, I am grateful you managed to come here today. She never says it, but I know your friend here—” He pulled her closer. “—has missed you very much. I look forward to having a chat with you, but the staff is serving dinner in the dining hall. I’m sure you’re famished.”

“You bet, Majesty,” Salema muttered, clearly unfazed by Avery as she clutched her brother’s arm. “I haven’t had chicken in so long!”

With a wide-eyed glance at Aislin that made her chuckle, Avery led them to the dining hall across the ballroom they were in. Aislin let her friends find their assigned seats as she went with Avery to the table in the center of the room dedicated to them and their immediate family.

“You don’t have chickens in Mhoryga?” Avery whispered, asking while he wore a look of astonishment on his face. “You don’t have fried chicken?”

That made her giggle. “Why are you so concerned about fried chicken the most out of all the ways you can eat chicken?”

“What poultry meat do you eat, then?”

“You are getting too caught up in this,” she said, shaking her head. “We have birds that we hunt for food back in Mhoryga, but they are all a bit gamey. Unlike chicken that’s domesticated. Our eggs are always wild, too.”

“Why not introduce chickens to the land?”

Aislin shrugged. “Drakos wanted nothing to do with anything in this realm. The only kind of meats from Earth that we get is all contraband and my brother has people like smugglers executed once found guilty, so it’s really rare.”

Avery frowned thoughtfully. “What else do you not have in Mhoryga? In terms of food, that is.”

Thrown off a bit by the sudden question, Aislin hesitantly answered. “Well, just about everything. But most Unseelie does miss chicken, pork, and beef.”

“But those are staple foods!”

She chuckled. “They used to be.”

 Getting to their seats where Aelthrys was already seated more uncomfortably than usual with Res, Catteline, two other males, and a very regal-looking middle-aged female, Avery immediately flagged a butler.

“Could you please ask the cooks to bring out some fried and roasted chicken, pork, and beef, please? Serve it liberally to all tables. Nobody will be deprived of good food in my home.”

Startled and a little intimidated by the tall order, the butler immediately scampered off to what she assumed was the direction of the kitchens. Aislin stared at Avery with an open mouth, unable to believe that he had just done that.

As he helped her to her seat, she whispered, “What was that all about?”

“About feeding hungry people,” he muttered to her. “It has suddenly become a top priority of mine, Princess, to reintroduce to your people the food that most of them had grown up eating. And if they miss eating it, then it probably is a good thing. Right?”

She swallowed, cupping his cheek with her hand. “Thank you.”

He smirked at her. “Don’t thank me yet. We’re sitting with Catt’s mother and her two brothers.”

“Oh, gods,” she cursed under her breath, glancing at the three people she had not recognized when she sat down. She gave them a polite, if not slightly fearful, smile and slowly turned to Avery. She whispered, “Help. Me.”

All Aislin heard as he took his seat beside her was his faint laughter before the side doors up ahead opened.