The whole king v. councils thing is a minor theme in the series. One of the Fellowship of Seven, Davien (also known as The Betrayer, for inciting the revolt that deposed the five Kings and the human nobility of Athera), opposed the idea of the Compact at its inception thousands of years before, as using "gifted" humans to protect the free wilds, interceding with the Paravians (regular humans couldn't or would lose their minds) and governing other humans would lead to resentment and class conflict (which of course it did). One of the themes that Wurts explores is that the councils (actually, it is the mayors) govern for only the benefit of themselves, and not the humanity under their control generally, and they spare no thought for the free wilds whatsoever, seeing them as "unused lands". Standing behind all of this is the fact that if humanity's presence on Athera threatens the survival of the Paravians or Athera itself, then the Fellowship of Seven is duty bound to destroy humanity (Davien didn't want to let humanity onto the planet in the first place).
As the series proceeds, you see very few kings (only one in fact) replaced to govern in accordance with the Compact, so the issue you cite is not one that need concern you. Having read all of the books, I strongly suspect that the final resolution of Athera's governance will not involve either high kings or councils. The mayors and councils remain in place, but one of the burgeoning means of governance is a theocracy based on a false religion, which gladly adopts all of the corruptness of the councils and oppresses humanity even more effectively.
The concerns you raise will not survive your reading of the next volume, Ships of Merior.
