My heart twisted. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Dismissed.”
I executed the shallowest bow I could afford and marched out of his study—where I collided with a pillar of darkness. Lurching backward, I looked up into Renwell’s hooded face. His eyes tightened as they focused on my burning cheek.
Wordlessly, he jerked his head to the side, and I followed him down the hall, out of earshot of thekingand his guards. I yanked up my hood, and we both covered our faces as we left the palace. The rain had stopped but had left silver puddles on the smooth stone of the bridge.
I spoke over the crashing waterfall beneath us. “He thinks I will fail.”
“Yes,” Renwell said. “He thinks you are weak and will cave under the pressures of this new life.” His covered face tiltedtoward me. “But I disagree. You will succeed and thrive. Then you will earn his favor.”
“I’m not doing this for him,” I said, my mind full of my parting words with Everett.
Renwell’s tone sharpened. “Careful. That is almost treasonous.”
I halted, staring at him as he also stopped and faced me. “Will you betray me, Renwell?”
His gaze was steady yet unfathomable. “No.”
We continued onward, and the guards let us through the gate without question. No one roamed the dark streets of the Noble Quarter. Everyone must be long abed. I couldn’t help a quick glance at the lord’s house I’d snuck into earlier. Gods, it seemed a lifetime ago already. What would become of my discovery?
As representatives of the provinces of Winspere and Pravara and the royal city of Aquinon, the People’s Council had been tasked with bringing the people’s needs before the king. But when they had rallied behind the belligerent province of Pravara and incited rebellion in the streets of Aquinon, Father had dismantled the council, executed those he deemed traitors, and forbade any mention of the People’s Council.
I’d not heard of them again until tonight. Did some of the nobility—like Lord Garyth—want to bring the council back? What would happen if they tried? Was the prisoner I was about to meet connected somehow?
My mind raced, rehearsing my cover story and trying not to panic over the many unknowns.
We approached the Noble Quarter gate, and a rush of excitement dulled my nerves. The gate separated the upper-class quarter from the rest of the city. Renwell hadn’t allowed me on the other side of it in two years, since my mother’s assassination.
Even if this newfound freedom came with a heavy price, I would happily pay it.
The guards here also opened the gate without question. After all, they were there to keep the rest of the city out, not keep the nobles in.
Renwell hurried me along at breakneck speed, but that didn’t stop me from drinking in the sights. I’d never wandered far from the main city road as it led straight to the taverns. But I could see the Temple rising above the brown buildings of the Old Quarter like a giant pearl nestled in the sand.
Renwell took a sharp left, and we plunged into the Market Quarter. The many workshops and market stalls were quiet and hollow this time of night, but they would wake before dawn. I could already smell cinnamon bread baking. My stomach rumbled.
Gods damn it, I should’ve stopped by the kitchen before going to see my father. Perhaps I would’ve been harder to provoke with a full stomach. My cheek throbbed as if to agree.
A few minutes later, we reached the cliff road.
Most of Aquinon sat atop the cliffs, but the last quarter—the Docks Quarter—could only be reached by way of the cliff road that cut back and forth down to the docks. The high wall that ran around the whole city had a portcullis at the top of the road, to cut off the rest of the city from sea invasion if necessary.
But I’d never seen it lowered. I’d also never walked down this road.
I gritted my teeth as I followed Renwell, trying to focus on my boots so as not to look out over the dizzying height above the Docks Quarter and the harbor. My legs were trembling by the time we reached the bottom.
The docks were a wide, sprawling part of the city that spilled into the Niviath Sea. Full of bawdy taverns and dilapidated houses that leaned over and under each other like drunk sailors. Ships, large and small, bobbed in their berths. The ever-shifting breeze smelled alternatively of salt and ale.
Where most of the city had been asleep, the Docks Quarter was still alive with light, music, and laughter. Mynastra’s Tide was a sailor’s favorite. The singing bone-rattlers on shore leave paid us no mind as they wandered from tavern to tavern wearing their strings of bones. I thought of Everett’s story and almost smiled, but my nerves strangled it.
Ignoring the revelers, Renwell stalked toward the moonlit waterfall—the same one we’d crossed at the top. Without warning, he caught my arm in a bruising grip.
He dipped his head to mutter in my ear. “Act frightened.”
I flinched, my gaze fluttering around the increasingly abandoned buildings. Were we being watched?
Renwell yanked on my arm, and I whimpered, cowering away from him. It was almost a relief to let a sliver of fear show.
