That brought me up short.
“What the fuck?” I spat out, blinking in shock. Ergun laughed wryly at my response, but this truly made no sense. “Why go around King Astraeus?”
“I don’t know. Aelius didn’t say why, he just quickly changed the subject. But as I was leaving, he was muttering to himself,” Ergun explained, propping his chin up with his hand.
I sat across from him, letting myself fall into my favorite cream lambswool chair, before pressing him to continue. “And what was he muttering about?”
He flipped that damn coin around his fingers again. I hated to admit I was beginning to see why it drove my father so crazy when he did that.
“He said, and I quote, ‘she will not have it’before he cut himself off.” Ergun elucidated, his expression growing grave. “I’m concerned what Cyrus may have told him, Arien.”
I sighed, running a hand through my long, dark hair as that sinking feeling built in my stomach. “How would Cyrus even know? Her identity is only truly known by a few of us.”
“We have no idea what he may or may not know. What wedoknow, is that Cyrus had her, Calix rescued her, and somewhere in between, the spell broke, and she was revealed as Fae.” Ergun leaned forward, elbows resting on his upper legs. While he had the same coloring as my father, they couldn’t have looked more different. Ergun had clearly inherited some traits from his mother, who’d originally hailed from Night Kingdom.
His sharp features reminded me of Calix, but his eyes were the blue of the sea, and his blonde hair was cut short, with only a single curl coming over his forehead. His own son had inherited his blue eyes instead of his mother’s dark amber, but his blonde hair was beaten out by her vivid red hair. My own father resented that I inherited my mother’s dark hair instead of his light, but every time I’d seen Ergun with his little boy, he’d been the kind of father I’d always wished I had.
I knew he, too, fought for a better world. He feared the chaos that it was clear Celesterra was slipping towards. He wanted his son to grow up with magic, in a city filled with all the wonders it offered.
Not in a land leached of all magic, forced to fight in other men’s wars.
I could understand his concern, and it was appreciated. He knew Asteria was a better bet than the leadership we had now. His words from the day he’d sworn himself to our cause still lingered in my mind.
“Your sister can be taught how to rule. Your father cannot be taught how to unrot his soul.”
“I’ll check it out,” I promised him. “I was about to go for a flight, but I’ll work on figuring out what he’s up to. Maybe some of our spies have seen something they didn’t realize was important.”
Ergun slumped back into his seat, a small smirk that looked only a little forced, tilting his lips as he flipped that damn coin.
“Good. I’ll see myself out.” He got up and made his way to the hidden door, but paused halfway through it, looking back at me with a contemplative look on his face. “I know whatever happens, it will be soon. When you finally see her, tell our future queen that Caersidi is with her.”
I bowed my head in acknowledgment and thanks, and he nodded back before slipping through and shutting the door behind him, the seams blending back into the wall. I slumped back in my seat, running a hand down my face before I forced myself back up.
There was much to do, and I swore I could hear every piece of sand in the hourglass dropping as we made our way toward this conflict.
A conflict I was increasingly sure most of us already expected. How it would play out was anyone’s guess at this point. Too many moving pieces were on the board, and too many unknowns lingered.
Either way, there was certainly no time to waste.
* * *
Makingmy way out of the palace, I entered the large, open courtyard, the sparkling white stones laid over its grounds glinting under the sun. Golden arches that bulged in the middle stood at each end, and bright blue, gold, and white flowers were planted along the winding paths that led through the various seating arrangements set up for people to mingle. The courtiers always lingered here, so I was forced to increase my speed to get past them without being stopped for something trivial.
Exiting the palace, I prepared myself for the long walk ahead of me. The city of Avalon had been created to mimic the sun by forming a gigantic circle, so the infrastructure had been set up in a ring formation. The first ring outside the palace was the gardens, which separate the palace from the rest of the city’s inhabitants. Each ring went all the way around the palace in a true circle, ensuring that the wealthy were kept far from the poor.
I entered the next ring, where the mansions and estates of the nobles had been built, before moving out of SunGlint District and into the StarFlare District, starting with the ring containing the higher-class shops and businesses, along with the artisans and business owners. Each ring progressed slightly lower in class, until the very last ring, circling the city in a wide orbit, so far from where the palace crested high in the center of Avalon that it was hardly visible. It may have been the widest ring, but it was also the narrowest, with the smallest amount of land despite the high concentration of people.
It was, of course, where the poorest of the poor lived.
Humans.
My father didn’t wish for humans to live among us. Oh, a few were approved to live in the city, but my father insisted that having all our slaves live and sleep near us would be ridiculous. They were instead forced to travel the distance of the entire city each morning and night. As if that wasn’t ridiculous at all.
My mother’s fight to get Soren approved to reside in the palace was just that—a fight. But she got her way in the end, my father wanting her to shut up and go away more than he cared about the slave himself being granted permission to live within the palace walls.
Looking around, I was struck by how quiet the ring was. Usually, CloudBlur District was filled with humans bustling about and going about their days and duties.
Instead, it was eerily quiet. Only one or two humans were walking around, and their slumped, defeated posture was hardly encouraging. It was like the life had been sucked out of them. The sound of someone loudly sobbing in the distance reached me. A mourning wail that sent a shiver through my bones.
