"I have a sister," Jules says, out of the blue. "Arva. Quite the clever thing—she's likely to succeed our father anyway. That savage queen has children and a husband. The rest of us…well, I like most of the people here, but we aren't relevant. You're the last in the line of Nyx. The moment you die, the usurper becomes the only person who is eligible to become high queen of Tenebris."
I hate every single word he's just said, all the more because they're true.
I cannot afford to die.
I lick my lips. "I'm going to give you one clear order. If we're in a position where we're in danger, you will get to safety. Every one of you will think of nothing but your own skin. I demand it as high queen. Understood?"
I'm met with silence. "I don't intend to die," I add. "But I'm a Void. I'm hard to take down. When I get out of there, I want you all to come out in one piece, too."
We've stopped walking altogether now.
Ina is the first to nod, slowly. "If the queen orders it."
They each give me their word—everyone but Drusk. I glare at him, demanding his submission.
He glares right back.
“I'll never swear that. Ever.”
I want to throttle him, and kiss him all at once.
At long last, I give up. "Fine, be an idiot. We have to get going anyway."
We would have reached Sandovar already if we'd gone straight for the main path, but Jules wanted us to circle it to reach the doorway he used to take. It's hidden in a cave, in the surrounding woodland hills. Jules thinks another horny boy had it built; part of me wonders if it was meant for this—to get people out in case Sandovar was ever besieged or taken.
I'm reassured when we reach the cave: it's filthy, covered in dust and spiderwebs. No one has come here in a long time, which suggests the humans haven't found the path. And no wonder.
The doorway, if it could be considered as such, has no handle, nothing marking it as special. It looks like it's part of the cave. Jules calls to earth magic and a hole opens up, giving us access to a path just as dirty as the cave. While there are footsteps, they're covered by layers of dust. No one has used it the last ten years, at least.
"I suppose the boy isn't entirely useless," Meda remarks to Ina.
I'm not surprised these two get along.
They walk in first with Ive, then Drusk and I follow. Jules brings up the rear, and locks the door behind us with a wave of his hand.
"Was it many peasant women you used to visit, or one in particular?" Drusk asks the ranger.
Jules shrugs. "One at a time, many overall. I never saw the appeal of my fellow gentry. They either wanted me as a gateway to my father, or because they wanted pureblood babies—there are few enough of us that most lines are related, these days. And some gentry would rather bed a cousin than take a common fae—or a human."
"Yet your mother was human, was she not?"
"Yes, and my father's mother was, too. My father has no distaste for mortals, though he considers them inferior in many ways. Lower born, however?" Jules winced. "He swore if I ever fathered a half-sprite, he'd kill it, and the mother too."
I grit my teeth. It's not the first time I've heard such a sentiment, but it always infuriates me. I'm a halfling. So is Drusk. What do the lords of the lower courts truly think of us? No wonder Ash was so quick to betray us.
"Your father is a swine," Ina said, turning to Jules. "If he ever says such a thing in front of me, I'll open him up from one end to the next. The gentry are inbred, losing all magic because of that sort of stupidity."
"Can I watch?" Jules asks cheerfully.
Our chatter gets more subdued as we approach the city—I can hear activity above us. Footsteps and talks.
Jules grows quieter, and jumpier. At one intersection, he stops us. "Hang on a minute. Something's wrong."
I turn to him, alert.
"We're close to the surface. We should be hearing things—people outside, shopkeepers, soldiers marching—even if it weren't market day. It's too quiet."
He tiptoes to the path on our right that looks a lot dirtier than the one we've taken. "We should be able to peek into town from here."
