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“Twogirls,” Mathias said scornfully. “That’stoo many?”
“Six, Your Highness.”
We both stared at him.
“Yanev said that Queen Consort Consuela became pregnant four more times after she gave birth to your sisters Alondra and Mariana, my prince. That through his Touch, he was able to determine their gender within only a few weeks of conception.”
Mat scoffed. “Bullshit. That can’t be possible.”
De la Vega shrugged. “The average healer could not do such a thing, but Yanev has the most powerful Touch ever recorded.”
Mat and I looked at each other, and I knew he was thinking exactly the same as me. But we had no idea how to go about finding Starling, if she was even still alive.
“In any event,” the lord continued, “he said that upon learning that each subsequent child would be female, the king ordered him to terminate the pregnancies so they could conceive again without needing to bring a daughter to term.”
Fuck.I thought it; Mat said it.
“There’s more,” de la Vega said grimly. “His Majesty decided that it was his wife at fault, as men are prone to do. He confided to Yanev that she would not be allowed to see the year’s end.”
I was silent; angry and sick, and my hands hurt. I glanced down to find my fingers so tightly clenched that my nails were cutting into my palms. I had no idea where the half-eaten oranges had gone.
“Apparently Consuela, who was alerted to the king’s intentions by those faithful to her, sought a desperate solution to save her own life. And it seems it was the king who had a propensity to seed girls, for her next child was a boy.”
Lord de la Vega paused, wincing. “You, Your Highness.”
Mathias’ hand found mine, and he pried open my sticky fingers to wrap them around his.
“Who?” I asked quietly. “Who does Yanev say is supposedly my real father?”
“That, the old healer did not know, although whether he had his suspicions or not is unclear. What heisclear on is that he knew you weren’t the king’s, and yet kept it from him – he says out of fear,Isay as a result of bribery – even after the queen consort’s death.”
A death that took on another motive, as did Iván’s hatred for me as his youngestson. Had he suspected that I wasn’t his?
No. It was too convenient. For this to be the first time such a rumour had ever been raised – on the same day as my coronation, nearly twenty years later – surely meant it was nothing more than a desperate conspiracy between a councillor fearing the loss of luxuries he’d grown accustomed to, a foreigner seeking more power than the Dukedom he held, and an old healer who had nothing to lose.
“It’s not true,” I said curtly. “None of it.”
Lord de la Vega lifted a hand and knocked sharply on the front panel of the carriage. A moment later, I felt us slow and then come to a stop.
“Then prove it, my prince,” he said as Mat ducked his head through the door to check we wouldn’t be seen leaving. “And then no one will be able to dispute your claim to the throne.”
*
Chapter Three
“This is not how I wanted to show you the city,” Ren said with audible disgust as we crouched in a filthy alleyway waiting for a boisterous group of Quarehians to pass. The clink of glass and raucous cheers told me they were probably too drunk to notice us even if we directly crossed their path, yet we couldn’t take the risk. We both had our hoods up but even that wouldn’t completely conceal my distinctive complexion, and who knew how many citizens of Máros would recognise their should-be king?
“Oh, I don’t know,” I whispered, rocking back onto my heels to wait the inebriated men out. “With all the running and hiding we’ve done through it, we’ve probably seen a lot more of the city than we would have surrounded by...in a royal procession.”
I silently cursed my carelessness in almost mentioning Ren’s guards. He went deadly silent whenever I did, adopting a countenance of self-loathing that made me feel sick.
“Well, we will have to remedy that,” the prince said lightly, but his face was in shadows and I didn’t know if the casualness was feigned or not. “Piss-drenched alleyways and spider-strewn cellars must be added to the royal tours immediately. How can one truly appreciate Máros without the unique...scentof such places?”
I snorted softly. “You’re not one to talk.”
When I gave an exaggerated sniff in his direction, Ren’s eyes narrowed and he shoved at my shoulder.
“And why exactly is that, Mathias? Could it have something to do with the fuckingragswe’re wearing, perhaps? Clothing so foul that you could have only found it discarded under a pile of dog shit?”
