Chapter 11 #3
“There are eight in total, each the same size. The avenues that run through them extend from the eight gatehouses in the castle wall. Most of them are for business or trade, and even half the Market District is filled with great guild halls for the various professions that run the trades our court is renowned for… like the fermenters and the preservers, and the growers.” She glanced over her shoulder, back in the direction we had come.
“Of course, there is the district devoted to pleasure too, and the one for the artisans, but some are areas where workers of the fields and orchards have their homes, or those who serve in the castle, or the houses of the highborn. There’s also one district where the garrisons and soldiers’ quarters are.
The army of the castle is housed there.”
Eight districts evenly spaced around the circular wall of the castle, with avenues that extended from the gatehouses like the spokes of a great wheel.
“The Warehouse and Trading Hall District together with the Storehouses and Granaries District are positioned close to the river, which is used for exporting the goods, or importing the things the castle needs that we don’t make here.”
All useful information that I would have to write down later.
Maybe I didn’t need to spend so long reading about the court. Meiryn was a gold mine of information and seemed eager to help me find my feet in this place. I could probably cut my research time in half just by asking her things I wanted to know, as long as they wouldn’t make her suspicious of me.
We reached an area with large open squares between half-timber stone buildings that were more elegant, the light grey stone smoother as if more care had been taken when cutting it into blocks, and the timber sections bearing beautiful carvings.
Meiryn led the way to the first square, where colourful market stalls had been set up around the perimeter, their canvas canopies fluttering in the gentle warm breeze.
It reminded me of home. Of Falkyr. Those stalls in the town that I had spent hours at in the past, absorbing everything they had to offer.
Just as Meiryn had said, everything was available here.
We passed stalls selling wooden toys and furniture, ones selling baked goods and another that had a colourful array of vegetables in crates.
There were sweet things and fruit, and beautiful jewellery, and a larger stall displaying armour and weaponry.
Under a canopy of cobalt, one male was selling tiny pots of powder in every colour, and paintbrushes.
We walked through several squares like it, each a feast for the eyes, and I lost track of time.
It felt so different here, beyond the towering white walls that enclosed the castle.
Meiryn tracked my gaze to those walls. “Many highborn refuse to leave their sanctuary, and those who do would not be seen dead in most parts of this city.”
“Well, I guess we know where Lorien got his view of us lowborn from then.” I tore my focus from that barrier that separated the two sides of this castle town and forced a smile onto my lips.
Meiryn didn’t smile back at me this time.
She stepped closer, coming to crowd me, keeping a watchful eye on our guards and the people who moved around us.
“You need to learn to defend yourself,” she whispered.
“Why?” I glanced at the guards and then her, leaning closer to her. “Because Lorien will come for me again?”
“Because you’re the first heir I don’t want Lorien to kill.
” She smiled at last, but it was a fragile thing, fleeting as it faded before it ever really bloomed.
“The others were almost as insufferable as he is. All of them male. All of them believing they were born to rule. I like you, and I think you’ll make a good queen. ”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her I didn’t want to be queen of this court.
I wanted nothing to do with it.
Instead, I said, “I’ll start carrying my dagger then. I know how to handle myself.”
“Against magic?”
I shrugged, shooting for casual when I felt anything but. “I’ve survived against it so far.”
“It wouldn’t be a bad thing to know how to use it rather than shield against it all the time, especially given how particularly handy the ability to go invisible might be when Lorien does come at you again.”
When. Not if.
Invisibility.
It might be useful, but I still wasn’t convinced that I had a drop of magic in my veins or that any of what the steward had told me was real and not just some bullshit he had spun to take me from Kaeleron and deal him a blow.
But what if I could wield magic?
Invisibility and solar power like the ones Luthryn had used against us?
My wolf side snarled at the memory of that cage of searing light.
If there was seelie blood in my veins, then maybe I possessed the power of the royals too and maybe I could use those powers to protect myself, to keep Lorien from claiming my head, and to keep Danica safe.
I didn’t want to discover if Sylvan had told me the truth, I didn’t want to confirm I was part seelie, I wanted to keep my head buried in the sand and keep telling myself I was just a wolf. That they were all mistaken. That I wasn’t born of Kaeleron’s enemy, his blood flowing in my veins.
But if it meant I would survive this court and could carry out my plan to deliver their heads one by one to my beautiful dark king, I would do it.
I could do it.
Starting with learning how to go invisible and how to extend that power to others, as Kaeleron could with his shadows, so I could get Danica the hell away from here.
I looked Meiryn right in the eye, resolve flowing through me.
“Teach me how to use magic.”