Chapter 59 Queen Heir
Queen Heir
Ido not remember leaving. Only the feeling of it, the room and the blood and the sound of it still ringing somewhere behind me as I move through the corridor and back through the threshold without slowing.
The hidden palace takes me in without resistance. The air shifts. The noise dulls. The world quiets in a way that feels almost cruel after what I have just walked through.
My eyes burn. I do not stop walking. I do not lift my head.
"Asharin." It is Enovar's voice.
I do not answer.
Something settles over my shoulders, heavy and warm. A cloak. The hood pulled forward before I can protest, shielding my face completely.
"Come with me."
Enovar's hand closes firmly around my arm. He does not wait for permission. He moves and I follow, and we do not stop until the corridors thin and the walls begin to fall away. The path narrows, then opens, and he leads me straight through the boundary.
The shift comes and goes in an instant.
And then water. A lake stretches out before us, still and wide, fed by a waterfall that cuts cleanly through the rock above it. The sound of it fills everything.
I stop without meaning to. The air here is different, open and uncontained, and the tension in my chest loosens just slightly.
Enovar releases my arm but does not step away.
"Rule number one," he says, his voice calm, almost conversational. "You never let anyone in that palace or any palace see you cry. Or see your head lowered."
I let out a breath that has been held too long. "Where are we?"
"Where I have been staying."
I turn to him. "You have not been staying in the palace?"
"No." A faint smile touches his mouth. "It is too stifling."
I look back out over the water. "It is beautiful."
"I doubt the royals of Shalvar even know it is here," he says.
The rush of the waterfall fills the air, and neither of us speaks. Then he looks at me. "I do not need to know what happened," he says. "And you do not need to explain it."
I nod once.
"But I will tell you something I learned a long time ago."
I frown slightly.
He laughs, soft, almost surprised by it himself. "Yes. I had a life before I became…part of Syle.” The sound of the water continues around us. "I was married. I had a son."
My head turns. "You were so young."
"Back then it was normal." Something moves through his expression. “She was from another royal family, and whenever I visited her kingdom I felt small. I did not understand their customs, their expectations. And the men she had known before me seemed refined in ways I was not.”
His eyes meet mine. "I spent a long time wondering how I could be enough."
The words sit between us.
"And she never once asked me to change," he says quietly. "Not once. But I did anyway. I focused on fitting into something I was never meant to fit into, and in doing that I forgot what I was." A small shake of his head.
He stepped closer and lifted my chin gently, making me look at him fully. "You are not meant to fit into anything, cousin," he said. "You are meant to lead it."
My eyes burn, because I know he is exactly right, and this is exactly what I needed to be reminded of.
"You do not need to be enough for anyone.
You were born to be more than everyone in that room.
" He holds my eyes. "For months you have been focused on survival.
The children. Your body. The danger. They are safe now.
Your body is your own again." His voice lowered slightly.
"You are a queen. The Avanki and I are here to follow you. You, Asharin, Queen Heir of Alarna."
A pause.
"So tell me, what is your next move, Majesty?"
He does not wait for me to answer. "You do not wait," he continues. "Not for anyone. You make your move and the world adjusts around you." A faint smile returns. "Your husband included."
Something in my chest shifts. I draw in a slow breath and let it out. Somewhere between running for my life and bringing two children into the world I had forgotten what it meant to be myself. Colsar. Jessamy. The bloodbath I just witnessed. All of it feels smaller now.
I draw in a breath. “You are right. I will not wait. There are things moving that matter more, and if they are not stopped—”
A sound cuts through the brush. I turn quickly. Wyn steps out, completely unbothered.
"How did you know I was here?" I ask.
She raises an eyebrow. “It is my duty to follow you, Majesty. You asked for space within the hidden kingdom, and I allowed it. But I am here to protect you. When we leave Shalvar, that resumes fully.” A pause. “And when you stepped beyond the palace today, it already had.”
I blink and look at Enovar. He shrugs.
Wyn then reaches into her pocket and glances at Enovar with a small knowing look. "Shall we?"
He grins. “I thought you would never ask.”
I look between them. “What are you about to do?”
“Play dice of course,” Enovar says easily.
Wyn tilts her head. “Do you gamble?”
Something lifts in me before I can stop it. “I most certainly do.”
Enovar laughs, low and pleased. “Uralish says you cheat.”
I snort. “Uralish has yet to beat me.”
He ruffles my hair. “Then it is about time someone humbled you, cousin.”
Wyn says nothing, but something in her expression loosens as she leads the way further along the water’s edge. The ground shifts beneath our feet, rock giving way to softer earth as we move into a small clearing just beyond the reach of the falls.
There is already a fire. Low and controlled, built with the kind of precision that suggests it has been done a hundred times before.
A small rough table sits beside it, a pair of carved dice resting at its center.
A bedroll rests near the fire, half-covered by a cloak, as though it has been used often.
"You have been hiding out here," I say.
"Recovering," Enovar corrects lightly, dropping onto one of the stones near the fire. "There is a difference."
Wyn takes the opposite side without a word.
I remain standing for a moment, looking between them, the water still loud behind us, the palace far enough away now that it feels like something I stepped out of rather than something I belong to.
Then I sit.
The cloak slips slightly from my shoulders and I do not pull it back. The air is cool enough to notice and warm enough to ignore.
Enovar rolls the dice once between his fingers, testing their weight. "Simple rules," he says. "You lose, you drink. You win, you take."
"Take what?"
He smiles. "Whatever you like."
Wyn exhales softly. "Do not let him pretend this is strategy. He loses more than he wins."
"Only when distracted," he replies easily, and his eyes move to me.
I do not look away. "Then I suppose I will have an advantage," I say.
Something in his expression sharpens, interested. "Let us see."
The game begins simply enough. A roll, a number, a quiet exchange. The first time I win Enovar raises a brow. The second time Wyn lets out a small sound of approval. By the third he leans back and looks at me properly.
"You are not guessing," he says.
"No."
"Counting?"
"Always."
He laughs, softer this time. "Of course you are."
The fire burns low. For the first time since leaving the throne room something in me comes loose, like pressure that has been held too long finally finding somewhere to go.
Time passes without measure. At some point Wyn disappears and returns with a bottle.
Enovar takes it from her without question and pours into three uneven cups.
"You are not going back tonight," he says, not looking at me as he holds one out.
It is not a question. I take the cup. "No," I say, and the word feels simple and right.
Later, when the fire has burned to embers and the sky has darkened fully above us, I lie back against the cool ground the sound of the water filling everything.
Enovar is still talking, something about the Avanki and the way they have taken over part of the upper grounds, his voice easy and unguarded in a way I have not heard from him before.
I only half listen.
My thoughts drift to Colsar. To the way he had looked at me.
To the rawness in his voice when he said he was trying.
I close my eyes and let myself feel the pull of him, the familiarity of him, the particular grief of loving someone this much and still not being able to close the distance between you.
The twins surface next, and with them a brief twinge of guilt. But I think of what Saurin would say. That the children will not be happy if I am not. That they are safe. That it is better to return to them calmer. The thought holds.
I wake before dawn. The air is cooler now, the fire gone entirely, the sky just beginning to lighten at the edges. Enovar is already awake.
"Are you ready?" he asks.
I push myself up and brush the last of sleep from my eyes. “For what?”
A second voice answers before he can. “For something better than this.”
I turn. Kentan stands just beyond the edge of the clearing, hands clasped loosely behind his back, entirely at ease in a place I had assumed belonged only to us.
“He has been training with us,” Wyn says, stepping out of the brush.
Enovar shrugs. “He is fun, and quite easy on the eyes,” he adds with a wink.
“You are insufferable,” I say, and then, “What plans?”
Kentan glances toward the rising light beyond the trees, then back to me. “Today,” he says, “we are going to Urvinar.”