Page 48 of Kingdom of Flames & Flowers
They kept saying that. So much so, I wondered who they were trying to convince.
“And standing up to your mother?” I asked, interested in his reasoning for that.
Zariah winced. “There’s just something in me that forces a pause when I think of challenging her. It’s connected to my inner dragon, but my human brain can’t figure it out. I would like to take her down a peg sometimes, but my instincts always warn me away.”
Another non-answer. I threw my hands in the air. “Whatcanyou tell me?”
Zariah plucked another pastry from the table; this one had strawberries and cream on top. He offered it to me.
The urge to smash it into his face was strong, but I resisted. Plus, my stomach grumbled. I swiped it from his hand and sat down across from him, trying not to shove it down my throat in one go. I reached for another, hating how good it tasted. They did not give us sweets in the mud quarter. Just bread, cheese, and dried meats.
As I ate, I turned over everything in my mind. The more I thought about the ‘choosing’ and the discrepancy between the low quarters and the Seat, the more disturbing it all seemed. There was plenty of food up here. Why not bring more to the mud quarter? Why make us fight and elbow each other for scraps?
Well, it made most girls eager to be taken to the Seat, that was for sure.
Yeah, as if the royal family starved the mud quarter so we’d want to marry into the Seat …
The pastry fell from my hand to the floor. Zariah frowned. “Are you—”
“Why do the nobles in the Seat want girls from the mud quarter so badly? And the other quarters as well?” I asked. “Why us? Why not marry their own women? Why are all our men taken to become fireguards? They took less from every other quarter. What’s wrong with the boys and girls in the Seat that they need us?”
Zariah blinked at me as if he’d never thought about it.
“Well?” I prodded, sure I was onto something.
“I … I don’t know, actually. I always thought it was nice we were giving others a chance—”
“You thought your mother was being charitable?” I choked out, scarcely believing anyone could be so dumb. Or so sheltered.
“Well … no,” Zariah admitted. “Now that you point it out, it begs the question of where the offspring of the nobles are. I can’t … I can’t recall ever seeing any.”
Now it was my turn to gawk. “You grew up in this palace with no other children or playmates other than your brother?”
Zariah leaned back in his chair, his face darkening. “Well, we could turn into dragons any time someone told us no until my mother stepped in. It wasn’t safe for us to be around other people, let alone other children.”
I felt a stab of sympathy at that. “But back to the nobles. Why do they need us?” Any possibility I could come up with wasn’t good. Not at all.
Zariah looked just as disturbed as I did. Good, at least he realized the severity of the situation. “I’m not sure, but I think I know where we can go to get answers.”
I perked up. “The archives? Azalea had mentioned something about them.”
Zariah rolled his eyes. “The girl from the art quarter should know better than to mention those. We try to keep them hush-hush.”
Another red flag waved frantically at me. “Why?” I questioned.
He frowned. “I don’t know. It’s just something—”
“You’ve always been told,” I finished for him, already guessing the answer.
Zariah stood, reaching for me. “Let’s remedy it then. I’ll take you now. Together, we’ll find the answers and we’ll make it right.”
For one wonderful, terrible moment, I almost believed him. My cynicism crashed back down to reality quickly. I would learn nothing good from the archives. If they were kept hidden from everyone, something was deeply wrong.
“Zion never mentioned the archives,” I threw out moodily.
Zariah chuckled. “Odd. He’s the bookish sort, much more than I am. I’d rather be out flying.”
I shook my head. Flying. “Interesting. If you were to ask me, his only interests have been aggressively trying to get under my pants.”
