Page 4 of Kingdom of Rot & Ruin
“You are the best the Seat offers. We expect you to excel at your studies while you are here, so we may find the best way for you to serve the crown. Watch each other’s backs and be careful. The competition will be extremely fierce, but if you play your cards right, you can also make friends who will be closer than any family you’ve left behind.”
Most of the boys looked puzzled at this, but I understood Lord Vession immediately. I craved the deep connection I’d read about in the storybooks I’d secretly read at night, squirreled away under the textbooks about sciences and history, where Mother couldn’t see them. In my stories, men would die for their principles, and women gave their lives for their children, and friends risked it all for each other.
I loved my mother, but she was distant and angry most of the time. I never figured out what she was afraid of. I hoped all women weren’t as fearful. The ones in my stories all were, though, so I wasn’t hopeful.
“I must leave to check on the progress of the others,” Lord Vession finished. “You may talk quietly among yourselves, but stay in your seats.”
Our eyes followed him out the door, and we were all silent and still for a further five more seconds. Then the blond boy next to me whipped around, grabbing at my hair.
“It’s so dark. My mama said only mud boys have dark hair.”
Anger raced through my body like dragon fire as I twisted away from him. “That isn’t?—”
My mouth slammed shut as my eyes darted from boy to boy, realizing something I should have noticed immediately. Most were blond, though some had dark blond and brownhair, while three of them had red hair, and the rest had a very light brown color.
No one had black hair like me.
“Well?” the boy needled, glaring at me.
I couldn’t refute his claim. Not 100 percent. I didn’t know what mud boys looked like. What if Ididlook like them? I’d have to stick to what I knew.
“I have lived in the palace my whole life. My mother is one of the queen’s favorites,” I protested.
One of the redheads a few seats down and across from me snorted. “I’ve never seen you. Not at any of the balls and parties. And who is your mother?Mymother is also one of the queen’s ladies and I’m friends with all of them and their sons. I’ve never metyou.”
The other boys nodded and glanced at me, all united in their sudden distrust and wariness. Nothing brought strangers together faster than a common, shared point of contention or anger.
My confusion and horror warred with embarrassment. The others had all grown up going to parties and balls? And playing together?
That wasn’t … that wasn’tfair!
I’d spent all twelve of my years in my apartment with my mother, diligently working on my studies, always praying, always hoping that one day it would finally be enough, and I’d be allowed out to court, and allowed to join the other boys! Then I’d finally get to see the dragon.
What had I done so wrong?
For one moment, I considered crumpling. My lower lip trembled, hot tears burned against my eyes, and my muscles clenched.
No.
I was smart. I was strong. I wasnotgoing back to rot in that tiny apartment. That meant I had to be bold.
I had done nothing wrong. Which meant …
My mouth went dry. Oh,no. What if the boy was right? What if Ididlook like a mud boy?
We’d find out soon, wouldn’t we?
I gripped the edge of the bench with my fingers, my knuckles turning white. Tension hung thick in the air as the other boys eyed me with open distrust. What could I say to them? Even though Iwasa noble, I hadn’t grown up with them. I’d been locked in our apartments for twelve years. And what for?
“Follow me.”
Relief coursed through me as Lord Vession’s voice came from the end of the hall, leading a squadron of Fireguards. In the middle of them marched the mud boys.
My stomach flipped, and my heart sank down to my feet. Then it crashed through the floor at seeing mud boys for the first time.
They all had black hair and dark eyes, like me.
Every.
