Page 44 of Lady Knight and the Thief

Torren shrugged. “I guess, but it was fairly boring.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Figures.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Of course, the pampered Prince would find his incredibly privileged lifeboring.”

“You’re putting words in my mouth, Lass. I am very aware of the privilege I hold. Anyone else wandering into the Keep after trashing the Prince’s tent would have been killed on the spot, and you know it. As it is, I’m lucky Caelith didn’t decide to do away with me there and be done with it. The Mother knows he’s thought about it.”

“Meaning?”

Torren sighed. “My mother’s carriage didn’t just happen to be overtaken by bandits, Lass. Those who knew her in the Human Lands adored her, and she was Royalty within the Wylds. Faerie didn’t kill Rosalind and attempt to erase her from history. No, that was all Caelith.”

“You can’t be serious,” Cypress said while bent over the creek to fill her waterskin.

“Oh, I am Lass, and all of Faerie thinks so too,” Torren said. Then, he ripped a bit of the jagged edge of a blanket to tie around his brow to absorb some of the sweat clinging to his skin. “Are you ready to keep moving?”

Cypress wordlessly mounted her horse and peered down at him with her mismatched gaze. “What do your suspicions about your mother's demise have to do with how another of the Fair Folk would be treated at the castle? Why do you believe us to be so callous, so ready to kill the Fair Folk?”

Torren scoffed. “Please, Lass. I know you’re smarter than this. What do you think the raiders, my mother’s death, and the factthat Caelith took ahumanwife after my mother, defying decades of tradition between our people, have in common?”

A muscle in Cypress’s jaw clenched before she said, “You think Caelith is behind it all, don’t you?”

“I’ve never pretended otherwise, Lass,” Torren replied and mounted his horse as well.

“What makes you so sure?”

Torren sighed, debating on how to answer.

“Caelith is human. Unlike his ancestors, who all intermingled with Faerie in order to keep the ties between our people strong, Caelith’s father did not. He was born to a human woman in the castle. I only found out recently myself. Things were always strained between him and my mother. They never saw eye to eye, and he was quite cruel to her. I have many memories of Caelith standing over my mother, threatening to have her killed. We were run off the road by the guards who once stood outside our rooms.”

“That doesn’t mean the crown is behind the raids on villages, though-” Cypress began, but Torren cut her off with a wave of his hand, though he was glad she hadn’t tried to defend the people who’d attacked him and his mother.

“Save it, Lass. I know the truth.” Nothing would sway Torren from his mission, his destiny now.

“What happened to you after…” she trailed off, apparently unsure how to mention his mother’s death.

Torren remembered following the path of moonbeam through the night until he found the Wylds. His mother’s ring was entirely unique, and his only reminder that she had existed, once. He didn’t mention that, though. “I followed the Rings until eventually I found my grandparents at A’aravos Paravale.”

“Do you think Cade knows what happened to your mother?”

“That she’s dead? Yes, I’m sure he is aware, Lass.”

Cypress smacked his arm. “No! I mean, that your father had her killed?”

Torren shrugged. “I’ve never thought about it.”

“Liar.”

“Can’t lie, remember Lass?” Torren gave her a saccharine grin. “But, truly. I haven’t given thought to whether Cade knows how my mother met her untimely end. I doubt it, in any case. Cade never cared for her much, even as a small child.”

“Were you two… friends?”

“I suppose. As much as brothers can be when the King showed only one his favor. Are we done with the interrogation and dissection of my childhood, now?”

“One more,” Cypress pressed, making Torren huff a laugh.

“Fine, one. And then, I get to crack open that pretty skull of yours, Lass, and see what you’re made of.”