The Queen's Line (Inheritance of Hunger #1) - Kathryn Moon Page 0,18

and I returned to hiding behind my hands. Something was definitely shifting. Not an urge to pin Owen down and ride him like my sister would've done but…something. It was every bit as sweet and shy as the massive man in front of me, but it was welcome to continue.

If I had needed any proof of Aric's claim that my kingdom was suffering, I saw it all on the carriage ride north the next day. It was as if I was watching a flower decay with every mile we traveled. Kimmery's capital was exquisite, glittering, and smooth. The villages that surrounded it were sweet, like scenes from quaint paintings, and the people who strolled the streets in the south seemed happy enough, if comparatively shabby to what I'd grown up surrounded by.

By evening of the first day, everything had changed.

I winced as the wheel of the carriage hit a deep pock in the road, jostling me between Thao and Cosmo. Wendell sat across from Thao, and Owen took up the rest of the bench, his head leaning against the top of the carriage by the window, mouth hanging open and letting out soft little sighs of sleep. Outside of Thao's window, farmland stretched, men in the fields with their backs bowed low, shirts hanging loose on their bodies. With farmland so rich, the men who worked the fields should've looked hale and healthy, but instead, the faces that turned to watch our traveling were gaunt and hollow-eyed.

"Does all the food go to the capital?" I asked softly, turning to Cosmo.

His own gaze was watchful out the window, eyes equal parts sympathetic and observant, like he couldn't decide between empathy for the men, or the desire to paint them. Perhaps both.

"Most of the farmland is owned by merchants rather than townspeople," Cosmo said. "The food goes south and is shipped away. The farmers are paid a small stipend of the food and a little money."

"It was a law passed at least one hundred years ago that farmland must be owned by no less than two hundred acres for mass and uniform crops. Most farmers couldn't afford to and were reluctant to try and buy each other out. They ended up selling to merchants."

I twisted my own fingers in my lap and tried to force my jaw to unclench. "It should be abolished."

Cosmo hummed, and Owen snuffled in his sleep, softening some of the tension.

A set of horse hooves clapped closer to our carriage, until Aric appeared on a grand red stallion, bending forward to peer inside at us. "There's an inn a few miles ahead where we could eat a rough meal and get back on the road after watering and changing the horses, or we might travel a little east and stay with some local lord."

I frowned and heard the test in Aric's voice. "I think a local inn would suit fine."

"The ride won't get more comfortable through the night, princess," Aric said.

"Well if you think it will be too much for you, you may come and sit inside and I will take the horse," I tossed back.

Cosmo chuckled, and Wendell gave me a glowing smile from his corner of the carriage as Aric sat up straight and clucked to his horse, driving it forward. Only Thao was quiet, if we ignored Owen's snoring.

"I'm sorry, I should've asked the rest of you where you might've liked to stay," I said, realizing that Prince Thao would probably have preferred a night in a proper bed at an overly hospitable lord's home. It was only that I wasn't feeling especially fond of the aristocracy at the moment, and I'd known that Aric had expected me to prefer pampering to seeing what common men and women of my kingdom were living with daily.

And I just desperately wanted Aric to be wrong about me, so much so that I was confusing myself about what I really preferred.

"I don't like him. I don't trust him," Thao said, glaring out the window. "Whatever your own faults, you are a princess and—"

Wendell's foot shifted and struck Thao's, cutting off the prince. "Oh, apologies," Wendell said, while glaring at his lover.

"Aric has a good heart, if a prejudiced one," Cosmo murmured to me. "I don't condone his rudeness, of course. I only…"

"I will have to earn his trust before he gives me any reason to build my own for him," I said, raising an eyebrow.

Cosmo flashed a smile at me, his eyes flicking down to my mouth, and