House of Dragons (Royal Houses #1) - K.A. Linde Page 0,60

get the location of where your friend’s body turned up?”

“I bribed a guard,” she said simply.

He shook his head but said nothing else as they exited the mountain and headed toward the Wastes. The roads were so familiar. She’d walked them hundreds of times. More times than she could even count with Lyam at her side or trailing in her wake, as if he thought that she wouldn’t notice. And now, she would never walk them with him again. Not even get annoyed that he was tailing her.

She swallowed back the lump in her throat and continued through the streets. But as fast as she was going, Fordham kept pace with her, even as he stared around the streets as if he had never seen a real city before. He didn’t gawk—that would be beneath him—but there was something like awe in his expression.

There were so many questions that she wanted to ask. But she didn’t want him to shut down again if she asked about his home. So, she veered off course, abruptly turning them away from the Wastes and toward Central which housed the Square.

“Haven’t you been out in Kinkadia since you got here?” she asked him.

He shrugged. “The once for the ceremony.”

“It was night, and you only saw a ballroom,” she scoffed. “We’re going to need to get you acquainted with my city.”

“That’s not part of our mission.”

“Well, can we at least stop for a meat pie?” she asked. “I know the best place in town.”

He narrowed his eyes as if he were trying to find deception in it but finally nodded. “I could use sustenance.”

“Princeling, this isn’t sustenance. This is living.”

Fordham grumbled something under his breath, but he followed her through the winding city streets until they came upon the Square. It was more or less the center of Kinkadia. A giant stone-paved square with shops boarding three sides and the ruins of a once-grand church taking up most of the center. Her heart clenched at the sight.

“What happened here?” Fordham asked. His gaze raked over the falling stones and burned-out roof.

“Something tragic,” she said softly.

“I didn’t think the Fae had a religion other than the Society.”

“Most don’t,” she agreed, turning them away from the church that still made her feel sick to her stomach. “This was a human church for the Laments.”

Fordham eyes widened slightly. “Humans built that? Without magic?”

She nodded. She’d always thought the twenty-story building with its sweeping spires and high, arched bell towers was a truly magnificent sight to see. Even burned and out of use, it still drew quite a crowd of tourists and followers of the Lament.

“Many humans still follow the way of the Laments, but after the protests and riots five years ago, so much of it has had to go underground or on the outskirts of town. Human religions aren’t welcome in such public places in Kinkadia. They draw the wrong kind of attention. There are small Lament churches on the outskirts of town. None quite as grand.”

Fordham looked perplexed. She wondered more and more what it had been like to live his life in the House of Shadows. By his reaction, he clearly didn’t have much interaction with humans.

Kerrigan tilted her head away from the church and stopped in front of a food cart. She ordered two meat pies and tossed coins to the seller. She passed one to Fordham, who took a tentative bite before his eyes doubled in size.

“What is this?” he asked.

She laughed. “Magic.”

He finished his pie in two more bites and went back for two more.

“I see you’re a fan.”

He finished off the next one in record time. “You were not lying about this.”

“Nope. The best damn pie in the city. Shredded quail meat with just a hint of spice. I don’t know what he does, but it’s the best.”

Fordham ate the third pie slower than the first two as they walked around the square. There were chocolatiers and candlemakers and cheese vendors. A glassblower was showing off her latest creations. A skilled blacksmith worked before a forge. Anything and everything a person could want was for sale in the Square. Only the finest quality and generally a few extra coins more than outside of the Square, but she figured for the experience and the quail meat pie, it was worth it.

“All right, we have veered off course enough. Where was his body found in comparison to this?” Fordham asked. “I cannot think that a dead body would be easily concealed in this