Chapter 42

Ryker

I briefly contemplated goingto Queen Elexiandra and asking for her help, but she couldn't overthrow a ruling king because she didn't like how he was running things. It was a dangerous precedent to set and could cause the other realms to turn on her. They might fear she'd overthrow their rulers if they did something she didn't like.

Queen Elexiandra ruled over all the Shadow Realms and had the dragons and the Shadow Reaver on her side, but each realm had its own rulers and mostly consisted of the immortals who had established that realm. Many of the most powerful realms had sworn allegiance to the queen, but countless other realms and immortals were out there.

The queen was trying to unite the realms under a blanket of peace that the Lord who ruled before her didn't provide. Overthrowing a ruler to help a friend was not the way to bring peace.

No, despite having spent months in a dungeon with Brokk and Kaylia, the queen's brother-in-law and Brokk's consort, and becoming extremely close with them, I couldn't ask the queen for help in this. And I couldn't talk to Brokk about it either; Kaylia was expecting their child soon. They should be focused on that and not on the problems of another realm.

This was something I'd have to figure out for myself. I just didn't know where to start.

"I understand why they don't leave," I said.

"You do?"

Her head tilted to the side as she studied me. The sun filtering through the trees illuminated her smattering of freckles, impossibly blue-green eyes, and striking beauty. Given her tendency to have a bit of a prickly personality, I expected to see the doubt on her face, but there was only genuine curiosity.

"I lived in Doomed Valley for over a year; I know how unsafe and horrific some of the realms can be. I can't begin to tell you about the monsters lurking inside that jungle; most were determined to eat us."

Her eyes darted toward the interior of the Revenant Woods. Many murderous things lived within this forest, but after the oppressive heat, bugs, and suffocating foliage of a jungle determined to swallow me whole, I was ready for them.

"I've heard of Doomed Valley and read a book on it once; it sounds awful," she said.

"It was a nightmare."

And I hadn't even mentioned the dungeon, the beatings that tore the skin from me and my friends, the rack stretching us until our bones broke and joints dislocated. But the worst was the helpless feeling of not being able to do anything while the ophidians, those snakelike fuckers, tortured and killed my friends and the powerless feeling of watching their emperor destroy my king.

"If we stay in the woods, how far is it to the next village?" I asked.

She pointed deeper into the forest. "Hallsey is about two miles that way."

"Are you up for the journey?"

"Always, but there's not much water between here and there."

"I'll make do."

With that, we turned away from Nottingshire and made our way toward Hallsey. "You call Nottingshire The Hollows; what do you call the other towns?" I asked.

"By their original names. Nottingshire was always the most populated town; I think that's why it got a nickname and the others didn't. That could change with time."