The ruins of the old Ashworth kingdom sat two hours north, past the last of the North King's patrolled borders, in a stretch of forest so old and so silent that even Alistair seemed to move through it differently quieter, more watchful, like the trees themselves remembered things he didn't.
"Nobody's ruled here in three centuries," Kieran said, leading them on foot once the horses could go no further, the crumbling remains of towers rising ahead of them through the mist like broken teeth. "My family kept the land regardless. Paid the upkeep, told no one why. I always assumed it was sentiment. I'm beginning to suspect it was something closer to guard duty."
"You never thought to mention a hidden ancestral kingdom before now?" Eva asked, picking her way over a fallen archway thick with mos
