“What if she’s not a Shawth? What if she’s not Royal at all?” Andrian blurted the words, unable to hold his tongue. It was like something had reached down his throat and hauled them out as soon as the thoughts had flitted through his mind. As his father slowly, too slowly, turned his head away from the window and back to his son, Andrian knew it had been the wrong thing to ask. “That would be … impossible. But since you asked the question, Andrian, let me just say this: I will never serve, and will never allow a son of mine to serve, a non-Royal queen, someone of low-born blood who is not
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