“As for Rozalind,” Mama continued, “she’s summoned girls in the wee hours at least three times over the past couple months. Emergency cleaning services. The queen told anyone who asked that it was a bad case of food poisoning, but she refused a mender’s inspection. Then last week, Rozalind ordered a dozen new shift gowns tailor-made, with much wider waist measurements. The same day, she dismissed her personal attendants. I can guess why, if she wants to keep this quiet.”

“She’s pregnant?” Ren hissed. “But that makes no sense. Father would never have recognized me or my sisters if he knew he had a legitimate heir on the way.”

“That’s the kicker.” Mama cast her a pointed look. “Andros must not know. Believe me, I spoke to him just after he summoned you. All he could talk about was how he regretted putting you in this position, how he’d hoped his young wife could have supplied a true heir.”

“Maybe it’s not his,” Ren mused.

“Knowing how the queen’s tastes run, I doubt that.” Mama lifted a brow.

“Then why would she hide something that affects the whole kingdom? She could’ve spared Andros months of worry. He could have left my sisters and me ignorant of our heritage.”

“That I don’t understand,” Mama admitted. “It does seem a strange decision. But you said this heir person was a relative. If Rozalind is carrying Andros’s child, your sibling…”

Ren’s stomach dropped. What did Mama always tell her? For nine whole months, we were the same person, you and I. Pregnancy made women as strong as two people. It combined twice the willpower, twice the Arts ability in one body.

“But she’s Genalese,” Ren said. “She can’t tithe.”

“She can’t. Her half-Kolonyan child can.”

“Is that possible?” Ren’s voice dropped to a hushed whisper. “Has anyone… I mean, when was the last time anyone from the Reaches wed someone from Genal?”

“We all descend from Genal if you look far enough back,” Mama pointed out. “Check the history books from three or four hundred years ago. You’ll find plenty of examples of half-Genalese children tithing the same way any native of the Reaches can.”

Ren’s body went cold. This changed everything.

If Rozalind was pregnant with Ren’s half sibling, then for the duration of that pregnancy… Rozalind was as good as Ren’s sibling, too.

For hours after her mother’s departure, all Ren could do was turn that information over and over in her mind.

Rozalind is pregnant. And for some reason, she’d elected to hide it from Andros, from everybody in the Keep. Did Akeylah even know? She and the queen were… close. How much had Rozalind shared?

Why hide this?

If Rozalind had told Andros months ago, he’d never have summoned Ren, Akeylah, or Zofi. He wouldn’t have needed to. He had a legitimate heir on the way.