Chapter 167

**CAY POV**

I trust that my mother will be able to calm my father down, she has a way of doing that when no one else can get through to him, and she is the only one who can get him out of his rage once it starts. She'll know what to do, i have no doubts about that, she has been by his side my entire life, and he no longer scares her. She told me once when i was little that there was a time when she didn’t love him, but they worked together on their marriage because she became pregnant with me. She wanted me to have a family.

I'll never fully understand what she sacrificed when she married my father, but i know that they do love each other, and they love me, and my brothers. We were a close family, when i was younger.

But that all changed when i was named heir to the throne, i didn't want it, but Damet did, and he was bypassed. He blamed me for it. I don’t think he hated me for it, not really, he knew as well as i did that it wasn’t my choice to make. If it was, i would have refused.

but now he can get what he has wanted all along, he is the next heir, i have relinquished my title in front of the entire council, there is nothing my father can do to change that, no matter how angry he is.

I am going to go to the towns on the edge of the border, and i am going to help them anyway that i can, i have brought food, medical supplies and heaps of gold with me. I'll give them whatever they need. This is my calling.

I was never meant to be queen, i was just meant to me, just Cay. I may be royalty, but i was never treat anyone as though i am better than them. Because i am not. All life is worth the same, no matter what family someone has been born in to. I am not better than anyone else, i bleed just as they do, i worry and i smile. i am a person, just as they are.

“There is a town three miles west, we should rest there.” I tell the guards, Jamie, Derran, and Kiren.

They have been by my side for as long as i can remember, Kiren is the youngest, he joined about four years ago, but he has been as loyal as the other two. They are like family.

jamie is a little round in the middle with chubby cheeks and thick legs, but he is fast in a fight, and i have never seen anyone better than him with a sword. He eats more than in one day than I can in a entire week, but that is because he’s a mutant, and he says he will never starve again, not like he used to before I was born. He has black hair and hazel eyes, a stubbly beard and black leather wings. He can also hear sounds Miles before anyone else, and that makes him invaluable.

He’ll know if there is an ambush before they have even spotted us.

Derran is a Griffin lord who wanted to protect the hair to the throne, he knows my views on what I wanted to be, and he knows queen isn’t one of them, yet he remained by my side as he has done my entire life. His hair is greying now, but it used to be the shade of wet mud, his eyes are roughly the same, though they are darker in winter. The fur of his griffin is brown like mud too, but it’s also growing grey with age.

My father told him that if he were to retire he would understand, though Derran refused the offer. He will serve me until his death, according to the old laws.

Kiren is cheeky, and he can be really funny and make me smile and laugh, even when I don’t want to. He’s a griffin too, he saw his mother beaten and wiped more times than he could count until my father changed the laws and set her free, she took Kiren and his sisters and fled to a safer place, and he swore no woman will ever be treated that way again. Especially not his mother or sisters.

He has light brown hair and black eyes, he can half shift, he’s trained himself for months so I’m that he can do it with little or no pain, it comes in handy when there is a battle, he’s the one who always stays by my side and gets me away if it’s needed.

We haven’t been attacked much, but it does happen, people want me for ransom. They want to have power over my father and the kingdom.

Some people are greedy, and what they have is never enough for them.

“What do you think?” I ask Derran, he’s the oldest, so he should make the final decision.

“I think the town is better than the woods.” He says, “we have no idea what lurks around in the dark.”

“Don’t be scared, old man.” Jokes Kiren, “il protect you.”

“There are things in this world that even you can not protect me from, soldier.” Derran snaps, turning back to me, “we go to the town, there should be an inn we can stay at for the night.”

I smile, “we’ve been to the town before, it’s the same one where we spent the winter festival of life.”

Jamie nods, adjusting himself on the horse, “if I recall the inn owners wife makes one hell of a stew.”

I laugh, and so does Kiren, of course that is what he remembers. He never changes.

“We should get there before dark.” I say, folding away the map, “then we can all get some rest before heading to the border in the morning.”

“Are you this is wise, princess?” Derran asks, his voice filled with concern, “the boarders are a dangerous place.”

“It may be dangerous.” I say boldly, “but it is where we are needed, the people there are suffering and no one is paying enough attention to it to send help.”

“The army is there, shouldn’t that be help enough?” Jamie asks, watching me closely.

I fold my arms, “you all know as well as I do that the army doesn’t care about the small people, they only care about their own men.” I see the darkness in their eyes and sigh, “you know it’s true, the citizens are dying because the medical care is being saved for the soldiers only.”

Kiren clears his throat, shooting hateful glances at the others, “if you think that the people there need our help, then we will help them.” He pulls his horse next to mine and takes my hand, “but if we tell you we have to leave because it is too dangerous then you must listen to us, it is our jobs to keep you alive, whether you like it or not.”

“If our lives are in immediate danger, I will leave, but not a moment before.” I say, deciding that it was better to agree for now.

They all know that I am as stubborn as my mother, yet they all try and push me to my limits anyway. Men are stupid. So stupid.

“Let’s move while we still have light.” I say, clicking my tongue as I pull on the reigns.

I know that the borders are dangerous, but the people there are dying because of the lack of basic necessities that we need to live. They need food and water, and some are desperate for medical attention.

I can’t leave them all to suffer just because I could get hurt, hundreds of them have already died, probably more.

War destroys everything.

Families, homes, love. It takes everything we have and it rips it all away.

If I can help someone who has already lost so much with a little food and medicine, then I will.