The Heir by Kierra Cass EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Authors:Kierra Cass
- Publish Date: May 5, 2015
- Language: English
- Genre:Teen & Young Adult Royalty Fairy Tales & Folklore eBooks
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Pages:367
- Price: Free
I COULD NOT HOLD MY breath for seven minutes. I couldn’t even make it to
one. I once tried to run a mile in seven minutes after hearing some athletes
could do it in four but failed spectacularly when a side stitch crippled me
about halfway in.
However, there was one thing I managed to do in seven minutes that most
would say is quite impressive: I became queen.
By seven tiny minutes I beat my brother Ahren into the world, so the
throne that ought to have been his was mine. Had I been born a generation
earlier, it wouldn’t have mattered. Ahren was the male, so Ahren would have
been the heir.
Alas, Mom and Dad couldn’t stand to watch their firstborn be stripped of
a title by an unfortunate but rather lovely set of breasts. So they changed the
law, and the people rejoiced, and I was trained day by day to become the next
ruler of Illéa.
What they didn’t understand was that their attempts to make my life fair
seemed rather unfair to me.
I tried not to complain. After all, I knew how fortunate I was. But there
were days, or sometimes months, when it felt like far too much was piled on
me, too much for any one person, really.
I flipped through the newspaper and saw that there had been yet another
riot, this time in Zuni. Twenty years ago, Dad’s first act as king was to
dissolve the castes, and the old system had been phased out slowly over my
lifetime. I still thought it was completely bizarre that once upon a time people
lived with these limiting but arbitrary labels on their backs. Mom was a Five;
Dad was a One. It made no sense, especially since there was no outward sign
of the divisions. How was I supposed to know if I was walking next to a Six
or a Three? And why did that even matter?
When Dad had first decreed that the castes were no more, people all over
the country had been delighted. Dad had expected the changes he was making
in Illéa to be comfortably in place over the course of a generation, meaning
any day now everything should click.
That wasn’t happening—and this new riot was just the most recent in a
string of unrest.
“Coffee, Your Highness,” Neena said, setting the drink on my table.
“Thank you. You can take the plates.”
I scanned the article. This time a restaurant was burned to the ground
because its owner refused to promote a waiter to a position as a chef. The
waiter claimed that a promotion had been promised but was never delivered,
and he was sure it was because of his family’s past.
Looking at the charred remains of the building, I honestly didn’t know
whose side I was on. The owner had the right to promote or fire anyone he
wanted, and the waiter had the right not to be seen as something that,
technically, didn’t exist anymore.
I pushed the paper away and picked up my drink. Dad was going to be
upset. I was sure he was already running the scenario over and over in his
head, trying to figure out how to set it right. The problem was, even if we
could fix one issue, we couldn’t stop every instance of post-caste
discrimination. It was too hard to monitor and happening far too often.
I set down my coffee and headed to my closet. It was time to start the
day.
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