Warrior Queen (Skeleton Key) by Shona Husk, Skeleton Key

he decided it was time to start finding out exactly what was happening. He wasn’t looking forward to being trapped in the city by an invading army. “How much food do we have?”
    “Enough to last until the warriors arrive.” She seemed calm.
    “How close are the Southerners?”
    “Too close. When they make camp tonight we will be able to see them from the walls.”
    He’d get his first look at who was invading. He wasn’t sure that he really wanted to. “So the siege starts tonight. We could attack them tonight. Would they be expecting that?”
    “What makes you think we won’t be attacking them tonight?” She didn’t even look at him. She wasn’t giving him the full picture even though he had been right beside her all morning.
    “It sounds like you want the siege instead of a battle.”
    “I don’t want any of this. I wish my mother had never started trading with them. They want the copper and gems, but mostly the magic to change form.”
    “They want you.” Only the Queen could do that, he knew that piece of information. She was a Heavenly. He didn’t think there was anything heavenly about a giant hawk. Terrifying and deadly were better descriptors.
    “They tried that, and I considered taking a Southerner as consort, but I refused to make him king and put him in charge. That is not our way.”
    “Only the women can fly.” It was a guess, but from the curve of her lips he knew that he’d got it right. “Why?”
    “Who knows? But no man has ever got the golden glint in his eyes or the ability to see to the horizon.”
    “So it’s genetic.”
    Keleti stopped walking and looked at him. “What is genetic?”
    How did he explain genes to a Queen whose people hadn’t started explaining things with science yet? “It means passed down from the parents like eye or hair color.”
    “Passed from mother to daughter you mean.” She pressed her lips together. “It is in the royal blood. But not all have it, and not all chose to fly. There are less of us than there used to be. It is why I rule more than one city now. Even if the signs and the desire are there, the shift can only happen after the ritual is complete.”
    “Partially genetic then.”
    She nodded. “This genetic… if you were to see a family would you be able to tell who had potential?”
    “I…I don’t know. I was a cop, not a scientist. Do you keep family trees?”
    “Trees? We map royal lineage, through the maternal line.”
    “What about the fathers?”
    “What about them? Most royal children are the product of ritual. Their fathers are priests.”
    He had the feeling that meant she had no idea who the fathers were. “Do you have children?”
    “Three.”
    “Who can become a priest?”
    “Anyone with an aptitude for magic.”
    “Like men with royal blood?”
    She nodded and her eyes narrowed as she thought. “The priests can show you the map of royal lineage. Perhaps we could restore the blood line.”
    “You can’t force people to have…to make special babies.”
    Keleti smothered a laugh. To her ears he must be sounding like an ignorant foreigner. “Those babies would be created during ritual anyway. Why not tilt the magic in our favor? The gods appreciate cunning. Perhaps we didn’t take care of the magic they gave us, and now we are faced with Southerners trying to steal what is left.”
    Bryce wished he hadn’t opened his mouth, but maybe this is what he needed to do. He was willing to try anything to get home before the bottle started. “Shall I go to the temple?”
    “Do you know how to get there?”
    He glanced up the corridor in one direction and the other. The ornate wooden carvings on the open shutters gave him no clue. It looked the same in both directions. “No idea.”
    “Then tell me more about genetic as we walk.”
    Refusing wasn’t an option. So he explained what he knew about the helix and how it could be used to solve crimes because it was as unique as a fingerprint. She wanted to see that