Текст книги "The horde King of shadow"

Автор книги: Zoey Draven

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Текущая страница: 22 (всего у книги 24 страниц)

Chapter 42KLARA

One thing I’d learned riding on the back of Lygath for nearly four days on end?

New harnesses took ages to break in.

That and the fact that my husband was a hoverer—literally—especially when it came to me. He kept Zaridan firmly behind us so he could keep me in his view at all times. Feranos had taken lead at the very front, flanked by Samryn, Alaryk’s bloodred Elthika.

Sarkin might’ve decided to accept Lygath’s presence within the Sarrothian horde and as my bonded. That didn’t mean he trusted him yet.

The relationship and bond with an Elthika was one established over years. Lygath and I were still getting used to one another. He didn’t know the basic flying commands I’d learned in instruction, and there hadn’t been enough time for any training before we’d left the Arsadia to make the long journey to Dakkar. Zaridan had communicated with her brother when necessary, allowing us to fly relatively smoothly. But the harness made him itchy, just as it rubbed against me in all the wrong places. He had some breaking in of his own to do.

But there were moments on our flight when Lygath seemed almost happy. When he caught sight of Zaridan, or when we happened to fly low over a place he’d never been before, his head swinging wildly to observe what he could. When we flew over Sarroth on our way farther south, he roared, as if he knew where his new home lay. Perhaps Zaridan had told him. The Elthikan language was impossible for us to replicate, and it was a great mystery still among the Karag. But they still communicated. Riding with Lygath, with his sister close by, they’d been talking.

And I’d been utterly fascinated to find that the other Elthika in our travel party seemed to eavesdrop every now and again, until Zaridan snapped her jaws and they floated farther away, chastised by the Vyrin.

There might always be mystery when it came to the Elthika. No matter how long the Karag had assimilated with them.

One other disadvantage for traveling for nearly four days without reprieve?

I missed Sarkin.

Though he was close, we couldn’t speak to one another mid-flight like our bonded Elthika could. Every now and then, he would quicken Zari’s pace so that we could fly side by side, as if he wanted to look at me, wanted to admire me. And every time, I grinned like a silly lovesick fool until he smirked and returned to his place behind Lygath.

When we camped at night, we cuddled close, separate from the others…but that was the only time we had before dawn would break.

Only a little while longer, I thought, my eyes on the peek of land that I could see in the distance.

All I’d seen was Drukkar’s Sea for the last day, every glittering, twinkling wave below us, the sea breeze refreshing though it made my hair a wild mess. Once, when I’d been younger, my uncle’s horde had stayed close to the coast in the South Lands. I’d woken to the briny air every morning and would walk along the cliffs with my mother, usually early if she’d had a dream.

The world had seemed too wide, so endless then when I’d looked across the sea.

Now I knew it was.

There was so much that I hadn’t seen. Even of Dakkar. Even more of Karak. And what lay beyond those seas?

My heart began to race when we passed over the shores of Dakkar. My heart raced as we flew over typography that I could trace in my sleep. And it never slowed, even with the hills of the West Lands under us, which gave way to forests and endless plains of the wildlands.

And when I saw Dothik come into view in the distance, I felt a strange pricking of excitement, acceptance, and grief.

Sarkin had listened to my advice when I’d told him we should send a messenger ahead of us, informing my father and his council of our arrival. There was always a possibility that the message would give them time to coordinate an offensive attack…but given what they’d seen of Zaridan’s ethrall, I didn’t think they would try. Sarkin had been right to frighten us with it. It ensured obedience, a demonstration of how much more powerful the Karag were.

But I hoped we could come to a peaceful negotiation. Especially if Dannik was present, especially if I could speak with him.

I couldn’t wait to see my brother. To let him know that I was safe. That I was happy. That he didn’t have to fear for me anymore because I knew he did.

And maybe one day, if the Dakkari and the Karag could reach a peace, he could come to Sarroth. To the Arsadia. There was so much I wanted to show him, so much I wanted to share of the fantastical things I’d experienced during my time in Karak.

Dothik’s sparkling turrets in the lowering sun shone like beacons. Just like when I’d left, I could see that the East Gate was open, that a group was gathered out on the wildlands, awaiting our arrival. There were about three dozen Dakkari waiting, the majority of them guards, though, thankfully, I saw no archers on the walls. Sarkin likely wouldn’t have let me land near the city gates if there had been.

Lygath didn’t land right away, like the others in the traveling party, which consisted of Sarkin’s kya’rassa, Alaryk Arn’dyne and his chosen commander from Grym, and two Elysom council members, luckily neither being Sarkin’s aunt, Kethra. He’d made that a stipulation in the agreement with Elysom.

I pounded my fist three times along Lygath’s side. Though we were still learning to fly with one another, Lygath began to circle downward at my command, eventually landing next to Zaridan.

My eyes immediately went to the group of Dakkari, the sense of familiarity overwhelming.

Dannik.

All the Dakkari were staring right at me when I tapped on Lygath’s wing. He extended it after a bit of fuss, and I descended, my legs feeling a little wobbly after my long flight.

“Klara,” Sarkin called out in warning, but my heart was about to burst out of my chest.

I grinned when my watery eyes met my brother’s, and the moment I reached the earth, I ran to him.

He was dressed so familiarly. A pressed black tunic, embroidered in golden thread in the swirling Dakkari style. Leather pants that had been well-worn from his long days at the training grounds. His long golden hair was pulled back from his face, the hilt of his sword peeking out from behind his back. The golden beads sung musically in his hair when we collided.

“Klara,” he rasped, his arms immediately coming around me. “You have a damn dragon.”

There was disbelief in his tone. I laughed. He smelled just as I remembered, like the soap that was sold in the marketplace. My fingers met the metal of his sword.

“I do,” I said. “I missed you so much, Dannik.”

I pressed a kiss to his cheek and pulled back to look at him. My brother’s face held a serious expression, eyes running over me, inspecting and cataloguing me.

“You’re all right?” he asked me, so quietly that I knew no one else would be able to hear us.

“More than all right,” I answered, knowing that my answer would be especially important to him.

His brow furrowed. His eyes flashed to the horde of Elthika, situated on the wildlands. Lygath was prowling closer to me, making the Dakkari guards a little skittish. Despite our bond being new, my Elthika would be driven to protect me, to watch over me and ensure that there were no threats against me.

Sarkin too, I thought, seeing my husband appear out of the corner of my eye, his hand coming to my lower back.

“I’m happy, Dannik,” I told him, my words laced with unspoken meaning as I looked deep into his golden eyes. I pressed my hand to Sarkin’s side. “My husband, Sarkin.”

“I remember,” Dannik said, eyeing the Karag male next to me, the edge of a glare in his eye.

Sarkin held my brother’s gaze. I nearly sighed at the posturing between the two males. “There is a lot we have to discuss.”

“Lysi, there is,” Dannik agreed.

My gaze went beyond my brother, who’d been the only one of the Dakkari to approach us, stepping past the safety of the guards to come to me. I looked at my father, my stepmother. Alanis was here but not Lakkis, and she was looking at my Elthika behind me, brow furrowed. She’d probably never been so close to one.

My father was ever watchful. When I met his eyes, it pained me that there was little emotion there. No relief, no happiness. Just an empty stare as if I were a stranger. It hadn’t always been that way, but ever since my mother’s death in the North Lands, he’d grown more and more detached.

I wondered if it hurt him to look at me, considering I looked so much like her. He had loved her, deeply, once.

I took my brother’s hand, knowing that he was the future of Dakkar. He could turn my father’s head if needed. Not even Alanis could do that. And that boded well for all of us. Dannik was reasonable. I could make him understand what was at stake and how our negotiations could only help the Dakkari people.

I sensed the Karath of Grym close by. Observing closely. Listening. I saw my brother glance his way before his eyes went to his red Elthika behind him.

“Shall we?” Dannik asked, gesturing toward the East Gate.

“With conditions,” Sarkin said, keeping me in his hold. “My riders will make camp out here while we are in negotiations. No one goes near our Elthika. And if we see archers or guards approach, we will use ethrall to defend ourselves.”

Dannik’s lips pressed together. “I am not foolish enough to endanger the citizens of Dothik.”

“I am only ensuring the safety of my own people and our Elthika. I’m sure you understand,” Sarkin answered, ever patient. “And when it comes to my wife, I want a guard with her constantly while within the city.”

“You think one of our own would try to hurt her? She’s a princess of Dothik and my sister. I would kill any who try to hurt her.”

“Then we have that in common,” Sarkin replied.

I sighed. “I can watch out for myself in Dothik.”

Sarkin looked at me. “No. Guard with you at all times. I will not risk your safety. It’s not negotiable, Klara.”

I met his eyes. He was serious and wouldn’t relent. I saw that clearly, and it was not something I would argue with him about.

“Very well,” I said, squeezing his wrist.

Dannik was watching the exchange closely. Whatever he saw, he seemed…relieved?

“You’ll stay at the palace?” he asked Sarkin. “We have rooms prepared.”

“I stay with my wife,” Sarkin answered. He gestured his hand toward the two Elysom council members and at Alaryk and his commander. “They can decide where they wish to sleep.”

Dannik inclined his head. “Then let’s get started. We have much to discuss.”

“That we can agree on, Dakkari,” Sarkin said.

It was going to be a long couple of days.

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Chapter 43KLARA

“This is the last remaining heartstone?” Sarkin asked me, his voice hushed as he inspected what was nestled into the ancient sword.

We were below my father’s palace, in the room I knew like it was a part of me.

It was the day after our arrival. Though we were tired from endless discussions, tired from waiting for my father to meet with his council to go over our terms, I’d still wanted to bring Sarkin down here. We were waiting for their decision, after they’d heard what we’d had to say about the thalara tree. Dannik was in with them, as were the council members from Elysom. Alaryk was, apparently, wandering around and observing Dothik up close, making quite a stir wherever he went, or so Sarkin had told me.

“Yes,” I replied. “The very last one.”

It was even dimmer than when I’d last seen it, the power of it dying. Heartstones were not ageless, and this one had been used before, to vanquish the fog in the Dead Lands. Not to mention it had once helped Bekkar, an ancient horde king, shape Dothik into the kingdom it now was.

“I used to sit here all the time,” I murmured, walking to the stone bench that I was surprised wasn’t permanently imprinted with my backside. “I always felt calm down here. More connected to my bloodlines than even when I was out in the city.”

Sarkin took a seat beside me, threading my fingers with his and bringing the back of my hand up to his lips. His kiss was soothing. I hadn’t expected how stressful negotiations like these would be. How mistrustful my father and his council would be, fighting us at every turn, even though every last person in that throne room knew that it was the Karag who held all the power.

“Did you expect it to be like this?” I wondered, thinking about the demands of the Dakkari.

“Yes,” Sarkin replied. “It is always like this. It’s a dance, nothing more. We just have to go through the motions.”

I supposed he would know.

When we’d told them that we knew about the location of a heartstone tree within Dakkar’s border, I had felt the palpable shift in the room. At first they’d wanted Elthika of their own as payment for the tree. They argued that they couldn’t be equals—that they couldn’t be allies—when the power balance was so skewed. If we gave them Elthika, then perhaps they would feel more secure.

Sarkin—and Alaryk—had laughed outright. Having two Karag kings at the negotiations had been…interesting. I didn’t think my father and his advisors really stood a chance.

The representatives from Elysom—an older male I recognized from Sarroth, named Gevanth, and a shrewd-eyed female named Harnek—had been the ones to calmly explain that was not even remotely an option. The Elthika were a race of their own. They were not owned by the Karag. They were allies of them, and they were not for bartering and trading like property or goods.

The Dothikkar—and my stepmother, the queen—had harrumphed at that, as if they didn’t believe it.

When they’d pressed, growing bold, it had been Sarkin to shoot up from his seat, glaring over at my father across the long table as Dannik observed with his arms crossed, leaning against one of the columns of the throne room.

My husband had said in a calm yet icy voice, Let us make one thing clear, Dothikkar. We are here to negotiate for heartstones out of respect, not out of necessity. The Hartans were the last race that tried to take Elthika that were not ours to give. Do you know what happened to them? We went to war and nearly razed their cities to the ground. They now bend a knee to the Karag—and the Elthika—and we no longer ask what they want. He’d glared. We are here for one thing only. Heartstones. If you wish to share in those heartstones, that is what we offer you. We are offering you peace as allies, mostly in part because of my wife, because you are her father and these are her people. She is the queen of the Sarrothian now, and her title demands respect given to her kin. But I’m growing tired of these demands when every last person in here knows that, eventually, we will leave here with exactly what we want.

That had brought the meeting to a swift end as my father and his council met.

I heard footsteps travel down the spiral staircase, heavy on stone. A moment later, Dannik appeared.

“Any news?” I asked, straightening.

“I said my piece. Now we wait. Our father is still Dothikkar, and what he decides goes,” Dannik said. His eyes traveled to Sarkin “I’d like to speak with my sister. Alone.”

Sarkin looked over at me. When I nodded, he inclined his head and stood. “I’ll check on Zaridan and Lygath…and update my kya’rassa. I’ll return in a little while.”

When Sarkin passed Dannik at the staircase, he said, “Watch over her.”

“I always have,” my brother replied, raising a brow.

I bit back a smile. Despite their constant pissing matches, I thought they might’ve respected each other. In another life, they might’ve even been friends. Or killed each other. Either was possible, I supposed.

Sarkin left us, and Dannik came to sit with me.

“Last time we were down here together,” I began, smiling, “was the night that he came. The night everything changed.”

“And everything is changing again,” Dannik replied. He sighed. “This is what you want? You’re not just saying these things because the Karag are telling you to or⁠—”

“Dannik,” I said, my tone pleading. I faced him on the seat, and he peered at me carefully. “I know what you must’ve thought when I left. I know how scared you were for me.”

“Klara, I couldn’t sleep. For weeks. I kept imagining the worst thing. And remembering that I didn’t fight for you as much as I should’ve. I can’t ever forgive myself for that.”

“And what were you going to do? You cannot stand against an Elthika. You saw what we all did that night. Your only choice was to let me make my own decision and go with them,” I said. “I wish that I could have told you that I was okay. Sarkin…he’s not what I expected. He’s a good leader to his people. He cares about them, and he almost always puts them above his own wants and needs. Except when it comes to me,” I amended. “He’s not the villain you imagine him to be. Quite the opposite.”

“You really love him, don’t you?” Dannik asked, frowning as he studied me.

“Yes,” I said easily. “He made it easy. Dannik…I know how this must seem. But believe me, these terms are what’s best for the Dakkari. You have to make our father understand that. Do you really think that I would stand by and not try to help our people?”

“What you ask…it would bind the priestesses’ power. They will not stand idly by and allow that to happen,” Dannik said.

I’d brought up the terms to Sarkin, and he’d presented them. In exchange for the location of the thalara tree and half of the heartstones that were still rooted within the earth, my father would have to agree to strip the priestesses’ power in the North Lands. He would have to return back to the old customs, where the only people allowed to step foot within the temple were priestesses who chose to dedicate their lives to Kakkari, our goddess.

No longer would they have free rein to take anyone who showed signs of having heartstone magic. No longer would they try to create heartstones with experimental practices, killing innocent people in the process. It was an abomination, what they’d been allowed to do. Too long my father had ignored their growing, hungry power. If it wasn’t checked and bound now, I feared what would happen.

“It’s for the best,” I repeated. “Surely you know that.”

“I do. But their power stretches far, Klara. They have their influence in every horde, every outpost, every district in Dothik. It will not be easy to extinguish their reach entirely,” Dannik pointed out, sighing.

“This will be a start,” I said. Lowering my voice, I said, “And once you take the throne, I know that you will be a strong king, one whose mind is not swayed by greed and power.”

“And what if I don’t want it?” Dannik asked quietly, a strange tone in his voice that had me straightening.

“What?” I whispered, quick and sharp.

He smiled, but it didn’t quite meet his eyes. He stood while I frowned up at him, my heartbeat quickening in my chest.

I…I had never asked him if he even wanted the throne. I supposed I had always assumed because he was so well suited for it.

“Do you think that King Arik and Queen Kara intended the throne to always pass through bloodlines? Wasn’t that the knotted mess that they’d been trying to unravel in the first place?” Dannik asked. “Maybe it’s time for the people of Dothik to choose their king or queen. Maybe we should be more like the Karag in that regard. Or like the hordes of our wildlands that have withstood centuries of hardship and still have managed to flourish.”

I stood, taking his hands in mine. “If that’s what you want,” I replied, sincerely. “Perhaps we can help you make that change, but I don’t think it will be easy.”

“Nik,” he replied. No. “It won’t. Don’t listen to me. It feels like years have passed since you left. I’m merely…tired. And I don’t have the luxury of being tired.”

“Sarkin gets like that sometimes,” I told him. “When so many rely on you, the weight of it gets heavy.”

“How does he stand it?”

I laughed. “Maybe you need a wife. He says that I’ve helped him.”

“Maybe I do,” Dannik said, the corner of his lip quirking, though the rest of his expression remained serious. “Regardless, I do think the heartstones would help. Because when this one dies…” He gestured behind him. “I fear what will happen.”

“Then sway Father,” I said, squeezing his familiar palm. “That’s the only way forward. That’s the only way to a stronger Dakkar—one allied with the Karag. It would be a new age for us all.”

His eyes were bright. “It would,” he agreed.

I smiled. “And I, for one, would love to see that.”

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