Page 76 of King of Storms and Feathers

Arrow had earned the respect of his people, but his father, King Darian, and his heir, Karln, were more feared. According to rumors, before their deaths, they’d regularly treated slaves and courtiers cruelly.

On the outskirts of Coridon, we passed a rowdy group of drunken trolls and orcs who were heading toward Bonerust. Dread shuddered down my spine as one of them frowned and sniffed the air, unwelcome memories of the blacksmith’s cell assaulting me. Fortunately, Ari’s invisibility cloak held, and we passed by them without incident.

When we were alone again, I pushed the memories aside and concentrated on the sound of the ballad Ari sang in the lilting reaver language, her melancholic voice rising above the jingle of our horses’ tack.

Just inside the golden gates of the storm city, Esen herself waited on horseback. Dressed in the royal guards’ black and gold armor, her face bore the smile of a malevolent forest sprite who hoped to lead an unsuspecting wanderer off a cliff edge to their gory death.

“Welcome home,” she said as Ari greeted her with a slow nod. “I was beginning to think you weren’t coming back.”

“What business is it of yours?” I asked.

Ari’s horse led the way as Esen pulled her mount alongside my gray mare, whose stomach was rumbling ominously.

“Arrow instructed me to advise him of your return.”

“Well, then,” I said, giving her a bright smile. “You’d better hurry off and advise him, like the obedient servant you’re pretending to be.”

“That’s a role we both must play. But let me warn you, the royal chamber slaves have expiration dates, after which time they become unpalatable to our kings, dispensable. A month maximum before they get fed to the fires. The really unlucky ones go to the gold mines, become gold eaters, addicts if they weren’t already, and labor until their flesh rots from their bones. This is your future, human.”

Surely she was speaking about the old kings of Coridon. Arrow was far from sweet and benevolent, but as yet, he hadn’t beaten me, even after he recaptured me from Bonerust.

What he’d done was possibly worse—tortured me with his body, then left me to burn with unresolved desire, staked out like a virgin sacrifice all night long.

At some point, I’d make the asshole pay for that.

Esen nudged her knee into my mare’s flank. “Your days are numbered, human.”

“As may yours be, Esen, if you disobey your king again.”

She snarled. “Arrowyn will always take my word over a human bed-warmer’s. Always.”

“I guess we’ll see about that,” I said, smiling.

My thighs tightened around my horse’s belly, and she released an overlong belch. Actually, the sound may not have originated from her mouth. Then off she trotted toward the stables, moving faster than she had all day.

For some time after I’d disappeared from Esen’s sight, her outrage burned like hot daggers between my shoulder blades. An extremely satisfying sensation that was almost as gratifying as picturing her bitter scowl floating in a cloud of stench.

Chapter 20

Leaf

As I stared up at Arrow’s empty winged throne three nights after my visit to Auron K, my resolve not to ask about his recent absence finally broke.

“Where has your king been hiding lately?” I said, turning to Ari, who sat at a table beside me on the floor of Coridon’s Grand Hall.

Arrow hadn’t returned to his chambers since the night he’d found me in Bonerust, and I was tired of waiting for someone to tell me whether he’d fallen off the edge of the kingdom or not.

“Thanks to you, Arrowyn is currently in the Sun Realm. The envoy whose eye you nearly took out was King Azarn’s cousin, and let’s just say he was more than a little upset by the assault.”

“Near assault,” I corrected, gnawing on a spicy chicken wing. I tossed the bone onto my plate. “Why does Arrow care what the Fire King thinks?” I asked. “I can’t imagine him bowing before anyone.”

Seated on my left, Ildri coughed to cover a laugh and muttered, “Except you.”

Smiling, I raised a brow and waited for her to continue.

She cleared her throat. “We rely on the Fire Court’s transformational magic to keep the portals open between our realms. And on top of your misdemeanor, Arrowyn killed Gorbinvar, who was a Sun Realm fae, so there was much to be atoned for.” Ildri leaned closer. “The debt was paid in large quantities of gold and a night or two spent drinking King Azarn’s wine to soothe his fragile ego.”

Tonight, Ildri looked like a queen in a gown made of silver and gold scales and with a circlet of feathers weaving through her tumbling waves of red hair. Since the night I’d first seen her seated at the king’s table, her frosty demeanor had thawed significantly. And I couldn’t help wondering if she was one of my secret allies.

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