Page 9 of King of Storms and Feathers

Or a traitor to my people—whoever they were.

While in the carriage, I'd overheard Raiden say amnesia was a temporary condition, not permanent, and that one day soon, I would remember everything. Well, I was counting on it.

In the meantime, somehow I knew without a doubt that I possessed the skills to kill this Arrow with a single blow. My ability to fight was the only thing I was certain of. I wasn’t a stranger to pain, receiving it or giving it.

Esen clipped me over the ear. “I said hurry.”

Light flashed over the backs of my eyelids, and I stumbled. Then darkness swallowed me, and I was trapped in the past again.

The entire world rocked and swayed as my fingernails scratched down the inside of a wooden barrel. I screamed my throat raw to get out, but no one came to help me. I felt sure I was traveling over a wild sea in a ship’s hold.

I shook my head, then my vision changed, and I was on the back of a truck surrounded by tiny cages crammed with men and women, their moans prickling my spine.

My thoughts tumbled and raced between the past and the present as Esen pushed me, urging me to walk faster. I dug my fingers into my outer thigh and tried to bring back the visions, desperate to rewind them to the beginning of my story to find out who I was and who had wronged me.

Arrow glanced over his shoulder, his silver gaze raking over me once before he turned back and resumed his conversation with the brawny Raiden, the cruel twist of his mouth indicating he was still contemplating killing me slowly.

We entered the palace via a narrow side doorway at the end of a long courtyard. Once inside the building, we marched along deserted hallways, gold glinting off the walls lit by gilded sconces and candelabras.

Golden cages lined the walls at regular intervals, filled with raven-sized birds who rustled their gold and black feathers and peered at us with beady, bright-red eyes.

“What are they?” I asked Esen.

“Birds, obviously. They are called the auron kanara.”

“Is that the name of their species?” I asked, frowning.

Esen shot me a glare. “Of course.”

“Why are there so many of them?”

She snorted. “This is nothing. In some areas of the kingdom, entire streets and houses are crammed with their cages. But don’t fret about it, human. Where you’re going, you don’t need to understand anything.”

After a time, the corridors veered downward, below ground level, where nothing good was ever housed. Visions of dank dungeons gripped me, scenes of filth, degradation, and torture.

At the end of a hallway, two men in gold-accented black armor guarded narrow barred doors.

A guard stepped forward, bowed, and gestured toward me with a gold-tipped spear. “My King,” he said, “where shall we take her?”

My stomach dropped to my feet. Had I heard right? The gruff, dust-covered Arrow was a king?

Brilliant. I had made an enemy of the ruler of the most powerful kingdom in the realms. I stared at him, struggling to view him in this new lofty role. I supposed he was arrogant enough for the job.

But why would a powerful king gallivant across the land, visit a dusty gilt market in an unmarked carriage, and buy a rebellious slave?

“Take her to the mine cells,” said Esen.

“No.” Arrow shot her a glare, then paused to contemplate me. “Take her Underfloor, but put her in the testing cells. Let the Sayeeda decide what she’s fit for, if anything. If she makes one wrong move, slit her throat and feed her to the fires, dead or alive.”

Swallowing a lump in my throat, I resolved that no matter how badly I wanted to scratch Arrow’s eyes from his head, I would be on my best behavior from that moment forward.

I had to survive and return to the forest, find the green-eyed boy from my visions.

Esen’s jaw hung slack. The guard hauled me through the ornate doors he’d been guarding and into the tiny chamber.

I gaped around at its strangeness. “What is this?” I asked as metal doors slid closed and the other guard stabbed a blunt finger at a gold button on the wall.

“An elevator,” said Arrow, his smirk blurring as the chamber plunged downwards.

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