Page 11 of King of Storms and Feathers

Closing my eyes, I slid to the floor and wrapped the cloak around my knees, hugging them to my chest. I sighed. “Have you been here long? What is this place? What are they going to do with us?”

“So many questions,” he said.

“With no memories of my own, questions are all I have.”

Davy grunted. “Do you remember anything at all?”

I shrugged again. “Being locked in a cage at the gilt market. Prior to that, maybe an ocean journey trapped in a barrel, and before that, ruins in a forest that I figure must be my home.”

“Sounds like you’re from the Earth Realm of Dust and Stones. I’m a gold chaser from the Ice Realm. I got caught running a black-market operation, moving gold from port to port. Been here three days.”

“Will they kill us?”

“Not until they’ve passed judgment. The guy who ran this cell before me said they choose docile, fit slaves to work in the palace. The fit but troublesome ones get sent to the gold mines. The weakest go straight to the fires.”

I bit my lip. “The fire option isn’t ideal.”

“No. You look like a troublemaker to me. You’d better work on fixing that.”

Glancing at him, I smiled. “Who decides?”

“A gold reaver elf called the Sayeeda who appears once a week. She’s in charge of the slaves and the palace kitchens. Apparently, she’s a big deal at court and close to the king, serves his food and everything. She’s due to make her selections tomorrow.”

I picked at a loose thread on the cloak, the gold glowing as if imbued with magic. “What’s a gold reaver elf?”

“You don’t know? An elven species of fae. Their blood feeds the mines, grows the gold. Somehow, they’re connected to the birds upstairs. That knowledge won’t do you any good, though.”

He was wrong. Knowledge was power and could be exploited. I intended to gather every scrap of information I could, escape my chains, and shove a blade through the king’s heart before I left the city.

Davy fumbled in his pocket, then passed me a piece of dried bread.

My lip curled at its sour smell, but I took it with a nod of thanks. “Why are you helping me? Everyone else in here is afraid of you.”

He grinned. “You’re a survivor. We might be of use to each other.”

“Fair enough.” I gnawed an edge of the hard bread, ignoring the grit between my teeth.

Davy stared at me, his dark eyes simmering with emotions I recognized all too clearly—desperation and determination to survive no matter what.

“Listen, if you make it to the kitchen and act the obedient slave, rumor has it your conditions won’t be too bad. You might even get out of Coridon one day.”

One day. I couldn’t wait for some distant hypothetical day. It had to be soon.

Dropping my forehead onto my knees, my thoughts grew drowsy, exhaustion finally getting the better of me.

Survive, I told myself on repeat, digging my nails into my calves to sear the message into my flesh. You must survive.

I would learn the rules of the Kingdom of Storms and Feathers and pray that my memory returned soon. I would sacrifice my dignity to gain the means to escape and return to the green-eyed boy who waited for me in the forest.

For him, I had to survive.

There was no other choice.

Chapter 4

The Girl

Every shade of green, from lightest sage to darkest emerald, surrounded and embraced me. Even the stone ruins beneath my feet were covered in the black-green slime of decaying moss and vines.

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