Page 17 of King of Fire and Flames

Nothing more.

Chapter 5

Leaf

That evening, just as I swallowed my last mouthful of dinner, the locks rattled outside my room and Esen entered alone, her expression pinched, not open as it had been during our visit to the stables.

“When you shoved me in here earlier, you forgot to remove this,” I said, holding my chained wrists aloft.

“No. I didn’t.” She tilted her chin toward another gown that a servant had hung on a coat stand by the door. “Put it on.”

“Why?” I rose from the chair, pushing it under a small, round dining table before smoothing my palms over my leather pants.

“The king wants you to wear it while you fight.”

So tonight’s event was a battle.

Of course Azarn wasn’t interested in testing the strength of my mind. Well, fine, then. If he wanted blood and gore, I’d do my best to give it to him.

I cracked my back, thankful I’d spent the day training. Even with my wrists restrained, I’d moved through as many two-handed strike patterns I could think of, limbering my muscles.

“I’d like to see Azarn fight in a dress,” I said. “Will my opponent be wearing one?”

Silent, Esen crossed her arms and stared at me through narrowed eyes.

“No? Then neither will I.”

She rolled her eyes, then led me down the tower staircase and through the palace, while I quietly celebrated the fact I still wore my tunic and leathers. A sad victory considering I was possibly about to die, but a victory nonetheless.

In the Great Hall, servants collected the leftovers of a lavish feast from tables that lined both sides of the oval room. On a raised platform that loomed high above the court, a male flutist with silver hair so long it tumbled almost to the marble floor, played a dark atmospheric tune. He accompanied a singer who flew around him, the webbing of her bat-like wings translucent and her voice high and ethereal.

The musicians and courtiers fell silent as we approached the dais where the king sat surrounded by his family. I squared my shoulders, lifting my chin, refusing to show any signs of fear, my pulse racing, and my heart pumping erratically.

An oval, stained-glass window dominated the space behind the dais. Framed by magical flames, it spread the colors of a fiery sunset throughout the hall and illuminated carvings on the curved black walls. At night, the hall’s true beauty was revealed.

The Sun Realm royals sat like statues carved in ice on tall, narrow thrones, their expressions frozen in unreadable masks. A thick silence enveloped the hall, each deliberate, slow thud of my boots the only sound cutting through it.

In a burst of swirling gray fabric, the king’s ghost sister appeared out of thin air and shot along the center aisle, stopping in front of me, her slippers hovering two feet above the floor.

Cold fingers swiped over my throat. Correction, swiped through my throat, as if she wanted to strangle me with her ghostly hands but couldn’t.

“Arrowyn Ramiel despises you, human,” she hissed.

“So it seems. Did he hate you as well?”

Tears of blood leaked from her translucent eyes, and her body shook with fury.

“Ruhh dearest,” the king called out. “Return to me at once. The best seat from which to enjoy the proceedings is the one beside me, and tonight it is yours.”

Azarn stared down his nose at Queen Estella, and without a word, she rose obediently, then eased into the ghost girl’s chair. In a cloud of dust and ragged material, Ruhh glided across the marble and joined her brother on the shining black dais.

One foot in front of the other, I told myself. And if that was all I could do, it was better than collapsing on the floor and giving up.

Never give in, and never show fear—that was the mantra I lived by. And I’d gladly die by it, too. Because Mydor blood would never fail.

Even after my death it would live on in Van and the reaver elves. Killing me wouldn’t end my quest for balance throughout the Five Realms. In my stead, others would rise up and carry the eternal torch of peace. I was certain of it.

I stopped at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at the king, waiting for his instructions.

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