Page 13 of The Horde King of Shadow

“Very well. It will be you, then,” came the softly clipped words. I caught an unmistakable edge of disappointment. “For reasons I cannot see.”

I was already beginning to shake my head, panic rising.There must be some other way,I thought.

“Say your goodbyes to your family and your homeland, wife,” Sarkin ordered, his hand sliding away from my face, already beginning to walk back to his riders. “We leave for Karak at dawn.”

Shock rooted me into place like a tree, sinking me deep until I wondered if our goddess’ earth could just swallow me up entirely.

“And Klara,” Sarkin said behind me, “I advise you not to try to run before then.”

The dragon huffed out a sharp breath, her scales rustling, though they no longer made her song.

“Zaridan has your scent now,” he told me. “There is no where we will not find you.”

Chapter 5

SARKIN

“Think they’ll attempt to retaliate tonight?” Feranos asked me, sliding off Vorna’s back, and his Elthika leapt to the sky, disappearing into the dark clouds above. Zaridan was above us as well, circling, surveying, waiting. She grew impatient so far from home.

“No,” I answered, turning my gaze back to Dothik, the glittering city I’d once dreamed of seeing in person as a child. The Dakkari’s capital was impressive, though I was disappointed. Fantastical stories never mixed well with a true reality.

Dothik looked tired. Tired and unwelcoming. The middle of this continent was dry, hot, and drab. I didn’t know how most Dakkari lived here, how they lived on the inhospitable wilds of this place. The West Lands of their country, with its lakes and hills, held more promise. It reminded me more of home.

“For all theDothikkar’s faults, I don’t think he’s a fool. Neither is the heir,” I continued. I was sitting on the ledge of a mountain to the west of the city. We were camped on the other side for the night. How Feranos had found me was a mystery.“The Hartans learned to kneel to the Elthika. The Dakkari will learn to do the same.”

“The Elders will not be pleased that instead of a heartstone, we come home with a Dakkari princess,” Feranos warned.

“I always deliver what I promise, don’t I?” I asked, cutting a look over to him.

“But the heartstone?—”

“Is butone,” I finished, cutting off his words. “One dying heartstone. That’s not what we need. We must be patient, for a little longer.”

Feranos went quiet. “The princess?”

“Yes,” I said. “Zaridan knows what she’s doing. I might not understand it fully quite yet, but I’m beginning to. I trust in my Elthika more than anything, just like any Sarrothian. Wouldn’t you trust in a mate Vorna chose for you?”

“Yes,” Feranos said, his voice hushed in its quiet reverence. “I would.”

Unlike Feranos, I’d never believed in fate…but after today, I wondered if I’d been wrong. I’d heard my dragon’s song—thesy’asha—and I remembered the dizzying jolt of my future wife’s words.

I have seen your forests of heartstones. Perhaps you’re greedy for just one more.

She thought us greedy? She was wrong.

We werestarvingfor mere scraps.

There was ancient Elthikan magic here—I could feel it. The heartstones had infused their power into this land. It breathed life into this place, cultivated itself in its sons and daughters. It flowed in the rivers, it enriched the soil, it was in the wind that blew from the north and in the waves that crashed against the cliffs in the south.

One thing was clear to me, however. It was diminished here too, just as it was in Karak. The Dakkari didn’t seem to realize what would happen when that power was depleted entirely.

But we did.

“I still think we should take the heartstone, Sarkin,” Feranos said, shaking his head. “We shouldtry, at the very least, to take it to the Arsadia. To see if it will take.”

“No,” I said, the word sharp and firm. I inhaled a long breath, looking back to Dothik. “One thing we know about the Dakkari is they are a spiritual people. To take the heartstone is to offend their goddess. They will never forgive it. It once belonged to great kings here. Let it rest and die here. We won’t need it soon anyway. And forging a path in peace is easier than in blood.”

“The Hartans know that,” Feranos said, his low laugh echoing along the mountains. I heard the great gust of wings overhead from our Elthika.

---