Page 86 of The Horde King of Shadow

“And who is your loyalty to?” he asked.

“This again,” I breathed, shaking my head. “We talked about this.”

“If given the choice, would you not return to Dakkar? At this very moment? Leave all this behind?”

“Of course not!” I cried out, staring straight into his eyes. “And if you don’t believe me, that’s more of a testament to your loyalty than mine.”

His expression shifted darkly with the words.

“How can we ever build anything if you believe I’m always looking for a way back home?” I asked. “I don’t know what else I can do or say to make you believe me.”

But I am keeping something from him,I couldn’t help but remember. And if I told him, would it only create more of a divide?

“Maybe I’ll stop thinking that when you stop thinking of Dakkar as ‘home,’” he said.

A sharp breath escaped me.

I didn’t see a choice. If I kept it to myself, he would only have more reason to mistrust me.

I bit my lip. But then I gathered my courage.

“I had a dream last night. I lied to you. I didn’t dream of my mother,” I said.

His eyes sharpened on me. “What, then?”

I dragged in a sharp breath. But I figured this was the perfect place to tell him, away from the horde, trapped on a ledge, so we could actuallytalkabout this without disruption.

“The heartstones,” I said, meeting his eyes. “I know where they are.”

His body went still. I didn’t even think he breathed.

“Where?” he asked sharply.

“Back…in Dakkar,” I said. I’d almost saidhome.

He dragged in a full breath, his shoulders rising. “What?”

“If my dream was true…but I believe it was,” I added. “They are in Dakkar.”

“Tell me,” he said. “Everything.”

The bitter thought in my head was,But you never tell me anything.

Still, I relented. I told him about the dream, about what I’d seen, thethalaratree in the middle of a forest near the Dead Lands.

“These heartstones were different,” I finished. “They seemeddulled. Like the one in King Arik’s sword. They’re losing power.”

“The tree is dying,” Sarkin said, raking his gaze over my face. “The heartstones will die with it if we don’t reach them in time.”

“I figured as much.”

“Why are you so certain that your vision is true? Have they ever been wrong?” Sarkin asked.

“Yes,” I said, eyeing him. “Sometimes they’re just dreams. The difficulty is dissecting which parts are true because sometimes my dreams and my visions can meld together. I know this one is true because…there have been stories circulating in my family’s line for centuries. Ever since Vienne. Stories about a bleeding, whispering tree that gifted her a heartstone when she needed it most.”

I took in a deep breath, wondering if he would be angry.

“Its location had been long forgotten, or perhaps purposefully kept secret, but the stories have always persisted. My own mother told me them, who heard them from her mother. She said it was an ancient family secret, that only those in the Rath Drokka line would know the truth of how Vienne found the heartstone that night.”

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