Page 60 of The Omega Slave

“How are you—” Kamir gasped, but then Tsaria decided Kamir’s lips had better uses than forming words, and he stood in the middle of a fire that should have roasted them alive and kissed him.

Flames roared around them, and it was as if they were one. The flames blasted through them, joining them together. Bonding them for all time.

Tsaria drew back a little for breath, cocooned by the flames that didn’t hurt them, that could never hurt them.

“This is impossible,” Kamir’s voice broke.

“No, my love. We are bonded.” He knew deep inside him it was true. “You have a dragon, an elemental used to the heat of the fire mountain. It was our bonding that protected you. In here you are safest and you are keeping me so, but I think the people of Rajpur need to see your dragon. You need to take your throne and end this nonsense.”

“And you’ll stay with me?” Kamir almost begged.

Tsaria’s eyes burned. “I never want to be anywhere else.” He kissed him once more and demanded Kamir’s dragon come forth, pouring all the love in his heart into the command. Kamir arched his back and roared, his voice quickly becoming flames that poured from his throat and the collar dropped uselessly to the ground. Tsaria didn‘t move as Kamir grew scales and a huge tail. He wasn’t scared. He was in love. The audience clearly didn’t agree and started screaming. Many ran. The guards that drew their swords were shot a warning flame. The ones who backed away were spared, and any who thought to draw a weapon against Kamir’s bonded were incinerated on the spot.

Kamir’s dragon roared again, the people who had stayed trying to cover their ears at the deafening noise, until with a whoosh the fire went out, and the kindling and the post became simple ash. The silence was palpable. Tsaria glanced down at the collar and the chains that had held Kamir, nothing but a twisted, molten mess on the floor. And amongst all that, Kamir just stood breathing heavily. Tsaria stepped close and put a hand to Kamir’s neck. He would never let anyone hurt him ever again. “Your people need to hear you speak.”

Kamir changed instantly back to human, dressed still in his imperial clothes, and the audience gasped. Tsaria wanted to laugh, but he didn’t. They weren’t impressed by his dragon, simply that Kamir could appear fully dressed when he changed back?

But maybe they were in shock. It was one thing to hear of a legend, it was another to see a living, breathing embodiment of it. He met Kamir’s eyes and gloried in the trust in them. The love. He would never doubt him again.

“I am Kamir Anslar, son and heir of the last Emir of Rajpur and direct descendant. You have seen me cleansed by the goddess and change into my animal, fulfilling the qualifying edicts to assume my throne.” He looked at Damatrious, who to his credit was one of the ones who hadn’t run, then dropped his voice. “I didn’t kill your brother. I don’t know how she is managing this but the enchantress Elainore from the sand people is responsible and must be detained right away. She has your father in her thrall and was responsible for the deaths.”

Damatrious gaped.

Tsaria glanced around. He didn’t see Gabar anywhere, but they were in the courtyard, which was filling up quickly as the word about Kamir was obviously spreading.

Damatrious beckoned his guards. “Seal the palace. No one in or out, especially Lord Anslar. On my order.” The guards all jumped to attention and left, but a new influx of people surged out to the courtyard.

Damatrious turned back to Kamir, then slowly but deliberately bent his knee and knelt in supplication. “Highness, please accept my apologies and my undying loyalty. You survived the cleansing, and it is clear you have the blessing of the goddess” Damatrious bowed his head and drew his right hand across his chest. That must mean something because he’d seen those close to Raz and Attiker do the same.

A cheer went up and in the blink of an eye, people tried to crowd around. The witnesses, guards, even servants came to cheer and bless their new emir. But then the crowd swelled again. It seemed that everyone wanted to swear their love and loyalty. Someone bumped into Tsaria and he had to let go ofKamir just to stay on his feet, and instantly a wall of people separated them.

Tsaria stumbled again as someone crowded him. A sting bit his neck at the same time, and Tsaria brought his hand up even as he looked down to see where he could safely place his sandals.

The last thing he remembered seeing was a pair of bare feet.

Chapter twenty-six

Kamir’s dragon roared. It took him a moment to work out it had actually been in his head and he hadn’t just roasted the entire throng, when a feeling of utter loss, closely followed by panic, swept through him. He knew it was Tsaria before any other thought came to mind. “Silence!” he shouted, and every single person stilled.

He glanced around. “Where is my bonded?” He couldn’t see him. He couldn’t feel him. “Sire?” Damatrious said in confusion. “I wasn’t aware—”

“The sand people,” Tomas shouted, struggling to get through the crowd that had pinned him in the corner. “They were surrounding him, but I couldn’t see properly.”

“My bonded is the man that accompanied this soldier into the chamber,” Kamir said, remembering they had stood together, his feet already moving to the entrance before a dozen guards stepped up to him.

“Search the palace,” Damatrious ordered and began giving specific instructions on which entrances should be blocked.

Kamir glanced around. “Where is my life sentinel?” Damatrious paled.

“I will have him brought.”

Which Kamir knew meant Mansala was in the dungeon, and much as Kamir wanted to rush after Tsaria, he knew he couldn’t help without having some idea of where they had taken him. Kamir wanted to flay them all alive, but Damatrious seemed to have command of the guards, and Kamir needed that. “From this moment, you are commander of my armies,” he decreed.

Damatrious looked stunned, but then bowed his head. “I will not let you down, Highness.”

“Seize him!”

Everyone turned at his uncle’s voice and Kamir almost found fleeting amusement. If Tsaria was here,whenTsaria was here, they would laugh together at the pathetic excuse for his uncle, even surrounded by the newly arrived imperial guard.

---