Page 3 of Tethered Thrones

“What?” I asked as everyone came to a stop behind him for a change. Seeing him lead and my nocturnal harem follow felt odd when they usually rallied behind me.

I raised an eyebrow at Kiar, Bracken, and Clem, who all wore matching expressions of pity and concern.

“Your hot breath murmuring against my neck is annoying–” Hadi grunted, stopping himself from sayingverminorhuman, I was sure. “Sun.Spit it out. What bothers you so?”

I frowned at that because there was no easy way to explain what I was going through or what dark thoughts I was thinking, either. I moved my lips to speak and faltered, so I pivoted to something even more pressing than the war.

“We need to rest,” I said, my voice shaking as if I were still crying like a damn child. How embarrassing. That’s why they looked at me this way and followed Hadi instead.

“Why?” Kiar asked, slithering beside me, wrapping part of his tail around me as he’d done a million times by now. “We are not far now.”

“Define not far. By noc or human standards?” I rebutted, as Bracken and then Clem decided to chime in.

“By noc standards, a few days if we’re not overwhelmed by the vermin or traitors. But at your delicate speed, a few weeks if we don’t pick up the pace,” Bracken added.

“Though, if you’re tired, Sun, let’s rest! However, I don’t think a dirt road is best, and I’m not sure if we should scale a snowy mountain again to find a burrow or… Hmm…” Clem said, turning blue as he nibbled his bottom lip worriedly.

I rolled my eyes at all of them.

“The soldiers we met at the bottom of the mountain have probably already alerted a garrison, and that garrison has probably already sent a messenger bird directly to the emperor,” I said as Kiar hissed, and Hadi peered down at me through hooded eyes.

“So?” Hadi said, and I pinched my throbbing temples.

Were they all acting purposely stupid, or had being in the presence of the goddess sucked away their good sense?

“What I’m saying is, they’ll know before we arrive! Before we can even tell our story and hope for support and probably cause a civil war. We may face opposition or an ambush along this road. Scratch that, we will.”

I turned towards the setting sun, noticing a thin trail of lantern light igniting further down along the mountain pass.

“Our small squadron of five isn’t strong enough alone against the ruler of Naran,” I added to drive my point home.

But instead of flaring with rage at the thinly veiled insult, Hadi stated matter-of-factly, “But we are not alone.”

I stilled as Hadi crouched his enormous body brushing against me as Kiar stroked the back of my head. The spider king looked at his palm with disgust before reaching for me, stroking a strand of my hair. It stole my breath away, and I gulped.

Hadi didn’t have to follow it up with, “Because you have us, and we you,” but I felt it in the strength of his hands stoking my head, deep down in my bones.

“General Kovit is dead, and since he won’t return, Daaku will know about us soon. He probably already does if Kovit was wise enough to alert the false king,” Kiar mused out loud as Bracken nodded, scooping up Clem, who seemed unusually tired.

“Agreed. Sun has a point. We will be encircled soon enough, potentially trapped between our enemies. Let us be at fullstrength,” Bracken stated, and I was thankful someone agreed with me.

No one argued, and I sighed with contentment to rest my weary bones. All in agreement now, we began to walk, looking for a good spot to rest.

After just a few minutes, when I saw a string of lights in the distance and realized how far we’d come, relief filled me.

“We rest there,” I said, pointing. “After a drink.”

As I reached for Hadi, he lifted me into his arms but didn’t move to put me on his back. He held me at arm’s length with a curious look.

“A drink of what?”

“Liquor. What else? We’re already damned fools trying to slay two mad rulers. Might as well not be sober marching to our deaths.”

I didn’t mean for all that bitterness to leak out immediately. But Hadi didn’t admonish me; if anything, his expression softened.

Madness.If there was one thing I knew about Hadi, it was that there was nothing soft about him. He cursed out a goddess for being deranged. He was fearless and foolish compared to even me.

And yet, I couldn’t deny the tenderness by which he positioned me so I could crawl back on his back. Without another word, they followed my command.

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