Page 75 of Chaos and Destiny
“She came in the night with a group of sea fae. I was standing watch, guarding the top of the dune above the city, but just as I was about to sound the alarm, she spoke to me. I was not able to move or call out. She made me ...” He tried to swallow the words, though it physically pained him to defy my order. “She made me tell her what the cetani eat and where we got it. I tried to lie. I couldn’t. I couldn’t.” He grabbed his stomach, as if he’d be sick.
“What happened next?”
“She told me to steal a weapon of Umari’s and kill the youngest cetani. Oh gods, I did. I entered the cave and found two precious eggs. I had no control. I plunged the sword into the smallest egg. She told me to forget once I was done. She made me forget it all. Everything.”
“Did you report back to her about the eggs? Does she know?” I asked.
“She does not know. They were gone when I returned from killing the hatchling.”
Wails from the crowd began. “Murderer,” someone yelled at him.
I held my hand up and faced the angry fae. Their faces were hard, unforgiving as they reacted to his wretched testimony.
“Who called him a murderer?” I asked.
A female raised her hand and stepped forward. “I did. And I’ll not apologize for it.”
“Kneel,” I enchanted her.
She was instantly on the ground.
“Sing to me.”
She obeyed. Hideous as the song was, she continued.
“Now stop, lay on the ground and never take another bite of food again.”
The crowd gasped as the rest of her body fell forward onto the ground. “But you’ll kill her,” someone said.
I walked over to the female and whispered in her ear. She nodded and stood. I held back my magic to prove my point. “Please tell the crowd what you have been doing these last few minutes.”
“I’ve only just arrived. I was riding my cetani through the skies.”
“Now you will remember everything,” I sang to her.
She took a step away from me in horror.
“Do you see?” I asked her and the fae behind her. “This male will forever be haunted by what he has done, though he had no choice and no memory of it. You may be mad. You may be sad. But he is not to blame. He would have never chosen his actions. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and any of you who have had guard duty could have been in his shoes. I beg of you to show him mercy because I can promise he will never show it to himself. Nobody hates this male more than he hates himself right now.”
They looked at each other in understanding.
Umari stepped forward. “I will not punish Nuath, and neither will any of you. Am I understood?”
“Hooh!” they all yelled in unison. The draconian warrior cry.
“The king has indeed saved the rest of our cetani, and now he needs us to fight for him. With him. Are you ready? Will you stand beside him against the real enemy? Against Morwena?”
“Hooh. Hooh. Hooh,” the draconians chanted.
She turned to me, placed a fist on her chest, and took a knee. The crowd followed behind her. “We are with you, Your Grace. From this day until honor calls us home.”
“Hooh. Hooh,” the draconians called.
My skin was alive, my breath was alive, and the tiger roared from within. We would fight. I would find my mate’s murderer, and I would find a way to kill her.
Facing Asha, she knelt to the ground once more, laying one wing flat. I carefully stepped onto her extended feathers, cringing at the thought, but she did not waver as I moved. She held fast as I took another step, and then another, until I stood atop her back. Slowly, I lowered myself to a seated position.
“Hold the skin at the nape of her neck,” Umari called out. “Just between the base of the wings.”
