Page 54 of Our Vicious Oaths
KADEESHA STRADDLED ZAHZAH AND ARCEDthrough the sky on the war serpent as the two of them led a training drill for the rest of their squadron. She clung to Zahzah’s neck as they sent a combined volley of red and purple flames raining down on a group of wooden dummies arranged in a cluster on the arena sands below. Like she’d been doing over the last five days, she pictured Malachi standing among the dummies; it was an exercise to prove to herself that the passionate night they’d spent together that ended in the Markings hadn’t affected her in any significant manner, and she could and would kill Malachi as she’d originally planned in a heartbeat—he hadn’t gotten under her skin enough for anything to change about that.
I could eat him right now. Then there’s no chance of such future problems.Zahzah’s solution to Kadeesha’s brooding was delivered gleefully.
Kadeesha chuckled, appreciating the levity Zahzah’s latest offer to turn Malachi into a tasty meal brought her. “We need Malachi alive for a while longer,” she told her old friend.
Zahzah grunted.
The barrage of arrows that whizzed toward them from the right with deadly accuracy and speed wiped away any further thoughts of Malachi. Zahzah clocked them at the same time. The war serpent didn’t surge higher into the sky to avoid their trajectory. That wasn’t Zahzah’s style. She instead pivoted so she faced the arrows straight-on. Her roar cracked across the sky like thunder as she spewed flames that incinerated the wooden missiles on contact. It was glorious to behold, but the chilling knowledge wasn’t lost on Kadeesha that if the opponents who’d loosed the arrows—Apollyon soldiers participating in the training drill whom Shionne stood among commanding—had been using the actual onyx-crafted arrows they’d use in a real battle, even Zahzah’s flames wouldn’t have disintegrated them. Nor would Kadeesha’s. It was an unsettling fact that she shouldn’t place aside, and now was an opportune time to test out if there was a way to counter the advantage Apollyon forces wielded with their onyx weapons.
“Hold back your fire. I want to see something,” she told Zahzah. Kadeesha sent her own flames flying down at the squad of Apollyon soldiers who stood on the arena sands and only directed the purple fire to encircle the fake enemy squad without straying close enough to do actual harm. She knew onyx wouldn’t burn even amid the most scorching of temperatures, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t become excruciatingly hot until it was blistering to the touch. Experimenting with that possibility, Kadeesha picked out four archers among the group and directed flames to leap up and blaze along the length of the arrows they’d nocked. Her flames roiling along the arrows’ shafts vanished as swiftly as they’d sparked. She cursed; the observation wasn’t comforting.
Nearby in the skies, the rest of her Nkita and their kongamatos were fending off similar aerial attacks by other pockets ofApollyon soldiers. There were some who launched assaults with more arrows. And others who made use of catapults and gigantic crossbows mounted on the fronts of war chariots.
A vision hit her of what the killing field would look like amid true war—amid Malachi’s planned invasion. It was one thing to command a squadron whose function was to defend against threats encroaching upon her lands. But Malachi and his army wouldbethe invaders, the ones aiming to carry out a wave of death and ruin and destruction. And she and her Nkita were now oathbound to participate. To aid the Apollyon king in his agenda of mass carnage. She had no love for Rishaud and yearned to see him annihilated. But, as she’d told Malachi before, his desire to spill the blood of others not directly involved in his parents’ murders was heinous. And he was making her party to it.
The knowledge stayed with her throughout the remainder of the exercise, gnawing away at the pit of her stomach. As soon as her feet touched the ground when the drill concluded, a wave of vertigo crashed into Kadeesha, nausea right behind it. Her whole body shuddered as she vomited in the grass. She dragged one hand across her mouth as Leisha ran to her side and gently took hold of her elbow.
“What’s the matter? Are you all right?” her sister asked urgently.
Kadeesha never got the chance to answer. She could only drag in a ragged breath while she clutched her stomach trying to make the dizzying nausea subside …
It didn’t, and she vomited more—lots more—until she was dry heaving and there was nothing left to regurgitate besides bile. Zahzah, thank the Celestials, stood beside her the entire time—the kongamato a silent, threatening presence whose gigantic wings curled around Kadeesha and Leisha and shieldedher against onlookers while she lingered in this vulnerable state. Her squad closed ranks too, encircling Zahzah like the kongamato encircled her. She only caught glimpses of their lower halves beneath Zahzah’s massive wings each time she doubled over to retch; the violet hue of their leather pants assured her they were near and acting as a second protective barrier. So were the other kongamatos, who stood interspersed among the flyers.
That comfort was fleeting, though, because her mind was focused on a single question:What in the hell?
Taking a breath, she finally gathered her wits and the waves of nausea eased enough to stop retching. She straightened and wiped her mouth once more.
Zahzah gently nuzzled Kadeesha’s bicep.What is the matter?
“I don’t know,” she answered weakly. Zahzah appeared the picture of calm on the outside, but the war serpent’s worry for her bled into Kadeesha’s mind.
Kadeesha moved to pat Zahzah’s head to soothe her and assure her she was fine. Instead, she found herself leaning against Zahzah for balance, the world momentarily tilting. Leisha cursed and locked her arms around Kadeesha’s waist. She blinked, shook her head, and then forcefully pushed away whatever weirdness had stricken her. She heaved in another breath and gathered the strength to move away from Zahzah, planting her feet in grass that still had the fine sheen of an early morning dew—the parts that weren’t covered with her breakfast, at least—and inhaled slowly. She breathed out just as slowly. After a few more controlled breaths, she was mostly all right, albeit exhaustion seemed to weigh down her limbs. “I’m okay. I can stand on my own,” she was able to tell Zahzah and Leisha at last. Zahzah snorted a small stream of doubtful flames, and Leisha didn’t budge from her side.
“Let’s get the kongamatos back to the aerie,” she said to Leisha.
“No,” Leisha said stubbornly. “You could’ve been poisoned. I need to get you back to the palace to see a healer. The others can take care of the kongamatos.”
Kadeesha clenched her fists because it was a possibility. “Fine. Tell the others to gather the kongamatos and you escort me back and then get Yashira,” she advised Leisha. “My mother will be better at dealing with poison than any healer.”
LEISHA GOT KADEESHAback to her room, insisted she lie down, and then left to fetch her mother straightaway.
Only a brief spell passed before Yashira rushed through the doors, frantically asking Kadeesha to tell her each suffered symptom as she ran to her bedside. Kadeesha recounted the extreme nausea and weakness and dizziness as Yashira laid a slender hand against her forehead.
“You are without fever,” her mother murmured, “a good sign.” She leaned closer and laid the index finger of each hand on top of Kadeesha’s eyelids. She lifted them and peered closely at Kadeesha’s pupils. “No dilation or discoloration,” Yashira observed next. She had Kadeesha stick out her tongue so she could check for any alarming variations of color there. But, again, there was nothing. She ordered Kadeesha to strip bare and meticulously scrutinized every inch of her skin from her scalp to the soles of her feet. Yashira’s eyebrows knitted together when she noted nothing of concern. “You may have been exposed to a toxin that presents any identifying outward effects moreslowly,” she said tightly. “How do you feel this moment?” she inquired as Kadeesha re-dressed.
Kadeesha completed an inward probe. “Fine,” she answered truthfully, for the knots in her stomach, the queasiness, the dizziness, the fatigue that had weighed down her limbs had all vanished.
As she sat on the edge of the bed, Yashira eyed her, plainly measuring the veracity of Kadeesha’s claim against what she’d observed herself.
Then her mother’s eyes widened, and discernment lightened her dark brown irises.
“What is it? What has been done to me?” Kadeesha asked. There was this thrumming, restless energy that had sprung up around Yashira that placed Kadeesha on alert. Made her nervous. “Whatever it is, you can brew an antidote, right?” she asked anxiously.
“Have you seen Malachizrien as of late?” asked Yashira abruptly. It was a bizarre question.
“What does Malachi have to do with this?” Kadeesha gritted out. Did Yashira suspect he’d tried to poison her this time? No, that couldn’t be it. He had a vested interest in her living long enough to use her kongamatos in the war.
“Have you crossed paths with the king in the last handful of days?” Yashira asked again.
