Page 22 of Empire of Wrath and Ruin
The silence that followed was absolute. Even the sound of water seemed to pause as Aytara went completely still, her calculating mask slipping for just a moment to reveal something much more dangerous underneath.
"What did you say?"
I straightened to my full height, meeting her gaze without flinching. "You heard me. I know the truth about the Imperial dragons. They're not beasts enslaved by magic—they're your people. Talfen shifters forced into service by those collars, twisted and broken until they forget their own names. I found Sirrax at the arena, broken, kept for entertainment by the same master who had tortured me for years. But when I escaped from the arena, I took him with me. I broke his collar, and I tried to set him free."
“Tried to?” Her voice was cold.
“He wouldn’t go,” I answered.
“I find that hard to believe.”
I rolled my eyes, and pulled my hand away from Taveth’s, reaching up to lift the necklaces I wore and revealing Sirrax’s mating mark beneath.
Aytara’s eyes narrowed. “A mate mark.” Her eyes flashed to Taveth. I could already feel the shadows building in his mind.
“Not mine,” he got out.
“No. Sirrax was my mate, my first. He claimed me as his own. He was my lover, my friend. My equal. And I spent months watching the Empire parade him around like a prize while he pretended to be their obedient monster, all so we could get close enough to the Emperor to put a blade between his ribs."
The admission hung in the air between us like a thrown gauntlet. I had just confessed to treason, conspiracy, and intimate knowledge of the Talfen's most closely guarded secret. Either this woman would respect my honesty, or she would have me killed before the sun set.
"You're lying," she said, but there was uncertainty in her voice now. "No Imperial would work willingly with—"
"With what? A dragon? A monster?" I laughed, and there was nothing pleasant about the sound. "I was a gladiator, forced to fight for the entertainment of crowds who saw me as less than human. Sirrax was collared and beaten until he forgot how to be anything but a weapon. We recognized each other's chains, even when his were invisible and mine were all too real."
Aytara was staring at me as if I had grown a second head, but I wasn't finished. The words were pouring out of me now, months of suppressed rage and grief finding their voice at last.
"You want to know what kind of slave I was? I was taken as a child when Imperial soldiers destroyed my village and murdered my family. I killed beasts sent against me, men and women imprisoned and forced to fight like I was, and when I escaped, I even tracked down my brother’s killer. An Imperial soldier who killed a child protecting his little sister. I slit his throat. Donot underestimate me, Aytara. I am more than some Imperial soldier, and yes, I posed as a noble to infiltrate the Dragon Academy, because that was the only way to get close enough to the Emperor to end his miserable life."
I stepped closer to her, ignoring the way Taveth's shadows were now writhing like living things around us both. "So don't you dare stand there and question my loyalty to the cause of freedom. I've bled for it, killed for it, lost everything for it. And I would do it all again if it meant one less person had to wear chains."
The garden around us had gone completely silent, as if the very plants were holding their breath.
Finally, Aytara spoke. "And if you could return to the Empire? If you could somehow reach the capital and stand before the Emperor himself, what would you do?"
The question ignited something fierce and hungry in my chest, burning away the despair that had been eating at me for days. "I would kill him," I said, and there was no hesitation in my voice. "I would watch the life leave his eyes and know that every slave who died in his name had been avenged."
"Even knowing it would mean your own death?"
"Especially knowing that." I could feel the truth of it burning in my bones, driving out the emptiness that had consumed me. "What is my life worth compared to the thousands who suffer under his rule? If I could strike him down, if I could throw the Empire into chaos and give the enslaved a chance to rise up, I would count it the best death I could hope for."
Finally, Aytara's expression softened, just a fraction. "Interesting," she said, her voice measured. "Very interesting indeed. Now you sound like a woman worth knowing."
“What?”
She ignored me and turned to Taveth. “The mate bond? She speaks truly?”
Taveth nodded. “She does,” he answered stiffly.
“You were taunting me,” I realised. “You knew Taveth would be able to see if I was lying.”
Aytara nodded. “Indeed. A mate bond can be a dreadful chain, but it can be useful for certain things. I needed to see who you really were," she said calmly. "Not the broken woman who arrived here hollow with grief, not the decorative mate Taveth has been trying to coddle back to health. I needed to see the woman inside.”
I wanted to be angry at the manipulation, at the way she had deliberately provoked me into revealing painful truths. But underneath the indignation was something else—relief. For the first time since arriving in this mountain city, someone was seeing me as I truly was, not as some fragile thing that needed protection.
"And now that you've seen her?" I asked, my voice still rough with emotion.
"Now we can discuss what comes next," Aytara replied. "Because you're right about one thing—you're far too valuable to waste on luxury and comfort. You say you would kill the Emperor if given the chance. But what makes you think you could succeed where countless others have failed? He is protected by the finest guards in the Empire, surrounded by layers of security that have kept him safe for decades. What could one escaped slave possibly do that trained assassins could not?"
