In the small space, Nakia was certain she knew what death smelled like, and it had to be Caligo. There was a hint of rot and smoke to him that never seemed to go away. Betraying his dragon heritage, perhaps? It scratched at her insides, threatening to choke the life from her and possibly transfer it to him, like some sort of incubus. The more she sat with him, the more she felt like he was a creature who had stolen the skin of a corpse and put it on its own twisted form to stroll among the living.
“Should you be returning home, my Lord?” she asked. She wasn’t sure what Caligo wanted her to call him, so she went as formal as possible without simply referring to him as “your majesty.”
“It won’t do to have my new wife go to my palace on her own. After all, you haven’t seen the place. You don’t know what to expect, Princess,” he replied. He used her title with a hiss, like it was an insult. He glanced at her, and then dismissed her with a look outside the carriage.
She nodded. It seemed polite, but she had learned in the few short days she knew him, he didn’t have manners. Tradition didn’t seem to mean anything to him, either. He hadn’t seemed interested in her after their marriage ceremony, and he hadn’t tried to consummate their marriage, not that she’d dare complain. So, why accompany me to his home? There was something more. There was a reason he needed to go home with her.
“What if you miss the battle?” she asked. He didn’t strike her as a coward, so she didn’t think he was running from the war. He boasted to her father and other Phyllida nobles about his vast, mighty armies.
He shook his head. “The battle will come to me and then I’ll show the Roshan true power.”
She furrowed her brow and worried over how deep it might run. “Why do you think the battle will come to you?”
He looked her up and down. “How do you think?”
I’m the bait to get the Roshan to come to him? Why would he go through the trouble? How did he know that would work?
“Wouldn’t it have been easier to just wait for them at Phyllida?” Nakia asked. This seems more complicated and risky than waiting where he knows the Roshan will show up.
“Easier if I wanted to be in a melee battle, which I don’t. I only want the barbarian queen and I think we both know she’ll come for you.”
“What makes you think that?” This was a huge gamble on his part, especially since he made this agreement before he heard Ashni’s proposal letter.
He scoffed. “You don’t have to play coy with me like with your father. It’s obvious you enthralled her. The Queen of the Roshan proposed marriage to you in an effort to get you back.”
“So? You proposed marriage for an alliance. Why can’t they do the same?” Maybe you should stop asking so many questions before something happens. But, Nakia couldn’t stop herself. He seemed open to speaking to her, not at her. Sure, he still seemed to think she was of low intelligence, but more because he was condescending than because she was a woman.
“Because I know this queen. She doesn’t make alliances in that manner. She wanted you back. She’ll come for you. I’ve been told by those who know.”
She held in a gasp. “Like who?” How did he get such information? Has a Roshan betrayed their own? How much does he know? Does he have even more information, enough to defeat Ashni? Is that why he wanted to break away? He could take all of the glory for himself? Her father wouldn’t see that coming.
“I have my ways. She’ll come for you.” He smirked, folding his arms across his chest. He was the picture of confidence.
Nakia nibbled the corner of her mouth. “And you’ll what? Fight her one-on-one for my honor?” If he wanted to fight Ashni, that was on him. She’d eat him alive, smiling all the way through.
Caligo’s eyes sparked with something like a dreadful amusement. “I’ll fight her for my entertainment and to prove I’m stronger than she is. I’ll trade you for what I really want, though.”
Nakia arched an eyebrow. “And what’s that? And what makes you think Ashni would give it to you?” He might be gambling on her being worth more than she was. Beyond that, what could he possibly want from the Roshan? What did a king from the North want from perceived barbarians from the East?
The smile that spread across his face was downright predatory. “The fact that you call her by name says a lot. And again, she proposed marriage to you. For Roshan royals, marriage is a huge deal. She sees you as an equal. She sees you as part of her. She needs you back.”
Nakia didn’t have a response for that. She didn’t know anything about Roshan marriages, except they seemed to be love matches. Bashira told her the story of how Ashni’s parents met, married, and had grown more than attached to each other, even though Ashni’s mother didn’t have a choice in the matter at first. The few couples she knew in person chose each other. She remembered Bashira trying to tell her about Roshan believing in different sorts of bonds, connecting them to people on different levels. She assumed marriage was connected to those bonds, but she didn’t know.
“You seem to know quite a bit about the Roshan Empire,” Nakia decided to say. He seemed to enjoy talking, so he might let her in on the secret.
“You lived with them for months.” Caligo leaned forward, licking his lips. “Did you get a chance to see their libraries? Read any of their books? See their war manuals?”
Nakia shook her head. She didn’t even know there were libraries. Of course, for half of her stay, she didn’t think the Roshan knew how to read or didn’t think they’d want to record information. But, now that he brought it up, she was curious about the stories they wrote. She knew they loved the tale of Amir Khalid and his wife Chandra. What other stories are cherished and told? What knowledge do they have? She knew they weren’t mindless brutes, after all. Ashni probably had a vast library and now she wished she bothered to see it.
“Why do you want their war manuals?” Nakia asked. Before she knew anything else about the Roshan, she was aware they knew matters of war as that was all her father and the nobles at home spoke about when it came to the Roshan.
Caligo’s eyes actually twinkled and looked alive for the first time. “Not just their war manuals. There’s also magic, science, and martial arts. Centuries of knowledge locked away. Thousands of techniques kept from us.”
“And what good would it do you?” Nakia wasn’t sure the Roshan had all of these things. If they’re as advanced as Caligo made them seem, why didn’t they use that knowledge to destroy the West the first time? And if the Roshan kept it from people, how does he know in the first place?
He shrugged and sat back again. “I’d merely like to educate myself.”
“For what purposes? And where am I in all this? You’d really just give me to the Roshan?” Nakia inquired.
“No, I’d give you to your beloved Ashni,” he dragged out the name.
“She’s not my beloved anything,” Nakia sneered.
He watched her as if he could see through her. “We both know the truth.”
“Why aren’t you disgusted by the idea of a woman trying to marry me?”
“I know all about the Roshan and their unnatural matches. It’s even more so in Ashni’s territory. But, I don’t care about that. I care about the mountain of tomes she has. What she does with her personal matters are on her.”
“She won’t betray her people and give you anything for me.”
He chuckled. The sound came from deep in his chest like it scratched its way out of an abyss, but sort of rattled, too. It crawled through her and settled in her belly, making her stomach tremble and her blood feel like it fled her body. His eyes seemed to blacken. Their carriage creaked and groaned, the most noise she heard since they crossed the River Reve, but he didn’t seem to notice, refusing to look away from her. He was probably used to the eerie silence of the land.
“I think she’ll give me everything for you. The way she put it on the line for you, sending that proposal to your father, knowing he wouldn’t accept, knowing he wouldn’t even understand, knowing
he’d mock her as a barbarian. She’d do anything for you, little one. And I’ll make sure she gives me everything.”
Nakia swallowed. She didn’t know how to respond. It was one thing to be a pawn, but it was something entirely different to be bait. To be bait and find out how much she might mean to someone. To mean everything. Was that what Ashni meant when she told me I was precious? Would she give up everything for me? Almost every part of her told her no, but there was a small piece of her that considered otherwise. What if he’s wrong? What if he’s right?
It was far scarier to consider Ashni would come for her. Her heart sped up to the point she feared it might explode with a terrible hope. She couldn’t imagine how she could mean more than Ashni’s dream, her father’s legacy. She couldn’t imagine Ashni betraying her culture. How could I live up to something like that? It wasn’t realistic, which meant eventually Ashni would realize it and abandon her.
Mind spinning, Nakia turned her attention to the outside. She wasn’t sure if they crossed into his country yet, but they were in the north and the scenery looked bleak. While the land leading to Khenshu had been bathed in red rock and a sea of fine sand, this territory looked like someone set it ablaze and it never healed. Perhaps it was the dragon who raped Caligo’s mother.
Dark, even though the sun was high. The sunlight crackled through dense, but bare, bent branches of the crooked, thin, leaning trees. Even the grass was somehow the color of charcoal. Maybe it was from the way the light cut through the woods, but everything looked charred. There was little noise, like no life existed in this forest. It was otherworldly in the sense that she feared she might have died and passed into some haunted afterlife.
The chill in the air supported that frightening thought. She felt the cold down to her bones and no matter how tightly she pulled her cloak around her, it cut through her protection and herself. It felt unholy, a different type of cool than the approach of winter, like frost gathering under her skin.
“Do you like my country?” he asked, his twisted smile back in place. It was like he knew the place was a horror, but he was proud of it.
“It’s odd. Cold. Quiet.” Like a grave.
His eyes drifted to the window, seemingly at peace with this desolate woods. “Yes, that’s how I like it. I need the silence to read and practice. Keep that in mind when we get to my home.”
Nakia understood the threat. “How do you keep everything so quiet?”
“Nothing lives here.”
She could believe that. “Why?”
“Because I don’t want anything to.”
Nakia bit the inside of her cheek to keep a squeak from escaping her throat. This only supported the idea he was some kind of demon wearing human skin. Maybe he was an incubus and he stole the life-force from every single thing in his land. “What’s the point of ruling a country of nothing?”
“It gives me time to study.”
She was afraid to know the answer, but she had to ask. “Study what?”
“The mystical and martial arts.”
Nakia nodded, even though that answer didn’t make much sense to her. Martial arts, she mostly experienced from watching Ashni and her annoying sister spar. She hadn’t had a lot of experience with mystical arts, even after hearing how Ashni was part-god, so she wasn’t sure what those arts entailed. What she did know was she didn’t want to witness them through him. He seemed to know her struggle, eyeing her with a devilish smirk.
Her heart raced and she felt sweat pricking at her palms. Don’t squirm. Keep your cool and keep him talking. She took a breath to calm her heart and maintained eye contact with him.
“Your father doesn’t know much about me, which is why I have to assume he was fine with marrying you to me. He’s an intelligent man, but too full of himself,” Caligo said.
“And you’re not?”
His smirk grew. “I have reason to be.”
“And my father doesn’t?” While she wasn’t a fan of her father, he was doing something right, at least from his point of view and from Caligo’s point of view. After all, Phyllida should’ve been conquered territory for the Roshan already, but her father held them off. Yes, it involved lying, cheating, and perhaps some luck, but he did it.
Caligo shook his head. “Your father thinks he knows everything. He’s about to learn differently. He’s not prepared for what the barbarian queen will bring down on him. He doesn’t know he didn’t even see a percentage of the true power of the Roshan.”
She tilted her head, taking in not just his words, but his demeanor and the light in his eyes as he spoke. “You sound like you admire them.”
He frowned. “Never. They’ve managed to steal most of their great manuscripts. I’m convinced they don’t even understand their full power.”
“And you plan to let my father witness this power as you wait for the queen?” Is he trying to teach my father a lesson? Why would he do that? Caligo shouldn’t have interacted with her father enough to dislike him. Maybe Caligo was insane, a madman of some kind. Something had to be wrong with him to think the Roshan were both some kind of magical beings and also barbarians.
He dismissed the question with a flick of his fingers. “Don’t worry. I don’t plan to leave him wanting or waiting. I just want to take on the queen on my own terms.”
“So, you won’t betray him?” Unless he said he’d betray her father, Nakia wouldn’t believe the answer.
“I’ll honor my end of the alliance.”
That certainly didn’t answer her question. She was used to double-talk and backstabbing at this point. But, what good would it do to betray my father other than for entertainment purposes? Frustrated, she felt like she didn’t have the tools to put the puzzle together. How do I get out of this? She’d like to do so without compromising her morals, but that might not be possible. If push came to shove, she could always use the poison Owen left her.
She wanted to wait for Ashni, as her husband planned, but she doubted that would work. A thought struck her like a bolt of lightning. I’m married now. Married. Ashni might not want her simply because of that. Nakia curled into herself. Being abandoned by Ashni would be worse than being rejected by her. She couldn’t see a reason for Ashni to desire her like before. She was married to Caligo, tainted by his name, by his vow, even if he didn’t mean it. Ashni might leave her to him.
“What if she doesn’t come? What will you do to me?” Nakia asked, trying her best to sound normal, but her voice sounded small.
“She’ll come and if not, you’ll do your duty.” He shrugged as if it didn’t matter to him.
The thought made her stomach flip, like she was seasick, and she swallowed down the urge to vomit. She’d have to lie with him. His simple touch made her skin crawl, and she’d have to be with him. She couldn’t imagine what that would be like, but there wouldn’t be any pleasure for her. Being with him would be an invasion and her body would be poisoned, even to herself. No one in her country would want her after that, much less Ashni. She’d belong to Caligo.
No. If that’s the case, I belong to Ashni. She didn’t want to possess me. Not that it mattered. The gods had abandoned her, and Ashni might do the same.
She was silent the rest of the trip. Partially for him to think she wanted to please him, but, also because she wanted to think of a way out of this. She couldn’t afford to be passive anymore. Her fearlessness had impressed Ashni, and she needed to hold onto that. It would help her survive here, just as it helped her in Khenshu.
Chapter Five
THE LARGEST ARMY THE Roshan had ever put together landed on the shores of the West and Ashni could only think of one thing—Nakia. She was on the cusp of being the greatest conqueror known among her people. She was about to surpass her father. She was about to achieve her place in heaven. None of that mattered. Nakia mattered. She needed her hellcat.
Adira put her hand on Ashni’s shoulder. “We’ll get her back.”
“I know. I’m more concerned with that.” Ashni motioned t
o Naren, who got seasick the second they got off the ships. Layla rubbed his back as he vomited into a bush. A warrior who couldn’t even make the short voyage across the sea was supposed to keep an eye on her sister and help conquer the West. It was like a bad joke.
Adira pinched the bridge of her nose, looking away. “Yeah, I can understand that. It’s not too late to put me in charge.”
“I’ll do just that if you truly believe that’s the best course of action.”
Adira seemed to think on it, staring off to the horizon. “No, I’ll come with you. You were right about why I should go.”
Ashni nodded. She’d need Adira by her side to talk sense into her if she lost herself, especially depending on what Nakia would want. Will Nakia want to come with me? She could only hope. If that hope was misplaced, she had no idea how she might react. Adira would ground her as best anyone could, get her back on track, and help her do the right thing.
“Do you have any new reports?” Ashni asked as their military moved around them, collecting items off the ships and getting ready to move out.
“They’re coming in now that we’ve landed. We’ll find out where your kitten is momentarily,” Adira replied.
“I’d rather spend more time preparing the Princess. I want to make sure she understands she’s in charge. She’s holding the dream of many in her hands.” Ashni was certain Layla understood that, but she needed to be sure.
Adira glanced over at Layla and then back at Ashni, quiet for a long moment. “It’s time for her, just as it’s time for Hafiz,” Adira finally said. “If we’re going to carry on from sea to sea, we have to be able to let them loose to do what they do.”
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