by Emma Hamm
The remaining assassins circled her. Ten men with full armor and scimitars at the ready. Even for her, this would be a difficult battle. Sigrid had proven to be talented one on one, but she’d never shown how she fought outnumbered.
She wore a strange outfit he’d never seen before. Men’s clothing and lacking a golden mask. Instead, she wore little more than a cloth wrapped around her face.
What was she playing at? And where was her maidservant?
“Halt!” he shouted, thundering up behind them. “On whose orders have you attacked the sultana?”
Only one of the assassins glanced his way. “On your orders, Sultan.”
His face flushed hot in anger. So this was how Saafiya had managed to order them away.
Nadir didn’t waste his time in looking at Sigrid. He knew she would be angry, but he’d make it very clear that none of this was his order.
“Then you were told wrong, soldier. The punishment for attacking the sultana, as has been made very clear, is a fate worse than death. She is under the protection of my house as well as the house of Wildewyn. No one is to touch her but myself and her sister, who remains safe as my ward.”
“We were told you’d say that. Got the papers you signed, Sultan. We know this animal has you under her spell, and that the only way to break it is to sever her head from her body.”
Spell? What lies had Saafiya been spreading?
Sigrid let out a choked cough. “If you truly think I am capable of magic, assassin, then by all means. Attack me. See just how far you get.”
“You’re unarmed, Sultana,” the soldier replied. “We don’t wish to make this more difficult than it has to be. Many Bymerian women have given their lives for the betterment of the country. Kneel, and allow us to give you an honorable death.”
“Death by ten swords, or ten deaths?” She tilted her head to the side. “We’ll see how this ends.”
Nadir nudged his horse closer, only pausing when an assassin turned on him. “Sigrid. You cannot kill them.”
“And why not? I find it hard to listen when you signed papers stating that my life should end.”
“I did no such thing.”
The soldier who’d spoken before cleared his throat. “It says no animal should sit on the throne. We agree with you, Sultan, and it’s best to make it known now so that all of Bymere knows where you stand. We won’t allow this Beastkin to think she can rule our beloved lands.”
The words cut him to the core. Of course, his soldiers felt that way. But his people? Surely, they didn’t speak for the populace of Bymere. They couldn’t. Bymerians weren’t so cold that they would forsake the most natural of their own kind.
Sigrid let out a growl and lunged forward. They hadn’t expected her quick movements. In truth, neither had Nadir. The first assassin she touched hesitated for the briefest moment which allowed her to grab onto his sword and twist it from his grip. She dragged the sharp edge along his throat and he dropped to the ground without a sound.
Stunned silence followed her movement, until the assassins let out an angry shout. This would not be a battle that tested her metal. They did not attack one by one to allow her a breath. Instead, they all moved at the same time with their swords raised.
Nadir cried out in anger and let his feet fall from the stirrups, ready to leap into the fray, but then paused along with all the others to stare in shock.
Nine swords arced above her and met as one in a circle, slicing towards her head. She lifted her stolen sword and crouched in the center, holding every single one away from her. The assassin’s arms shook, each man pressing down as hard as they could. Metal screeched as one sword slid along hers. Sparks showered in the air.
She snarled, an animal trapped in a cage, and then swung her sword up. The powerful movement sent each assassin stumbling away from her. What kind of strength did this woman have? She’d held nine men away from her without showing strain.
Sigrid swung her leg out and caught a man in the thigh. He was already stumbling, and at her movement he fell. One knee in the sand, he knelt as she swung her sword and cleaved his head from his body.
Nadir watched it fly and realized how wrong he’d been. Not one of them were going to touch her. Raheem was right.
They were all going to die.
“Stop her,” Raheem shouted, “or the kingdom will never accept her!”
Nadir jumped from the stallion’s back and ran into the fray. He caught one of the assassin’s swords. Planting a foot directly in the man’s chest, he kicked him so far back that Raheem could grab him. The big man slapped both hands on the sides of the assassin’s head, and he dropped like a stone.
“Sigrid!” he called out. She didn’t listen to him in the slightest. Her sword lifted again, blood slicked and dripping. “Enough!”
Another man fell, this one missing an arm and clutching the bleeding stump desperately to his chest. Nadir’s ears rang with shouts of battle, all in front of his home.
He paused, looked up at the palace, and realized nearly the entire populace of Misthall was watching them. They stared down from every window, standing in the streets and peering through the gates. They saw their sultana attack their own men, and anger reflected in their gazes.
There was nothing he could do to fix this. All he could do was stop her from killing more people.
“Wife!” Desperately, he dropped his sword and ran toward her. There was only one way he knew how to stop this, and already he thought of how to beg her forgiveness. She was a proud woman. She’d likely wish to kill him for what he planned to do.
Nadir waited for the moment she attacked the next man before he reached forward and caught the tail end of the cloth binding her face. He ripped it away, letting the black fabric flutter in the wind. It floated to the sand, along with her choked cry, then sudden silence as she stopped and stared out into the desert.
The assassin she’d been fighting stared back at her in shock.
A chuffing cough echoed from her throat, the dragon trying its best to be free. An answering call escaped from his own lips. He hoped no one heard it but her.
Carefully, he stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her trembling frame, holding her face away from the city. “Enough, wife,” he whispered, pressing the side of his head against hers. “It’s over.”
“I am not an animal.”
“You are Beastkin, and so much more than just a creature sitting on a throne.”
“You signed the papers,” she exhaled.
Nadir’s heart cracked. “I will be more diligent when my advisors hand me paperwork to sign. I’ve not been a good sultan, Sigrid. You’re helping me become a better one.”
Another tremble wracked her body, and he knew it was because another man stared at her face.
The assassin rocked back, his sword drooping to touch the sand. “She’s very young,” the man said.
Nadir met his gaze. “Yes, she is.”
“She doesn’t look like an animal under that mask. We all thought—” he cleared his throat. “She’s just a girl.”
Raheem walked up behind him and sighed. “It’s a shame you won’t be able to tell anyone that.”
Nadir frowned, but didn’t have enough time to ask what his friend was doing before Raheem palmed the man’s head and snapped it to the side. He let the assassin fall to the ground, then pressed a meaty fist to his chest.
“Sultana,” Raheem said, his tones revered and quiet. “It was a pleasure to cast my eyes upon your form before my death.”
“Not you, Raheem,” Sigrid choked, her voice thick with tears. “I would never ask that of you.”
“And what is the punishment for seeing your face?”
“Death.”
“What punishment would you take for me?”
Her body rock forward, but he forced her to remain securely pressed against his chest. He couldn’t risk her racing to his friend and allowing any more people to see her face. Already, rumbles of anger and discontent lifted f
rom the crowds behind them. He needed to hide her. He needed her to be safe.
Sigrid shook with a sob. “No punishment is too lenient for you. I would not see your kindness leave this world so early.”
“And for them?” Raheem gestured to the crowds. “What punishment is too great for them?”
“Don’t ask me that. Not now.”
“Why? What has happened?” A shadow passed over Raheem’s face, and suddenly he became someone Nadir did not recognize. His eyes narrowed, his jaw tightened, and he became far more frightening than Nadir had ever seen him be before. “What have you seen?”
“I’ve seen what Bymerians do to my people. I cannot stand by and watch it again.”
Nadir squeezed her tighter. “This was a mistake, Sigrid. This is not how Bymere treats Beastkin. There are none left here. It’s old prejudice that can be changed.”
“Can it?” She twisted in his arms and stared up at him with a rage that echoed in his own chest. “There are Beastkin here. Men, like you, who have been hunted, mistreated, hated for their entire lives. They want to live. They want to love. They wish for normal lives, and you sit on that throne and do nothing.”
He released her as her skin started to burn. “You don’t know of what you speak.”
“You don’t know your own kingdom, Sultan. Your people see us as nothing more than animals they can exploit, beat, and kill. I won’t stand by and watch it any longer. I can’t do it.”
Nadir looked past her. Raheem stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. The big man sighed and said, “You’ve met Jabbar.”
“Who are you talking about?” Nadir snapped. “What is this information I don’t know?”
Raheem’s fingers tightened on Sigrid’s shoulder, and Nadir realized it was the first time his guard had ever touched her. His gaze narrowed on the touch as his dragon growled deep inside him. “Sultan, there is much that goes on in this kingdom that you do not know. The royals have hunted Beastkin for centuries. I did not tell you because you have only followed in your brother’s footsteps. I’ve asked you to change, and you haven’t. Not until she came, and even then, it wasn’t enough.”
Sigrid twisted to look up at Raheem. “You knew?”
“I wondered how long it would take them to find you.”
“I have to help them.”
“As I expected.”
Nadir shook his head, his mind racing with new found knowledge but not knowing what to do with it. “Beastkin? In Bymere?”
“Choose now, husband.” Sigrid’s eyes swam with tears. “Help our people. Tell Bymerians to accept our kind. Show them what we can really do. Who we are.”
“No.” He stepped away from her. How could he do that? Bymere was his kingdom, his family’s kingdom, his brother’s kingdom. He might be Beastkin by blood, but that didn’t change his responsibilities. This was his homeland, and he couldn’t abandon them or subject them to Beastkin running free. It was dangerous.
Two dragons without chains could decimate the world.
“I’ll ask again.” Her voice shook. “Choose between enslaving the Beastkin and hunting them for centuries more, or giving them the freedom they’ve asked for.”
“It’s not that easy, Sigrid—”
“Make your choice!” Her voice lifted in a shout that all his people would have heard. She softened, reaching out a hand for him. “Nadir. We have to change, or we will all die.”
“Is that really a bad thing? We shouldn’t be like this, Sigrid. This is not how humans are meant to live. Animals live inside us. Creatures with immense power that we must keep in cages for the safety of all others.”
“Don’t project your self-hatred on everyone else. There are so many people here who could love them.”
He thought of Saafiya, his guards, the rumbling crowd behind her and couldn’t see how that future was possible. He looked at her as a goddess, a woman who saw a future made of gold and sunlight. But it was an impossible future and a war that would only end in blood.
Nadir shook his head again and stepped back once more. “Come home with me, Sigrid. This future you speak of is a great folly. We cannot save everyone, but we can live a comfortable life together.”
“In hiding.”
“Living in hiding is better than dying young.”
“I would rather die than deny what I am.” Her eyes burned silver and gold. Nadir reached for her, knowing that this could end poorly. But she darted away from him and raced forward until all his people could see her face.
Sigrid lifted her arms and shouted, “People of Bymere, see this face! I am Sigrid of Wildewyn, Beastkin woman, and last of the dragon bloodline. Hear me when I say this. Beastkin are coming home. We will fight for our freedom, for our rights, and for you to recognize us as citizens of Bymere. We are not animals. We are men, women, and children who will make the skies thunder with our war cry. Accept us, or prepare for war.”
A cry lifted from the crowd, a group of men he recognized from the war barracks. “We will fight you, and we will win! No animal should sit on the throne.”
Sigrid smiled without happiness. “You underestimate us, warrior. Now see what you will battle.”
“No!” Nadir cried out, but he couldn’t reach her side in time.
Sigrid burst into her dragon form. He’d forgotten how large she was, easily filling the space in front of the great hall, larger than some of the buildings. She reared up and let out a roar that shook the ground. Slats of roof tile nearby fell from the homes and shattered on the ground.
The crowd turned into a mob, fleeing from the first sight of a living dragon in hundreds of years. Sigrid took to the air and circled the Red Palace. She stretched out her neck and breathed fire in billowing sheets that never touched the city, but warned all within it that a dragon would battle them.
Nadir fell to his knees in the sand and watched as his people experienced true fear for the first time in centuries. He’d lost. He’d lost everything, and now all he had was a throne that would soon drip with blood.
The silver dragon circled back to him and landed hard in the sand. She stared at him with an icy gaze, and he knew she would never forgive him for this. Numb and silent, he stared as Raheem walk over to her and set a hand on her side.
“I’ll go with you, Sultana. It’s long past time this happened,” he said.
“Even you?” Nadir called out. “Even you will abandon me?”
“You’ve made your choice, Sultan. The Bymerian people will need a sultan who can lead them in this time of war and strife. Your advisors will help you as they see fit.” Raheem paused and glanced over his shoulder. “I still hold hope that you will not be the man your brother was, but the dragon boy I’ve always hoped you would be.”
Sigrid reached forward and wrapped a clawed hand around Raheem’s waist. She reared back and blew sand over Nadir as they fled into the desert. She took a piece of his pride with her.
Worse, she took his heart as well.
Sigrid
Sigrid plummeted from the skies, landing hard in the sand and rolling to keep Raheem from being harmed. She skidded to a halt on the outskirts of the abandoned kingdom where the Beastkin hid. Her chest heaved in silent sobs, because a dragon could not cry. There were no tears to slide down her cheeks, only flames that burned in her chest with anger and disappointment.
How could he say those things? How could he renounce his own people so easily, without even a modicum of guilt?
She’d thought he was better than that, and the folly was entirely her fault. A few adventures in the sands, enjoying their shifted forms in every way that they could, didn’t mean that he would change his mind about the people he knew and loved. He’d made it clear how he felt about Beastkin, and in her foolishness she’d thought she could change him.
A hand slid along her leathery leg.
“Sigrid, let me down.” She released her hold on Raheem and allowed him to move off her body and into the sand. He knelt next to her head, nearly as large as he
was, and placed a hand on her brow. “I know it wasn’t easy for you, Sultana, but it was the right thing to do.”
She shook her head miserably. Nadir had offered her a future with a husband, a family, a draconic future that while hidden, was still a chance to continue her line. Now what was she to do? Teach only her daughters that they were still the last? Pass down throughout history this loneliness that slowly poisoned her?
Raheem continued smoothing his hand over her skull. “I know it wasn’t easy for you. There were opportunities there, and believe me, I love him just as much as you do. Nadir has a way about him that makes people want to love him. He’s never seen it, but I knew he could become a sultan like no other.
“It’s a shame he cannot see the future the way you and I can. He doesn’t see Beastkin and humans living side by side, but he’s never had a chance to see what that could look like. He only knows people who are afraid. And fear is a dangerous emotion that cannot be controlled no matter how hard we try.
“I still have hope that someday he will understand what we are fighting for. Why we are fighting for it. I dream of a day when eagles soar overhead, hunting with humans even while a dragon scours the land, protecting the city from any invaders. I saw that it could work between human and Beastkin. I married one. And those years with her by my side were the happiest I have ever been.”
Sigrid huffed out a breath, rolling to press her leathery wings to the ground. She could do this. If there was a chance that others existed like Raheem, those who would accept her people with open arms, then it was worth the fight. It had to be.
He smiled at her. “Good, now get up when you can. Jabbar and his people don’t want to see your sadness. They want to see your strength. As much as you never wanted this, you’ve become a Sultana of Bymere. Just of a different sort of Bymerian.”
