by Emma Hamm
“Why, Sultana?”
“You seem to be the healthiest of the group. I’ll need you to help guide me through the forests.” She was making it up as she went. In truth, she wanted the boy to have a good memory to start replacing the bad ones. He’d feel the incredible glory of flight if he was in the front. And he’d be the first to see the splendor of her home.
“I have good eyes.”
“I’m sure you do,” she replied with a soft smile.
Sigrid stepped back and looked at the men who were now her responsibility. Jabbar had given her a great gift in them. He trusted her to take care of them, to make sure that they came to no further harm, and her stomach tensed with the mere thought of it.
Footsteps crunched behind her, and sand rolled down to pile at the back of her ankles. Raheem cleared his throat. “Are you ready?”
“I believe so.”
“Good, it’s a long journey from here to Wildewyn.”
She glanced up at him. “Are you comfortable with me carrying you in my claws again? The rest will ride on my back, but I might need you to direct me along the path.”
“I will ride however you need me to, Sultana.”
His blind faith burned. She swallowed hard and nodded. “Make sure they’re all lashed on tight. I don’t want any of them falling off.”
“They will be safe. I promise.”
Still nodding, Sigrid backed farther away. She forced herself to continue walking until she knew there was enough safe space between herself and the men. The transformation wouldn’t touch anyone, although she knew the dragon was a fearsome creature to behold.
Letting out a breath, she lifted her face to the sun and accepted that change was coming. Though she was afraid, though she felt underprepared, these people believed in her. They needed her to be calm and to take them to safety.
She could do this.
The dragon surrounded her in warmth and strength. Scales shimmered to life all down her form. She grew larger and larger, the stretching sensation no longer uncomfortable but welcome.
When it was done, she lifted her long neck and saw the world as a much smaller place. She couldn’t cry in this form, couldn’t express her emotions other than anger or rage. Sigrid stretched her wings wide and stretched them up into the air. She gave a few test flaps before selling back down, wings pressed against the ground, the claws at her knuckles digging into the ground.
Raheem stood a few paces away, waiting for her to look up and nod. He started moving the men one by one to her back. They were heavy, but not impossible to carry.
She stayed still and silent until the last man was tied onto her.
Raheem patted her side. “That’s the last one. How do you want to pick me up?”
She looked up into the sky then back at him.
“Ah,” he said with a cough. “First time for everything, I suppose. Go ahead.”
There wasn’t any chance she could lift herself into the air with him and all the others as well. She needed a running start.
Sigrid raced on all fours, the movements awkward but effective. Galloping across the sands, she gained enough speed until she could leap into the sky and pound the air with her great wings. They lifted into the sky and the men on her back gave a shout. She could smell their fear, but it only made her all the more determined. They wouldn’t ever feel fear again if she had anything to do with it.
Circling the abandoned kingdom, she found Raheem on the sands below. He was a small dot already, but not so small that she couldn’t see him.
Sigrid swooped down and grabbed him with her back foot, then lifted to the clouds once more. Together, they would travel to freedom.
But the wind under her wings felt bitter cold. Sigrid tilted her long neck to stare back at the sands unfolding behind her, and her heart hardened beneath ice.
Nadir
Nadir’s arms burned, his thighs ached, and his lungs struggled for air, but it still wasn’t enough. He couldn’t focus, couldn’t think. He only knew that his mate was far from his reach now, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Another heaving breath rocked through him, and he couldn’t control it. He couldn’t even control himself.
He’d never lost control. Not once in his life, even when his brother died. Yet, this little Wildewyn girl had unraveled his self-control and now he was crouched in the hidden cavern under his palace trying to breathe. Why couldn’t he breathe?
A cough rocked through him, the sound guttural and all too familiar. The dragon tried to claw its way out of his throat, and heat rose in his chest. He was burning up from the inside out, but he couldn’t let the monster free. The dragon would burst out of the castle and search for her to the ends of the earth. It would burn villages along the way, regardless of Bymerian or Wildewyn homes. It would destroy everything in its path to make it to her side.
He struck the ground with a fist, tearing open his knuckles. He would not let it out. No matter how much he wanted to follow her, she’d made her choice. She had chosen to live in Wildewyn. She had chosen to support the Beastkin who had attacked his people for centuries.
Sigrid had renounced everything they had built with little thought other than to beg him to come with her.
Go with her? Was she mad? This was his kingdom! His people, his home, his blood, they all resided here within these walls.
And he knew it wasn’t some misplaced respect or guilt that kept him here. She’d made him feel more tied to this land than he’d ever felt before. It wasn’t his fault that he had a taste of what being sultan was truly like. That blame was entirely on her.
He coughed again, smoke billowing through his lungs and pouring from his nostrils. The dragon disagreed with him. It wanted to prove that Nadir was lying to himself, that life was better with her at his side regardless of where they were.
He couldn’t let the monster win.
The cave echoed with the distinct crack of boots meeting stone. A familiar voice met his ears. “What are you doing down here, boy?”
“Not now, Abdul,” he growled, turning away so his advisor wouldn’t see the feral eyes and smoke coming out of his nose. “I’ll return to the advisors soon. Allow me a few moments.”
The footsteps approached instead of leaving.
“Abdul, what did I tell you?”
But he was beyond caring. He remained crouched on all fours. Let his advisor see what he truly was. If the man dared to claim that Nadir was a Beastkin as well, all others would laugh at him. They wouldn’t believe him no matter how hard he tried to spread the rumor.
Abdul knelt in front of Nadir, tucked a finger under his chin, and lifted his face.
It wasn’t horror that Nadir saw in his advisor’s eyes, but pity. “Ah, so that’s the way of it then.”
“Are you not shocked?” he growled. “Your revered sultan is one of the hated beasts himself.”
“I’m not,” Abdul replied. “I’ve always known what you were, boy, although I couldn’t tell you for fear of what you’d do with that knowledge. Some secrets are passed through families, and though you wouldn’t believe it, I fought at your father’s side in many a battle. I was there the day you were born.”
“My mother didn’t care to tell me that story. She said it was too painful to ever let loose from her lips.”
“That’s because she wasn’t your mother, Nadir.”
The words rocked through him. For a moment, even the dragon stilled inside him. Not his mother? Of course, the sultana had been his mother. Why else would they have kept him in the palace? Raised him with Hakim as an equal?
He shook his head. “What blasphemy are you speaking of?”
“The revered sultana was not your mother. Beastkin blood is passed through the mother’s line, and if you paid attention in your schooling, you would have questioned this much sooner. Your brother certainly did.” Abdul released Nadir’s chin and stood. He held out a hand. “Come with me, son. Let me tell you your story so that you might understand your own history.”
If that wasn’t his tale, then who was he?
His hand lifted of its own accord, and he allowed Abdul to pull him to his feet. The advisor led the way to a stone bench that was mostly whole and pointed to its twin a few feet from him. “Sit, Nadir.”
He sat without question.
“Your father was an honorable man. He loved his sultana with all his being, a rarity when he could have had as many wives as he wanted. But he kept only one wife and was happy with that until he found a concubine in the deserts. We’d been fighting for a long time. The Beastkin were attacking villages across Bymere, and we didn’t know how to stop them.
“Then, out of nowhere, a woman walked out of the desert. She was the most beautiful creature any of us had ever seen. Small, dark-haired, dark-eyed, she seemed like something out of a story. None of us stopped her when she walked right up to your father and asked for his help.”
Abdul shrugged and lifted his hands. “What man could have resisted her? Your father laughed and asked what she wanted from the Sultan of Bymere. We thought she would ask for gold, but instead she asked for a child.
“I thought your father was going to swallow his tongue. It was the first time I’ve ever seen him speechless, and we were all certain he’d turn her away. He loved the sultana more than life. But then…he agreed. He followed her into the desert and told us all to wait for a few days. If he didn’t return, then we were to leave him.
“He returned. Healthy, whole, but changed in a way I couldn’t understand. Something had happened in the desert that made him a different man.” Abdul ran a hand over his silver-haired head. “And not in a good way. We retreated to the Red Palace and pulled all our forces out of the deserts. It was the first and only reprieve in killing the Beastkin.”
Nadir could guess where this tale was going. But he wanted to hear it from Abdul, not make assumptions. “How long did the fighting stop?”
“Nine months.”
“Of course.” Nadir slumped forward, resting his head in his hands. “Keep going.”
“I can stop if you wish, Your Majesty.”
“Keep going.”
Abdul cleared his throat. “I thought it odd, but none of us had counted the months of peace. We simply enjoyed being with our families for the short amount of time. I didn’t expect to be personally called by the sultan, but a messenger arrived in the middle of the night announcing that I’d been summoned.
“We didn’t go to the palace. Instead, the messenger brought me across the sands where I met with the sultan. He sat on his horse, staring down at a hut, and told me to stay until I heard a baby crying. Someone would put the baby in front of the door, and I was to take it to the palace.
“I knew then, where we were. I picked you up as a babe, and I saw those strange eyes. Yellow eyes, as no person has ever had before. I knew what you were then, even when I brought you back to the palace and met with the sultan in private.
“The sultana took you in her arms the first moment I arrived and looked at you with so much love in her eyes. Never doubt that your family wanted you, Nadir. You might not have been the sultana’s by blood, but she always thought of you as her son. We all vowed that night that we would never tell anyone but your direct family. Hakim knew of it the first moment he saw you. But that boy was always good at keeping secrets.”
Nadir stared at the ground between his feet and tried to keep the vomit behind his teeth. When he swallowed hard, he said between gritted teeth, “You’ve known all this time?”
“Long enough that I knew it would be a bad idea for you to keep that girl around.”
“Girl?” Nadir shook his head. “None of this was her fault.”
“Nadir, that is where you are wrong. A farmer arrived a few hours ago. He’d been passing through to his village when he saw her at an abandoned castle a few days ride from here. It took a while for him to get here, but he recognized one man that none of us will ever forget. Jabbar the White.”
The air turned chilly at the name. Jabbar the White was known throughout the kingdom as a murderous, cold-hearted man. He’d killed hundreds of humans in the wars. His favored method was barehanded, because he liked to see his victim’s eyes as he killed them.
Sigrid was with him? She had chosen to side with the most dangerous man Bymere had ever fought?
Nadir looked up. “It can’t be possible.”
“Though I don’t like to make any excuses for the girl, she doesn’t know who he is. The librarians said she was looking through some of the books related to Beastkin, but not one that included him within its pages. She would have no way of knowing what he wants, or what he has done.”
He lost his breath again. Sigrid was in more danger than he could ever have imagined. That butcher had his claws in her, and Nadir was sitting underground.
“I have to find her.” He gasped. “I have to bring her back here to safety.”
“You will do no such thing. You are needed here, in the Red Palace, where your people can see you, speak with you, air their grievances.”
“Anyone can sit on that throne and listen to them complain, Abdul. It’s not a difficult job to tell one farmer to shut his mouth and the other to stop letting his cows into the wrong pasture. I need to bring her back.”
Abdul sighed. “I’m not asking you to do that, Nadir. I’m telling you that your people have seen a dragon today. Not you, but a dragon that frightened them all the same. They cannot see you fly away from the Red Palace, in your human form or in your dragon form. They need you to be strong for them.”
Nadir felt the responsibilities of his station press down on his shoulder. His advisor was right. He needed to calm the populace of the Red Palace so they didn’t panic. His people needed to understand that they were safe no matter what Beastkin took to the skies.
But his mind wandered to Sigrid, who had no idea that a murderous bastard had taken her away from him. She wouldn’t fall in love with the albino butcher. She couldn’t.
They were made for each other, that much he knew now. Regardless of their dragon souls that called out for their mate, he knew her soul echoed his. Human or dragon, they were bound.
Why couldn’t he have gone with her?
Abdul stood and strode to Nadir’s side. Gently, his advisor placed a hand on his shoulder. “Regardless of what you are, you’ve been a good sultan. You’ve listened to those of us who have kept you in line. You’ve learned as much as possible, and accepted your failings. You’ve hidden this dangerous part of yourself that could have destroyed all of Bymere. Your parents would be proud of you, my boy.”
“They were.” He hadn’t known either of his parents knew about his affliction. Hakim had been the first person to find him during a change. Nadir had been hunched over, coughing, fire billowing out of his lips with every exhalation.
Perhaps, he should have known then how strange it was that Hakim hadn’t flinched. His brother had merely pulled up a chair and watched, elbows braced on his knees. He’d waited until Nadir calmed down enough before he reached forward and put a hand to his shoulder.
“You are cursed, brother,” he had said. “And it is not a curse I can break. But know that I will always fight by your side and help you control this monster inside you. I vow it.”
And he had. Until his last dying breath, Hakim had made certain that his younger brother knew what it felt like to be loved. His last words, weak and flimsy, made it very clear what Nadir had to do.
“Keep hiding,” Hakim had croaked through cracked lips and a face so sunken it already looked like he’d been claimed by death. “They can never know what you really are.”
Nadir took a deep breath and nodded. “What now then? She’s gone, and I don’t know what to do with myself.”
“You’ll continue being Sultan of Bymere. You�
�ll speak with your people and ease their worries. Let them know you are not afraid of a dragon, and that we have the means to battle her if she returns. They will listen to you, my boy. You’ve proven to be an attentive sultan these past few months.” Abdul paused, then cleared his throat. “Another thing I might thank the Beastkin for. I didn’t like her methods, but she certainly woke you up.”
“She’s a remarkable woman,” he replied. Then shook his advisors hand off his shoulder and stood. “A speech? Now?”
“They’re already gathered, uncalled for, but they’re still here. They’ve been crying out your name for the better part of the morning. You might have heard them if you weren’t down here.” Abdul bowed. “The kingdom needs you, Sultan.”
The words bloomed with pride in his chest, though it was a bittersweet ache. Pride and guilt warred side by side until he couldn’t figure out who he was.
The Sultan of Bymere who stood by his people until the bitter end? Or the man he was slowly becoming with Sigrid at his side?
Nadir couldn’t tell. She had placed ideas in his head that made it difficult to think, let alone decide. She’d helped him with that. All the thoughts in his head stilled when she made her way into the room. Like his mind was a sweltering desert, all the air wavering with heat, until she strode out of the sands like a mirage and doused him with cool air and babbling brooks.
Romantic, but the truth.
“Then let us speak with the people of Bymere,” he said.
Together, they ascended the stairs and stepped out into the castle. Sunlight blinded him immediately, and he lifted a hand to block the light. Why did it feel like he was stepping backward? All the things Sigrid had said burned a hole in his mind and he still felt as though something was missing.
Shaking his head, he strode ahead of Abdul and made his way to the garden where he knew his people were gathered. That was where they always gathered, for ceremonies, for serious declaration, and for war.
They waited for him beyond the small cliff. Thousands of people, all packed shoulder to shoulder, their voices stilling the moment they saw their sultan striding toward them.
