Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
THEA
Killian gestures for me to follow him inside, and I take a deep breath, steeling myself before I urge Zaro forward.
Once we cross beneath the raised gate, we’re surrounded by dark stone, burning torches set into the walls every few feet illuminating our way.
A tunnel, I realize. The entrance is carved out through the mountain.
Soren’s hackles rise, the cat uneasy being surrounded by earth and stone.
-Are you alright?-
-Fine,- he grumbles.
I can feel the tension rolling off of him.
For a creature born in the wilds, free to roam beneath the endless sky, I can’t blame him for being uneasy trapped inside of a mountain, even for a short while.
We ride for at least a mile but I finally see daylight streaming in ahead and a few minutes later, we emerge within the walls of the kingdom.
I find myself gaping all over again, truly awestruck.
Soren bounds out into the light beside me, raising his face to the sky and shuddering from head to tail.
I smile at the cat and he shifts his gaze to mine, pulling his lips back from his fangs with a playful hiss.
I turn back to the view before me. We’re on a slight rise so the majority of the kingdom sprawls out below us as far as I can see in all directions.
Gently rolling stone streets and bridges connect the entirety of it, serpentining between the different sections—Sectors, Odessa had called them.
In the distance, watching over it all, are the three peaks.
The great forge burning atop one, heated from lava pits deep within the mountain, Killian had told me, a beautiful stone temple standing serenely on another.
And in between the two, the famed Duskthorne Palace. The rumors were true: it’s built directly into the side of the mountain, so high up that the tallest towers and spires disappear into the clouds.
“Fucking hells,” I whisper. Killian smiles and nods for me to follow him, and we make our way down a wide path to the right that winds around the outside of the inner edge of the mountain until we level out into the city below.
Killian barks out orders to Nigel and the burly man leads the rest of the army to the right, continuing along the wide path to the stables or barracks or armory, I imagine.
Killian, Odessa, Soren, and I turn to the left and make our way down what seems to be the main throughfare of the city.
“The King’s Road,” Dessa supplies from beside me.
“It runs through the heart of the kingdom, straight to the palace.” I nod, trying to take everything in.
It’s so different than Helios with its thatched roofs and open windows, the salty tang in the air from the sea, the light stone and brightly colored accents everywhere.
Everything here is made of sleek, dark stone and rich red wood, the adornments all deep jewel tones and polished brass.
The smell of snow and ice and pine lingers in the air, and I sigh in utter pleasure.
Images suddenly rise, as if a door is swinging open within my mind and letting out memories that had been locked away.
I never saw outside the palace walls in Lyanna until the day I fled and those horrifying weeks afterwards, but I remember now that most of the kingdom was living in near squalor.
I remember buildings looking as if they might fall with a strong gust of wind, broken windows and muddy streets, starving people with dirty faces and dirtier clothes.
A dirty, bloody orphan wandering the streets wasn’t anything out of the ordinary and probably the only reason I was able to disappear so easily and actually escape.
What the hells was Barony doing if not seeing to his people? Providing for them? Helping them? Where was all his wealth going?
“Are you alright?” Dessa asks, frowning.
I shake myself, deciding to think on it later. “Yes, fine.”
“So, what do you think of our fair kingdom?”
“It’s…perfect.”
“I told you,” she sighs, smiling. “I’m so happy to be home. I love being part of the army, don’t get me wrong, but…well, Mia deserves to spend some time safe at home.”
“Where is home?” I ask, wondering which part of the kingdom they live in.
“In the Inner Village.” She points towards the towering castle in the distance. “The Sector closest to the palace. Many of the higher-ranking officers live there, but we’ve lived there my entire life because my father was the King’s weapons master.”
“Well that explains your affinity for the bow and all manner of pointy objects.”
She laughs low. “I was toddling around with swords in my hands when I was a wee babe of two—much to my mum’s chagrin of course.
” Her smile turns bittersweet. “She knew I was destined for the army though, no matter how much she might wish otherwise. It’s in my blood. Battle calls to me, same as it did da.”
“How…how did they die?”
“Mum got sick with a fever that wouldn’t break. Da died of a broken heart not a week later.”
“I’m so sorry,” I tell her and she gives me a tight smile.
“I have Mia, so I’m still blessed by the Makers, to be sure.
I remember when they brought her home, a slip of a thing, pale as a ghost—orphaned when her own parents died in a house fire out on one of the farms. Mum expected it to take me a while to warm up to the idea of a sister after being an only child for so long, that I’d be jealous, I guess.
But the second I saw those pale green eyes look to me for reassurance in the new house full of new sights and sounds and smells, not mum or da, but me, I was done for.
She was my sister regardless of no blood being shared between us.
” I smile at that and she grins. “I still want to skin the heathen sometimes, don’t get me wrong, but I love her more than anything. ”
The street around us becomes more and more populated as we go.
People wave from windows and cheer, children run alongside the horses, smiling and laughing.
A heroes’ welcome. These people don’t live in fear or poverty.
They aren’t used or abused from what I can tell, and they seem to love the soldiers.
Perhaps this place isn’t so bad. I try to be like the flower Soren is so keen to call me and have hope.
The cat in question is drawing quite a bit of attention as we make our way through the city. Gasps of shock; cries of terror; exclamations of joy and reverence. He stands taller, preening and I try to hide my smile.
-Enjoying this, are we?-
-Immensely,- he says shamelessly. I can hear the smile in his voice and he flicks his tail purposefully behind him.
I laugh lightly, but my humor vanishes as I hear murmurs start to rise about me.
Not me, but Tesni. The wind blows a flaming red curl into my face and I curse myself—I should have pulled my hood up to hide my hair.
In Helios, even with the red hair and my proper green eyes, I could probably pass mostly undetected, but here in the north, Lyanna’s Gifted is all too well known.
“Is that…the Flame of Lyanna?”
“She’s the Commander’s prisoner!”
“Fucking cunt.”
“Is that frost cat her familiar??”
“Fire Bitch will fetch a pretty coin, that’s for sure.”
“Don’t listen to them,” Dessa whispers. “The truth will spread soon enough, the tales of how you saved this entire army. Then they’ll want to throw bloody parades in your honor, believe me.”
“Parades, huh?” I say, trying to sound nonchalant.
“If there’s one thing Duskthornians love, it’s an excuse to throw a party.”
I look at her and quirk a brow. “You’re joking. Are you joking? I can never tell if you’re fucking joking.”
She laughs, flashing her snowy white smile.
“Truly. We’re a lively bunch. Parades. Soirees. Masquerades. Anything with music and dancing and debauchery, really.” I shake my head, laughing. “Hard to believe?” I hike a shoulder. “Rumors are often just that—rumors. Gossip. Lies spread, sometimes for a purpose…”
I eye her at that, but she turns to smile and wave at a little boy who climbed up a tree to get a better look at the procession.
We ride on, past shops and houses, taverns and inns, and farther out from the city’s center, small farms and pastures filled with animals and crops.
The road veers to the right and inclines gently as we draw closer to that towering mountain, the castle high above within it.
Just as we turn onto what looks to be the final stretch before reaching a towering gate at the bottom of a series of zig-zagging stone paths leading up to the palace’s front steps, Killian drops back to ride beside me, sharing a look with Odessa that I can’t decipher but that sends cold coiling through my stomach.
“Thea, just…”
I inhale sharply and my blood goes icy when I see it: lining the street on either side are cages—large enough to fit a person. My stomach drops. So, the stories are true. Gifteds are put into cages and forced to perform like animals in the circus.
“What the fuck?” I spit.
Soren tenses, prowling to sniff at the metal bars.
The cages are empty right now and I wonder where the Gifteds are.
Dungeons perhaps? Chained to Dorian’s bed?
I clench my jaw and turn to glare at Killian.
He told me things would be fine. He told me I would understand soon.
He told me that he would explain everything.
How can this be fine? How can I possibly understand this?
What kind of explanation could he possibly give? ?
Part of my mind is telling me to calm, to think things through and trust in this man, the one that I love with my entire soul and trust with my life, but that part of my mind isn’t nearly loud enough in this moment.
“Thea, you must understand—”