4. Krait
Chapter 4
Krait
“ W hy are we here, Krait?”
The singsong cadence of Elsedora’s voice reached me, but I pretended it hadn’t. If we hurried and left before sundown, we’d make it to the Plateau in a little more than a week and to the heart of Sahlmsara a week after that.
“Boy, why aren’t these packs loaded?” I barked at a young groom who was tying his bootlaces. He startled and fell over before lifting himself and scurrying to toss packs into one of the horse-drawn carts. We stood at the south gates of the Palace of Luz. Its spires and turrets were still blackened from battle. The gardens were upturned, only a few rose bushes remaining in place. The south wall, where I’d first met Queen Wymark, rose above us.
Death had nearly conquered this city.
I had felt him in the air as soon as I’d arrived, and the sensation had not ceased. I itched to get out of here. This battle reeked of Death’s influence—which meant the prophecies were all coming true. We didn’t have the luxury of time. We were due for a black moon in just a few years.
“Kraiiit,” my officer prodded. How the woman could turn my name into a three-syllable word was mind-bending.
“What?” I snapped.
“Oh no,” El warned. “We do not bite the hand that steals for us.”
I rubbed my face. “I’m busy, Elsedora.” I only used her full name when she got under my skin, which was growing more and more frequent.
“I see that. But something is bothering you.” It wasn’t a question.
She was right. My mood had went sour the minute that entitled brat of a Queen had offered herself in her friend’s place to join us in the Sahlms. That had not been the goal. Yet my plan had gone awry long before that.
I’d already had enough time to assess whether the starling, the one they called Asterie, was who I thought she might be. My interest had been piqued when Elsedora had brought word of an Oracle in Luz.
Powerful? Yes. But the Star-wielder was not the right one; by her age, she would have been capable of so much more if she’d been the one.
I’d been wrong to come, and I hated being wrong.
“It’s nothing,” I said.
“Oh, Krait, I told you it wasn’t her.” El sighed, figuring me out far too quickly.
“Not the time.”
“When is it the time? Are you going to have me tear the world apart whenever you catch wind of someone with a sliver of Reverist magic?”
“Yes.”
“All because of some prophecy in a dusty old book?” she lamented.
“Yes.” My patience wore thin, as we’d had this conversation too many times to count.
She questioned, “What about the Central Queen? She can read minds. That means she has a bit of Reverist power. No?”
I shook my head. “Too weak—if she were the full Reverist, she’d be out of control by now with no training. But she can be useful in other ways.”
Elsedora sighed again and looked up at the clouds. “You’re impossible,” she muttered as she practically bounced away from me, through the south gates of the Palace of Luz. It was hard to dissuade her of her enthusiasm for life. Even my shit demeanor didn’t knock her down.
At least I’d gotten one thing out of this. I did need an ally in this realm. Only that ally came in a petite, foulmouthed and willful package. She embodied everything I hated about the old Phynnic ways—belligerent righteousness and rigid traditionalism.
She couldn’t even command the respect of her own family, so at least she wasn’t a threat. I could get what I needed and then send her on her way to Luz and out of my hair.
I didn’t need her to come to the Sahlms to ally with me, but her presence would assure my people that we were making progress toward a solution to our resource constraints.
Whether the realm of Henosis stood or fell concerned me less than what resources I could gather from its state of being.
Currently, it would serve me better standing. Unfortunately.