Chapter 10
Osid
The bed was empty when I woke. My hand instinctively reached for the warmth of my charm beside me, but the only thing that greeted my fingertips were cold sheets.
Rubbing the tiredness from my eyes, I called her name, voice still groggy from sleep.
Silence.
“Blair?” I tried again, this time scanning the dimly lit corners of my bedchamber.
The vibrant spiked jacket that rested on the chair beside the fireplace was gone.
Nor was there any sign of wild purple curls or the infuriating creature they belonged to.
I closed my eyes and searched for the anthemic beat of her current, but the song was dead. Gone. A knot twisted in my gut.
We made no promises, couldn’t even if we wanted to. My body ached for her, and she obliged. I may have sought to keep her as mine, but I had no way of knowing if she felt the same pull toward me. After risking her life to save me, she didn’t owe me anything else.
My palms felt wet.
I looked down to find blood pooling from where my nails dug deep into the skin.
I threw the furs off me and leapt to my hooves. By the time I’d made it out the door, smoke had started to billow from the end of my tail, only darkening my mood further. Warriors scrambled out of my path, pressing themselves against the wall.
I ran a hand down my face, trying to hold it together.
My eyes locked at the guard stationed at the main entrance of the castle.
I didn’t recognize him, but the arrow on his throat told me enough.
He had the same tall, broad features that were common among his clan.
“You there,” I called. His spine straightened as he snapped to attention. “Did you see the female come this way?”
“No, sire, I haven’t seen anyone come or go since I started my shift.”
“When did you start?”
The guard swallows hard. “About two hours ago. Though the previous guard had nothing to report.”
I gritted my teeth. “Nothing? So she simply walked out of here with no one noticing?”
“We…we haven’t seen her, Your Majesty. Not since last night when you both retired to your quarters.”
Rage mounted on his every word until I snapped. “Then find her! I want every inch of this fortress searched. Now!”
He fled quickly, barking orders to the surrounding men.
I continued my warpath toward the main hall, trying and failing to reel in my anger.
A king can’t afford to lose himself to emotions.
If I looked unfit to rule in any way, the next usurper would have knives trained on my back in seconds.
I should know. I spent weeks monitoring King Towei’s movements after the Biwban dropped us here in that cargo ship.
I had led my people away from the ship’s sight as soon as the doors opened.
As expected, Stormforge and Singing Arrow fought for control of the ship and all the supplies it had in its hold.
When the Arrows lost their king, they lost the will to fight, and disbanded to either mourn on their own or assimilate into another clan.
By that time, I had already claimed all the best farmland in the area and was more than happy to swear them into my service.
The Stormforge king was known to be weak of heart and even weaker in constitution. His greatest strength was the near infallible king’s guard that he kept near him at all times. But even the legendary might of his champions wasn’t enough to protect his hide when his people grew scared and hungry.
All I had to do was keep their forces spread thin enough with small skirmishes until the provisions they found on the ship ran out.
As the attacks continued and bellies grew hungrier, his own people grew to hate the idle king that hid behind his strongest warriors instead of allocating them to protect his own.
By the time I offered citizenship to any Stormforge who defected, even his champions didn’t have the heart to kill their own people when they rebelled and came for the king’s head.
“Did the beast finally bite the hand that feeds?” a cheeky voice called out.
I whirled around to see Jivorn leaning casually against a pillar.
“Not now,” I warned, resuming my march.
He fell into step beside me anyway. “Is this a poor time to say ‘I told you so’?”
“Why don’t you try it and see where it gets you?” There was enough malice in my words to have lesser men pissing themselves. Jivorn merely laughed and clapped a hand on my shoulder good-naturedly.
“Don’t be cross. You weren’t the only one taken in by the first pair of tits anyone has seen in a decade. Judging by the gaggle of ears at your door last night, I half expected them to demand you share—”
I swung a fist at his head, clipping his cheek before he was able to fully dodge. “All right, I see we’re still testy.”
“Make yourself useful and help with the search,” I growled.
Jivorn misstepped, knocking into a vase as he stared at me wide-eyed. He caught the vase before it shattered on the floor and placed it back on the mantel. “You can’t be serious. You’re still going to search for her?”
“Did I stutter?” I asked, pushing open the doors to the main hall. Outside, the sharp clang of a bell filled the air, a single, deliberate toll, followed by three rapid chimes. “The scouts are back already?”
“It would seem so.”
At the front gate, the scouting party staggered in, looking like they’d just come from war. I took in the battered state, immediately noticing two glaring anomalies.
“Where’s Magni?” I demanded.
Hakri had an arm clutched tight around his stomach. Blood trickled down from his gauntlets into the dirt. He tried to speak, but cut off in a wheeze. His knees buckled, and I ran to catch him before he fell on his face.
“Why are you just standing there?” I asked the growing crowd of onlookers.
“Go get the fucking druid, NOW!” When a few guards ran off in the direction of med hold, I rested Hakri down on a stool and turned my attention to Yengro, who was bound and gagged atop the only mount that seemed to make it back from their trip.
He thrashed and bucked against his restraints like a wild animal, causing the already flighty looking ribat to shuffle nervously.
“My lord.” Biesabu stepped forward, his eyes haunted. “We got to Fujilly Rock and managed to find tracks that looked similar to Blair’s. We followed the trail a little farther into Night Ridge territory and—”
“They attacked you?”
“No, King. We were ambushed by a pink bonecrusher. By the time we realized what was happening, it had already torn Magni in half. If it weren’t for the Night Ridge hunters that came to our aid, it would have killed us all.”
“A bonecrusher,” I repeated, dumbfounded.
Bonecrushers were some of the largest predators found on this planet.
Despite the fact that they stood as tall as two men stacked on top of each other, they moved like silent death in the swamps and grasslands they called home.
The pink ones were more common in the far east side of the Fuchsia Grove, while the greens stuck to the swamplands in the northeast. It wasn’t unheard of to see one or two of them wandering farther outside their territory during the dry season, but I’d never heard tales of them appearing in the jungle that surrounded the mountain range Night Ridge called home. “What was it doing that far inland?”
“Growing fat on Sankado flesh, to hear those hunters tell it. They’ve named the beast Gruulorak, after the ravenous god, due to its insatiable appetite.”
“What of Yengro?” I asked. “Is he still in shock from the attack?”
White-hot loathing tensed every muscle in Biesabu’s form. He glared up at the bound warrior, then spat. “That craven bastard claimed he heard a bird singing and left us to rot. Said his true king was calling on him.”
Yengro ripped the gag from his mouth and roared, “I did hear it, the call of the Amdora bird! King Lokbaatar has returned!”
“That wasn’t your king, you imbecile, you heard a bird in the jungle. You abandoned the mission and left us to fend for ourselves because you heard a fucking bird in the gods damn jungle!”
Yengro showed no signs of relenting. “It was him! I saw him with my own eyes, and he’s not alone. There was another one of Blair’s kind with him!”
A hush fell over the fort, and I didn’t have to look behind me to know all eyes were on Yengro, but I did see the exact moment he realized it, too, and a dangerous smile flitted across his face. This would not end well.
“Lokbaatar must have already found where the females live. Our true king has returned!”
And that was when the riot started.
The guard I’d tasked with tracking down Blair only moments ago launched his spear at Yengro, who raised his arms above his head. The spear sliced through the binds on his wrists. He took the reins of the horncrest and snapped them. The beast charged straight for the gate.
The rest of the former Singing Arrows I granted shelter to had turned on us.
Shouts filled the air as words clashed and bodies slammed together.
By some miracle, the guards stationed in the watchtowers along the wall were loyal and did their jobs.
Fireballs sprayed down from above, lighting up the ground in front of the horncrest, who slammed to a halt. The gate began to close.
I ran up the tower to defend the guard cranking the door’s winch just before a man I’d recognized as Govvi tackled him.
I grabbed the traitor by his braid, wrapped the long white rope around my fist, and knocked him out.
Down below, a full brawl had broken out.
Fire was thrown on all sides until—who would have guessed it? The gate caught fire.
This shit was what I hated most about being king. It was one thing to rebel, expected even. Let the people have a voice. But what I could not fathom was why my loyalists were also using their firepower inside the fucking walls as if the whole place wasn’t built out of wood?
Stupidity, that was why.
I rested my arms against the railing and just took a moment to bask in the idiocy.