Chapter 1
One
Aesira
Killing monsters was easier than making small talk. Which was what Aesira focused on, slicing her blade straight through the scorpion, as a new recruit babbled nonsense in her ear.
“Impressive,” the recruit said.
“What?” Aesira wiped her blade clean before placing it back in the leather sheath on her hip.
“I said that was impressive. I can’t wait to get my first kill.”
“Report to Lieutenant Nev,” Aesira said, tossing the wretched parasite over the wall. “See what she needs done this morning.”
The new recruit’s face fell slightly but Aesira didn’t have time for it. She waved her off and thankfully the recruit turned and left without another word.
She took a deep inhale of the early morning air. The sun was barely rising, a small fragment looming over the endless sand. She reached into her pocket, palming the orders she received this morning.
A new station.
A new city.
It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary for the Order to keep her busy. They kept her moving, never giving her, or any of the knights, a chance for a life to take root. That’s how they kept them under control; the girls with too much fire in their hearts and venom on their tongues.
The sun stretched across the sky, tinting it orange.
She filled her lungs again. This was the only time of day she could stand the Vargah heat before it became something sinister, sweltering.
Truth be told, there weren’t many things she cared for in Vargah, but the sunrise being closer to the west always had more of a payoff than she’d seen in Novaria.
Deep pinks and light purples, the sky a seemingly endless painting sprawled across the open desert.
Vargah also meant being close to Kamari and while she’d be pleased to leave the unrelenting heat, leaving her sister left a sour taste in her mouth.
She took in the last moments of silence before another sharp tailed bloodsucker crawled over the wall and ruined the sunrise for her.
“Commander, a word?”
She slammed her blade through the scorpion before turning to her knight, Rahashi. “What is it?”
“The Queen is asking for you,” Rahashi said.
“Did she say what she needed?”
Rahashi shook her head, her dark skin at such a contrast to her tightly braided white hair.
“She only said it was urgent.” They walked in sync along the wall, passing a few other knights who were dealing with more of the large scorpions that had made their way up, including the new recruit who was struggling to unsheath her blade.
“Was I that hopeless?” Rahashi pointed to the woman, fresh faced and untested, finally releasing her blade in time to slam it through the scorpion.
“You all were,” Aesira said with a smile. “Don’t worry, I was too. Keep an eye on her but first find Nev, let her know where I’ll be.”
“You got it, Commander.” Aesira left Rahashi and the other knights to finish their work and made her descent down the narrow, stone stairway that was carved into the wall.
Her heavy boots were unnaturally loud against the hard marble floor of the Citadel, but she didn’t have to wander far before she found Kamari pacing the foyer.
“Have you been waiting long?” Aesira frowned but she stood straight, her arms positioned behind her back just as any soldier would.
“What’s that?” She nodded to a scroll clutched in her sister’s palm.
“Treason is what it is.” Kamari shoved the scroll into Aesira’s chest then resumed chewing the tip of her nail between her teeth.
Aesira unrolled the scroll, fighting a grimace as she read the headline in bold script.
KING DESMOND; DESERTER OR DEAD?’ It seems as though our beloved king has gone mad after all–
"This is just gossip, Kamari.” Aesira passed the scroll back to her, repositioning her arms behind her back. “If you feed into it, it’ll only get worse. It’s better to ignore it."
“You want me to ignore that people think Desmond deserted them?" Kamari clutched onto the scroll, biting the tip of her nail as she paced. "Or worse, ignore that they think he’s gone mad or dead?” The word bounced off the walls like a sadistic laugh.
Dead.
Dead.
Dead.
When King Desmond went missing a week ago, Aesira had never seen her sister so distraught. Kamari was always the picture of poise and grace, but she would allow her mask to slip when it was just the two of them alone. When they could be sisters, instead of queen and commander.
“Has he gone mad, Kam?” Aesira’s voice lowered, she didn’t trust all the hidden corners of the Citadel.
Kamari’s eyes narrowed and Aesira knew she’d asked the wrong thing.
She didn’t really want to ask about the king’s mind, but the soldier in her wouldn’t let her dismiss the question.
It wasn’t news that Desmond was of a different sort.
Seen talking to himself, whispering in corners, face buried behind a notebook.
“Of course he hasn’t,” Kamari snapped. “He’s perfectly fine.
He just…” She cleared her throat and Aesira followed her down the hall.
“It’s my first meeting with the council since Desmond’s disappearance and I feel like a noose has been wrapped around my neck.
” Kamari’s fingers, visibly shaken, drifted to her throat.
“I need you to find who wrote that morning scroll and bring them to me. I can’t have a city full of panic on top of everything else. ”
“Kam.” Aesira sighed deeply, which made Kamari frown. “So what do you want me to do? Find whoever wrote this and rough them up a little? Scare them? It won’t change the fact that it’s already written and now that it’s out there, it’s inevitable that more will follow.”
They came to a stop in front of a set of large bronze doors, spanning from floor to ceiling, ornate with carved moons and stars to honor their goddess, Celestria.
Kamari turned to her. “I know it doesn’t seem important to find who wrote this, but to me it is.” She looked away and Aesira knew why, she was hiding tears. Holding herself together because it wasn’t accepted, in her position, to be anything other than composed.
“To speak of the king in such a manner is not only treasonous but rumors in this city spread as quickly as dry-lung. It’s already difficult ruling a foreign kingdom without him, I don’t need a sudden surge of panic to make things worse.
The peace between Vargah and Novaria hangs by a thread as it is.
” Kamari faced the door again, taking a deep breath. “I can’t mess this up.”
“You won’t, Kam.” Voices rose from the other side of the door. Kamari smoothed her skirts again, set her shoulders back, chin up. Aesira could see the pain in her sister’s expression and immediately her thoughts turned to erasing it.
She could fix this.
Help ease her worry in any way. Because that’s what she was for. The second daughter, the spare.
“I was supposed to mend our kingdoms, Aesira, and now–”
The doors swung open and a maid popped out. “Oh, Your Majesty.” She dropped to a clumsy curtsey before pulling the doors wider, allowing Aesira and Kamari space to pass through. Kamari entered first, holding her skirts above the marble floor, a passive expression swept across her face.
Aesira entered next, keeping a few paces behind, eyes strategically scanning the room before eventually landing back on Kamari.
The old men and women that made up Vargah's council bickered amongst themselves, only pausing to rise and offer a quick bow before resuming.
The meeting room was lined with tall rectangular windows that let in diluted sunlight from the swirling sand outside. A long golden table stretched through the center of the room with enough chairs for each of the council members. Aesira’s gaze drifted to the empty chair on Kamari’s right.
Desmond’s chair.
“We appreciate your haste, Your Majesty,” one of the councilmen said, his graying beard and sparse hair proving he was the oldest member. Aesira couldn’t remember any of their names. Or maybe it was that she never bothered to learn them since she knew she would be leaving soon.
“And what is so urgent, Councilman Sante?” Kamari declined a cup of tea from the maid, and clasped her hands together on the tabletop.
From where she stood behind Kamari, Aesira had a clear view of the room and the exits. She silently cataloged each corner, every place to hide, the different ways one could get in and out. After her sweep of the room her gaze landed back on her sister.
“If it’s about the reservoirs,” Kamari continued, “I’ve been assured they’ll last through Naming Day. If the water is running low, begin rations from Piscis Spring. Cut back on astra wherever we can, we don’t need to cool areas that aren’t absolutely necessary."
Aesira hid her wince at the mention of Naming Day, a ritual to the Goddess Celestria.
One sacrifice, once a year, to prove their loyalty and the goddess would bless Vargah with enough astra to keep the city powered, cool and with enough water to last an entire sun cycle.
With the treaty, Vargah would now be responsible for providing rations of astra to Novaria in exchange for extra rations of water from Piscis Spring.
The northernmost kingdom didn’t need the astra to keep cool, their climate was much more temperate than Vargah and they used the water from the spring to power their city, but Aesira knew better than to assume her father’s intentions behind this treaty were merely for peace.
There was always a hidden layer with Godrick Zeliath, she just hadn’t figured out what yet.
The council members looked at each other as if daring one another to speak first.
Kamari cleared her throat. “I would hope you didn’t call me here just to waste my time?”
Aesira couldn’t help the small smile that crept across her lips. She considered her sister a merciful queen, just as Desmond was a merciful king, but she was also a Zeliath. Ruthless when necessary and in a room full of predators, Kamari knew best when to raise her hackles.