Chapter 8
Zara
I slept through that afternoon, evening, and into the next morning.
At some point, Shazeera had left to graze.
Just the thought of food had my stomach growling loudly, and I found that someone had kindly left an arrangement of small plates on a tray containing my favorite breakfast foods: sun-dried fruit, bread, soft cheese, and a small silver pot of hot tea.
I ate ravenously, pushing all thoughts aside and focusing on my physical needs.
They pushed against the walls of my mind like a violent sandstorm, but I refused to acknowledge them.
After eating, I desperately wanted a bath.
The cool fresh water of the lake would feel incredible, but for now, I cleaned my body with a soft cloth and perfumed water from my porcelain basin.
I changed into a leather-and-gemstone bodice that stopped just short of my belly button, leather leggings, and tall boots.
Choosing one of my simpler headpieces, with strands of silver chains and turquoise beads that hung down over my hair and forehead, I pulled my thick hair into a knot at the base of my neck.
When I pushed through the silk that separated my room from the rest of the pavilion, I saw Ama in the main room with Dani beside her. Ama’s eyes were closed, and Dani had her hand on Ama’s forehead. Unease churned inside me at the sight of it. It meant my mother still hadn’t recovered.
“Are you feeling unwell?” I asked Ama, coming to her side.
She gave me a wan smile. “Just fatigued. It’s taking me longer to recover this time.”
“Using that much magic at once put a strain on your mother’s body,” Dani said with a glance at me. “Especially her heart.”
A cold sweat broke out over my skin at her words, and I swallowed hard. Losing the wards was bad enough, but if it cost my mother her life…
I couldn’t even let myself think such thoughts.
“Can you recover?” I asked Ama.
Ama was quiet for a moment. “We don’t have prior experience to draw on, so there’s no way to know.”
Her words cut deep even though she hadn’t meant to hurt me. “Meaning no First Daughter has been unable to replenish the queen’s energy—until me.”
“This is true, but only right now. We don’t know what the future holds.”
Her kind tone didn’t do anything to stop the burn of shame that spread through my body like wildfire. Tears of frustration abruptly filled my eyes, and I turned away, unwilling to let Ama and Dani see them. I didn’t deserve their comfort.
Ama called my name as I hurried out of the pavilion, but I didn’t stop. Shazeera came immediately to my side from where she had been grazing near the lake.
Your mother is descended from the strongest line. She will recover, Shazeera told me confidently.
Yes, but when? I thought again of the map I had seen when we first arrived, of the Zephyrians pushing ever closer to the Nazeeran Canyon. It could be too late.
Shazeera swished her tail nervously. She knew I had a point.
“Zara,” a voice called, and I turned to find Mariyah and Citrine riding toward us. “You’re finally awake! I was about to come and wake you up myself. Would you like to go for a swim in the lake?”
Despite everything that was happening—the flight from our camp, worry over Ama’s inability to maintain the wards, and the strange wind power I had manifested—the mere suggestion of going for a simple swim put a smile on my face. “I’ve honestly never wanted to do anything more.”
We turned and headed for the lake just beyond my pavilion, passing many guards and grazing horses. Queen Jazela had created the lake soon after splitting the earth to form the canyon, and it stretched on for miles. The feat of strength must have been staggering to watch.
It was only a short ride, and the lake spread out before us, its dark water sparkling and inviting as gentle waves licked the shore.
Mariyah and I wasted no time stripping down to our underclothes and wading into it.
Shazeera and Citrine joined, walking in deep enough for the water to reach their bellies.
“I brought you some soap.” Mariyah handed over a thick, creamy brick of it. “You look like you could use it.”
I laughed as I started scrubbing my arms, turning the suds brown. “I can’t argue with you there. Apparently, I’m filthy.”
My hair was worse, and since it was so long and thick, I had to wash it several times before the soap could penetrate to my scalp. Mariyah washed herself, too, just not as vigorously as I was forced to.
When we finished, we floated peacefully on our backs, our eyes shaded by low-hanging branches. “I’m really glad you and Queen Rana came,” Mariyah said. “I was so relieved to see you ride into camp.”
I reached my hand out and touched hers in the water. “I’m glad, too.”
She smiled at me, but then her eyes seemed shadowed. “I think we’re all safer together, especially in light of what your mother and mine were talking about before you got here.”
“What do you mean?” I shifted so my feet were now in the soft sand of the lake and I could see her better.
“They sensed that the Zephyrians used magic to find your camp.”
A jolt of horror ran through me. “They don’t have magic.”
“This is definitely new,” she said, treading water. “But the worst part is, it’s a magic they’ve never sensed before.”
“Then where did it come from?”
“No one knows—it shouldn’t be possible,” Mariyah said as a chill spread throughout my body. “Whoever it was had enough power to overcome your mother’s shields.”
My skin erupted in goose bumps, though the water hadn’t changed temperature. “So that’s how they found our camp.”
“That must have been so scary when you were attacked,” she said, and Citrine snorted an agreement.
“We keep hearing horrible things from the battles”—she glanced behind her at the guards in the distance before dropping her voice even lower—“like that the riders have been allowing their eagles to eat our horses.”
Both Shazeera and Citrine shuddered violently. I had heard the same thing from warriors on the front lines reporting to Ama and General Isa. All I could think about was how close that eagle’s talons came to ripping into Shazeera’s haunches. If it hadn’t been for the wind…
“This war has to end.” I felt sick at the thought of all the losses—both of our people and our horses.
“Queen Samira keeps saying we need a peace treaty,” Mariyah said.
Samira was queen of the Faridan line of earth magic users and ruled over the southern Equnox Plains.
She was the third member of the alliance that made up the Children of Earth.
She had the weaker, but still important, ability of channeling the Earth Mother to encourage crops to grow, no matter the conditions.
Her tribe provided all the crops needed to supply the warriors, but she rarely left the southern territory.
“It’s not like we haven’t tried! We’ve seen what happens when the Zephyrians take over a territory.
They build cities and completely raze what was originally there.
We already can’t migrate the way our ancestors did with our horses.
If they seized the grasslands and built cities, we would lose all our ancestral land. ”
“They would let Queen Samira keep the southern plains, though,” Mariyah said with an edge to her voice. “Her crops are too valuable to raze and replace with cities instead.”
And no doubt Samira would make sure she would continue to profit under Zephyrian rule.
Already her territory brought in wagons of silver and gold through her lucrative trade with the port city of Rhythos.
Ama had always said that Queen Samira only allied herself with us because the Zephyrians would force her to pay too high a percentage of her profits were they to take over her land.
“I shouldn’t judge her, honestly,” I said—mostly to myself. “At least she contributes something to our people.”
Mariyah shot me a sympathetic look. “Still no powers?”
Tell her, Shazeera said. Mariyah has always been trustworthy.
Yes, but I don’t even understand it myself.
“I haven’t heard the Earth Mother’s voice even once,” I admitted to Mariyah, “much less been able to heal.”
“It could still happen,” Mariyah said, her tone full of positivity that I just couldn’t relate to.
“Only you and Shazeera believe that at this point.”
Shazeera flicked her ears back at me and tossed her head.
“Well, you should listen, because we’re both very wise,” Mariyah said with a lofty grin.
Easy for you to say, I thought and then immediately felt guilty. It wasn’t Mariyah’s fault her powers had manifested early. Technically she was right that I would have abilities—just nothing like what I was supposed to have.
We both fell silent after that, casually paddling in the cool water, or floating lazily on our backs. Nearby, our horses stood in the shallow part of the lake and grazed on the plants that grew at the water’s edge.
I nearly fell asleep, floating on my back, when suddenly, the breeze changed.
Where before it was light, it now blew hard enough to create waves on the water.
Cold spread through me, and I sat up to look at Mariyah.
Strangely, the water around her was unaffected, and when she turned toward me, not a hair on her head stirred.
The wind blew strongly in my ears, pushing me from all directions.
It felt like a hand on my back, urging me out of the water.
“Mariyah,” I hedged, unsure how to tell her I felt uneasy because of the change in the wind, “I think we should head back.”
She opened her mouth to reply, but a flock of birds took flight so violently from the branches of the trees surrounding us, that it interrupted her and drew the horses’ attention.
Zara, Shazeera said in my mind, and there was a note of anxiety that mirrored my own. I hear wings beating. Giant wings.
No, I thought, they never come here. We’re too far south.
A breeze swirled around me then, lifting the ends of my hair, and I knew…I knew they were coming. Mariyah and I followed our horses out of the lake, leaving in a torrent of water. We dressed hurriedly, and my fingers shook as I pulled on my clothes.
In the distance, I heard a sound that made me freeze. My inadequate human ears couldn’t quite pick it up, but Shazeera’s could, and the sound ripped through my mind as she transferred it to me.
It was a giant eagle’s screech. And it was rapidly followed by another. And another.
Get on, Shazeera said. Now.
I swung myself astride as Mariyah did the same beside me. Back toward the canyon, I could see the warriors and guards scrambling to arm themselves and mount up.
Suddenly, the pounding of hooves rang out as Kamil carried General Isa to our side. “First Daughters, you must follow me to the safety of the canyon. We will soon be under attack.” She handed us bows and quivers of arrows. I tried to hide my shaking hands as I took them.
We turned to look at the canyon in the distance. It was only two miles away, but right now, it seemed impossibly far.
Some of the guards who had been stationed closest to the lake now came to General Isa, led by Naomi. “We await your command, General,” Naomi said with a quick bow.
General Isa turned to Naomi. “I want you and your battalion to scout for eagles. If you find them, engage. We need to lead them away from the settlement. I will take the daughters to safety.”
They saluted her and galloped away. I watched them go with my heart in my throat.
The five remaining guards surrounded us as General Isa took the lead. “We’ll ride for camp. If the eagles should find us, keep going. The guards and I will draw them away from you.”
Mariyah and I shared a look, her eyes wide and panicked. I couldn’t even let myself think of that scenario.
“Where are our mothers and Prince Malik?” I asked. “Are they safe?”
“They’re deep inside the canyon by now, which is where I must get you—now let’s go!”
As one, the horses took off at a gallop for camp.
Their hoofbeats were thunderous, and the wind whipped Shazeera’s mane into my face.
As fear turned my insides into a quivering mass of snakes, I tried to convince myself the eagles were only passing through and hadn’t even discovered us.
Maybe we would make it back and never even encounter them.
That was when Shazeera heard the beat of wings in the distance, the sound of men and women shouting to be heard above the wind. She passed what she heard along to me through our link, and my mouth went dry.
Shouts of men meant these were Eagle Riders—no hope now that we had only heard wild eagles in the distance—and we still had over a mile to go.
The other horses had detected the sound, too, and were flicking their ears nervously. General Isa turned and shouted back to us, “We continue for the canyon. They may not have spotted us yet.”
Our horses lengthened their strides even more, their hooves barely touching the ground before launching us forward again. All eight of us flew over the earth like we had wings.
But I knew it wouldn’t be enough. I had seen for myself how fast the eagles were. How they fell upon you like a meteor from the sky.
The wind whispered in my ears again, stronger this time, and I could almost hear it encouraging me to call upon it again, how easily I could knock the eagles and their riders down to earth.
You may have to call on the wind, Shazeera said.
Remembering how torturous it had been to not communicate with Shazeera still made my mind cloud with terror. Worse was the fear that it would be a permanent condition. I couldn’t lose my bond with my heart’s sister. I’d rather die. No, I won’t risk that again.
Better to risk our ability to communicate than to watch daughters and horses be killed, Shazeera said. Before I could answer, she added, They’re coming. Mariyah’s mare turned her head in the direction of the sound, too.
That’s when I looked up and saw an eagle and its rider streaking toward us out of the sky.