Chapter 19 #4
“She won’t hurt me,” I told him, trying to pull away and go to her, but he held me fast.
“I’d rather not test it,” he said, his arm tightening around me.
People had to jump out of her way to keep from being trampled. Guards marched forward to corral her away from the nobles. Panic spread through my veins like ice water when I saw one guard race out of the room only to return with chains.
Shazeera, please, I begged.
“My Lord Emperor, you must remove this creature from the throne room!” Lord Heron shouted to be heard above the screams of the people, my frantic horse, and the occasional shrieks of the eagle.
Emperor Altair signaled his guards, and they came at her with chains.
“No!” I shouted, pulling free from Talon and jumping between Shazeera and the guards.
There was no wind here in this open space, but I called for it anyway.
It came, buffeting around Shazeera and me powerfully, a force strong enough to form a barrier around us.
I turned to face Shazeera and threw my arms around her neck.
Finally, she shuddered to a halt, trembling all over and breathing hard.
She was still too terrified to answer me, but I could sense her still—I hadn’t released anywhere near the power I did when I fought the Eagle Riders.
Perhaps this was why our bond hadn’t been affected this time.
In fact, the wind I had called hadn’t even chased away Shazeera’s fear.
The only reason she had stopped was that her body was so exhausted she could barely stand.
A pregnant silence filled the room as nobles watched us with horrified expressions.
Lord Heron looked at us with naked disgust before quickly climbing the dais to the emperor. After a quick bow, he spoke to Emperor Altair in low tones.
Talon came close to my side. “I’ll do what I can for you,” he murmured, “but this is bad.”
“First Daughter Zara has broken the treaty by using the wind power against us,” Lord Heron announced.
“I didn’t use it against you! I was only trying to calm my horse.
The eagle frightened her…and that creature—” I felt Talon subtly take hold of my wrist and squeeze what felt like a warning.
That was when I realized that the shadow being had disappeared.
If not for the way Shazeera had reacted, I would have thought I had hallucinated it in a fog of exhaustion and stress.
“Lord Emperor,” Talon said, “I have been on the receiving end of First Daughter’s power, as you know, and I can assure you this was nothing but a cool breeze in comparison. She meant no harm.”
The emperor was quiet for a moment, as though considering Talon’s words, but Lord Heron spoke to him again. I strained to hear, my hands curled into fists, but they were too far away. Altair looked like he didn’t know whom to listen to—he kept glancing from Talon to Lord Heron.
“First Daughter Zara should have restricted access to her horse until we can be sure we can trust her,” Lord Heron said. He glared at me from close to the emperor’s throne. “Your horse will only be safe if you keep that power under control.”
I swayed on my feet at his words. How had this gone so horribly so quickly? I had never wanted to turn back time so badly.
“Please,” I said, my hand tangled in Shazeera’s mane, “you have my word I’ll never use that power again.” Emperor Altair looked unmoved, so I cast my gaze around to anyone who would defend me. Only Talon appeared remotely sympathetic.
“Lord Emperor,” Talon said again, “the Children of Earth are bonded to their horses the same as we riders are to our eagles. It will hurt the future empress to be separated from her horse.”
Lord Heron stepped forward with a sneer. “Then she should have thought of that before she let it go wild in the throne room and threatened us with a strange power.”
After a moment, Emperor Altair gestured toward Shazeera. “Guards, take her to the upper pastures.”
Every muscle in my body burned with the desperate need to take Shazeera and flee, and I broke out in a cold sweat as I fought down the rising panic. “Then I’ll go with her. I’ll sleep outside. I’m sure it’ll be more comfortable.”
All around me, there were gasps and expressions of contempt. I caught the loudly whispered barbs that the nobles were too cowardly to say to my face.
So ungrateful.
Disgraceful.
Barbaric animal.
Emperor Altair looked like he’d rather just shrug and let me go on my way, but then Lord Heron spoke. “Your place is here, beside the emperor. It would be humiliating for our people for a future empress to sleep outside with the livestock.”
A fiery anger burned through me. “Shazeera is my bonded sister. That is deeply insulting.”
Lord Heron merely stared back at me with his cold eyes.
Another woman, dressed in a belted floor-length dress of dove gray, said loudly enough for us all to hear, “Well, there’s always the lower pasture.”
I didn’t need to be familiar with the palace to know that whatever the lower pasture meant wasn’t good, especially when Lord Heron smirked.
“That’s true,” he said. “We can always send your horse to the feeding pasture instead. The eagles are always looking for fresh meat.”
The blood drained from my face in an instant.
My choices flashed through my mind. I could try to fight all these guards, but I would be easily overpowered.
I didn’t want to risk the full power of the wind and damage the bond I had with Shazeera.
I would have to let them take Shazeera—the only true ally I had here—and bide my time and get her back.
Emperor Altair didn’t seem like he’d be difficult to persuade—if I could get him away from his horrible adviser.
“That won’t be necessary,” Talon said, stepping forward and gently tugging me away from Shazeera. “I will accompany the future empress’s horse to the upper pasture.”
“She’ll be safe,” Talon said near my ear. “You have my word.”
I’m sorry, Shazeera said. I don’t want to leave you. Especially with that creature.
It’s not your fault. I’ll come see you as soon as I can.
She touched my arm with her velvety-soft nose. Don’t ever let your guard down. I’m afraid you’re in very real danger here—not just from that thing, but also Lord Heron and all the others in this room. They give off nothing but a sense of hostility.
Her warning made my knees weak, but I nodded. I’ll stay safe. You do the same.
Talon led her from the room, and she followed with lowered head and tail, obviously exhausted. It killed me to watch her walk away, to not know how long we would be separated.
The emperor returned to his throne, leaving me with Lord Heron. Tears threatened, but I refused to let him see how badly this affected me.
“Shall I escort First Daughter Zara to her room, Lord Emperor?” he called out to Altair.
Altair nodded once, his expression conflicted.
Lord Heron tried to take my arm, but I jerked it away from him. I wouldn’t be dragged off to my room like a naughty child.
“Lead on, then,” I told him tightly.
With everyone watching, I held my head high as we left the massive throne room. In the dimly lit hallway, wall sconces made shadows dance ominously as we walked, two guards trailing behind us at a distance.
“You’re off to a bad start here,” Lord Heron said. “Now the members of this court will have even more reason to kill you.”
My hands strayed close to the dagger I had strapped to my thigh, no doubt in my mind that Lord Heron was a threat. I hid my reaction behind a bored expression. “Wouldn’t that be a breach of the treaty you defended so strongly just a moment ago?”
“Not if it’s done in a way that could easily be accidental. We are on the side of a mountain, after all.”
“Who are you to threaten me?” I snapped, tired of his constant antagonism.
He widened his eyes in faux innocence. “I would never threaten you. I’m merely the adviser to the emperor.
No, the ones you should be on guard against are the ladies of the court,” he said, and I immediately thought of the elegantly dressed women who had watched me with thinly veiled hate.
“You see, you—a barbarian no less—have stolen their opportunity to marry the emperor and become the most powerful woman in the empire.”
I started to tell him that they could have him—I didn’t even want to be empress—but then I thought of my people. My marriage to the emperor was what would unite our people and keep us safe.
We arrived in front of a set of wide double doors, and Lord Heron waited for the two guards to open them. My whole body tensed as we stood before the threshold. Lord Heron leaned toward me. “A parting piece of advice: I would watch myself in the dark corners of the palace. Some shadows have teeth.”
With those words, he shoved me through the opening, and before I could spin around, pulled the door shut with an ominous thunk. I grabbed hold of the handle, but I found it locked.
“Just a safety measure,” he said with a chuckle through the thick wood.
I leaned against the door and closed my eyes, swallowing down the panic that threatened to crash over me like a flash flood.
Too late, I realized the treaty assured my health and safety, but it never said I should be treated like the future empress I was.
There was nothing to stop them from leaving me in here forever.
With my heart set on Shazeera, I reached out to her. Shazeera? I thought through our connection, but there was only silence. When I dug deeper inside myself where the shimmering bond lay, I could tell she was too far away to hear me.
I glanced at the opulent multichambered room behind me.
A large mahogany bed with a lace canopy and white and gold bedding dominated the space, while across from it was an enormous fireplace, already burning.
There were windows that took up one entire wall, with a view of the sky, the clouds floating by lazily.
From here, I could see there were two other rooms, a bathing area and a sitting room.
It was no dungeon. But even amongst all this space and fine furnishings, the locked door beneath my hand made my throat tighten with dread.
Was I a prisoner here?