35. Chapter 35
Chapter thirty-five
Erix
The morning dawned red and hazy. The sun refused to fully shine, hanging near the horizon in a muted orb. The blinding heat of the midday sun was a common enemy, but somehow this was worse.
The desert knew that her Heart was in enemy hands.
The bitter taste of her anger lingered on the air, and the chattering in my head that had been quieter since my conversation with Kelvar returned.
Somehow, though, the madness it evoked tasted different.
It wasn’t as frenetic and all-consuming but tinged heavy and mournful. As if the desert grieved.
The clans grieved along with her.
As Keera and I walked shoulder to shoulder through the camp, my eyes burned with the smoke drifting in the air. It would not fade for quite a while as all the dead were burned and their bodies returned to the desert.
“We should gather the lords,” Keera observed grimly, looking around. “Or at least the ones that are able.”
The camp was slow to wake up after everybody had been up late tending to the injured. But we could not wait. Every minute we delayed was another minute where the Heart could move beyond our reach. I did not want to believe that Calix could use it in such a state, but I also feared his ingenuity.
If people from beyond our borders had known more about the creation of our own home and the goddesses, I did not like to wonder what other knowledge they might have.
And while it seemed that the desert currently mourned her Heart being taken, I knew from experience that after loss came vengeance. The Heart needed to be reclaimed and healed before the time for retribution came.
“We will find who we can.”
We happened upon Warrick first, who cleaned his double-bladed axe near where Doran’s ships had been gathered.
His men no longer kept to themselves in a separate camp but were intermixed within the large swath of life gathered around the oasis.
In fact, no one had demarcated separate areas for each clan in all the chaos, and everybody had simply found an open patch in which to pitch their tent, uncaring that their neighbor might be somebody they had once drawn swords against.
Today, we were all on the same side, even if it was the losing one.
Warrick looked up as our shadow fell over him. “I am pleased to find that the riders of the desert are as fierce as all the stories say. You have done the Youngest Goddess proud.”
“We would not have been victorious without the soldier of Doran,” I praised him honestly. His men had bled and died side by side with ours, dissolving the residual distrust that had lingered between us and the foreigners.
“But I am afraid the goddess will only be angrier than ever,” Keera commented grimly.
Warrick looked curious, but I shook my head. “We will tell everybody at once.”
It took us another hour until the lords were gathered in a circle near the makeshift infirmary. Warrick and Aderyn stood among them, and all our eyes darted to the open space next to Elion where Dhara would normally stand, arms folded and looking cross.
“Is she…” Keera began.
“Lord Dhara lives.” Elion’s voice was thick with exhaustion. “But it was a long and painful night for her. I did not want to wake her when she had finally found some relief.”
I nodded. “Unfortunately, we cannot afford to rest long.”
A wave of murmurs ran through the group, and from the grim set of Aderyn’s face, I could tell she knew what was coming.
“Calix has stolen the Heart of the Desert,” Keera explained. Elion and Izumi’s eyes widened, and mutters of concern ran through part of the group. Lords Koen, Noc, and Vidar only looked confused—they had not been told the truth of our mission before we left.
A passing rider carrying a bundle of bandages and herbs stopped on his path to the healers. “The Heart is a myth,” he said.
I breathed in deeply, bracing myself, and the smell of smoke lingering on the air only strengthened my resolve. If we were asking the people of the desert to fight and die for us, they deserved to know the true stakes of the coming battle.
“The Heart of the Desert is real, and it is the reason the desert fights us,” I spoke loudly, so that all the nearby clansmen could hear. They began drifting closer, forming a crowd around the central circle of lords.
“I am the great-grandson of Kelvar himself, and he found the Heart of the Desert, but in all his strength, he thought he could overcome the true nature of the desert—the balance of life and death that we all teeter on the edge of.” As dozens of eyes grew to a hundred, and what seemed like all the riders of the clans that still stood drifted closer, I took a deep breath.
I had led these men in battle just yesterday, but exposing the truths that I had hidden so long—the shame of my family and the fears I had of repeating the same mistakes—felt like an entirely different type of fight.
Keera’s fingers slipped in between my own, and some of my shame melted away. Kelvar’s disgrace had not been loving his wife. In fact, even in death he tried to undo his mistakes and reunite with Alyx. That same determination and strength ran through me and Keera.
And so, I launched into the whole tale from the beginning.
I told them what Warrick had shared about the history of our land.
I spoke of the love Kelvar and Alyx had shared, and how he tried to defy death itself.
I spoke of how Alasdar had guessed at the source of the desert’s anger and used it to twist me and the clans to feed his need for power.
Keera’s fingers tightened around mine as I spoke of what we had found in the room at the top of the palace at Kelvadan, and what Kelvar had told me needed to be done.
“Calix and the armies of Viltov don’t just seek our lands and our horses, but the power that holds our home together.
Yesterday, on the field of battle, he used the opportunity to take the Heart.
Now, it is in the hands of our enemy behind the walls of the Great City.
As high lords, it is our duty to protect the desert and all its people, and so we must breach the city, find the Heart, and take it to the spire of Kelvadan before it is taken beyond the edges of the desert. ”
The expressions that met the end of my story were pinched and grim—full of fear and dread.
Silence fell over the gathered group like a heavy blanket.
Where the riders of the desert often shouted and made their opinions known with hollers and drawn swords, their fighting spirit seemed quelled in the face of the impossible task before it.
Keera’s fingers slipped from between mine as she stepped forward.
“When Erix and I offered ourselves as high lords, we did so out of a desire to serve the desert and all her people. We will not command you to ride to your deaths—but we will be honest with you. If we do not succeed, there may be no home left to protect. And so, we would be honored if you would ride at our sides against the Great City and the ones who have sought to steal our home from us.”
The silence gave way to murmurs, but one man shouted out. “Even if we all join you, there are not enough of us left to breach the walls and Viltov’s defenses.”
They were right. But before I could come up with something to say—to admit that the chances were slim, but we had to try—Aderyn stepped forward into the middle of the circle.
“There are more warriors in the desert than the ones gathered here,” she declared.
The tittering intensified, but she persisted.
“The Riders of Kelvadan are strong, and while they have been trapped under a foreign ruler, I know they have no love for him. If given the chance, they will rise up and join us in the fight,” Aderyn argued.
“If they are so strong, why have they not already driven out the armies of Viltov?” somebody shouted.
“Why has no single clan attacked the city and done the same?” Keera asked of the clans in return.
The murmuring quieted in a hush, and Keera scanned the crowd before continuing.
“Because no one group of riders would be strong enough. Only together can we overcome our enemies, and after yesterday, I know you realize that even riding as one, it may not be possible. Despite the odds, though, Erix and I will ride for Kelvadan tomorrow.”
I stepped forward so we stood shoulder to shoulder once again. As she looked up at me, equal parts dread and determination solidified in my abdomen. We would face the doom of the desert together, if nothing else.
“Clan Katal will join you.” Izumi was the first to step forward, tapping her knuckles to her brow in respect.
“And Clan Tibel,” Elion joined her quickly, as if not to be outdone.
One by one, each of the lords stepped forward and pledged their riders to the cause. Even Clan Otush’s warlord emerged from the assembled riders and promised to lead the clan in Dhara’s stead.
Once all nine clans were accounted for, a meaningful look passed between Aderyn and Keera. Aderyn drew in one long, fortifying breath and stepped forward as well. “I will join you and command the forces of Kelvadan that remain inside the city.”
Izumi quirked a brow and looked at Keera. “Were you not Queen of the Great City? Should not the riders rally to you?”
Keera shook her head. “I forsook the title of queen when I pledged myself to be a high lord—to represent all the people of the desert equally and our goddess. But the people of Kelvadan still need a protector. And none will protect them more fiercely than Aderyn.”
Aderyn pursed her lips and nodded, and a tiny seed of peace planted itself in the chaos of my mind—a remnant from Keera’s own consciousness as she finally put down the last scraps of the burden of being Kelvadan’s Queen and cramming herself perfectly into a position that did not suit her.