Page 24 of Winds of Destiny

Cam

Thud!

I come to with a start, groan, and reach for my aching head—only to realize a second later that my arms are tied behind my back. Shit, what… I can’t remember anything between watching Turo and Kai disappear and now. I must have passed out. At least the gag is gone.

Bronze-scaled boots settle on the ground right in front of my face, and a flood of memories unfurls like a flag. I can picture them so clearly: the attack outside the Gate, the Kamorans, my escort dying one by one, then climbing up onto Lulu and—

The flare of green. Lu’s sudden stillness in midair, and her collapse as soon as we hit the ground. Falling.

“Awake at last,” a dark, velvety voice purrs right over my head. Before I can say anything, someone grabs me by my bound arms and hoists me to my feet. My shoulders are screaming in pain—how long have I been tied up like this? Where the fuck are we?

What happened to Turo and Kai?

“Prince Camrael,” the voice continues. “I can’t tell you how much I’ve been looking forward to meeting you again.”

My neck is killing me and I taste blood in my mouth, but I hate not being able to see the man blathering at me. I steady myself on my feet, then turn to look at the murderer still holding my arms.

His thick, dark brown hair is mussed from being under his helmet, and he’s not wearing the delicate eyeliner that I remember from seeing him at my father’s court. But the expression of smug satisfaction is exactly the same. Even when my father refused to marry me to him and told him to leave, Embros had looked like this—like he knew something you didn’t.

Well, that turned out to be true.

He smiles at me. His incisors are so slender and sharp they could almost be fangs. “How’s your head?” he asks solicitously.

“Where are we?”

“Mm, as mannerless as the barbarian you were engaged to, I see. Or perhaps he just encouraged this kind of behavior in you.” Before I can duck, before I even see it coming, Embros hits me across the face with the palm of his hand. Agony surges through my head, and I would have hit the ground if it weren’t for his iron grip holding me upright. “Let’s try again. How is your head feeling?”

“Awful,” I croak.

“What a shame. You did take a nasty fall off that bird of yours. Here.” He lifts a canteen to my lips. “Water will help ease the pain.”

I keep my lips firmly closed, even when it results in water running down my chin and over my chest.

“Oh, come now. Why would I bother drugging you at this point?” Embros asks. “I’ve got you exactly where I want you already, Camrael, and you’re no good to me weakened by self-inflicted thirst. Now drink, or I’ll have one of my men come hold your nose while I pour this down your throat.”

Apart from the indignity he’s promising, I really am thirsty. I won’t be good to anyone, much less myself, if I make myself sick from neglect. When he tilts the canteen next, I drink deeply.

“Very good, very good. Excellent,” he coos. “I knew you had it in you to behave.”

See how you feel about my behavior when I knee you so hard in the balls you collapse. But now isn’t the time for lashing out. “Where are we?” I ask again after he lowers the canteen.

“The Plains, as you can see.” He smiles like he’s being cute. “You passed out very early into our journey away from the Gate. Don’t you want to know whether your two remaining warriors are alive?”

Turo and Kai… They’re not dead. I know they’re not. They aren’t stupid enough to come after me outnumbered like they were. Right?

It takes me a moment to remember that I can check for myself whether Kai, at least—or rather, Prince Eleas, that jackass —is well. I feign a sob and drop to my knees, taking my chance and forcing my aching mind to focus and feel for the pearl I gave to Kai. I haven’t reached for it much before, not beyond registering a general sensation of warmth and something uniquely Kai. If I can’t feel it anymore, if it’s cold and still… But it’s there, pulsing with life. I can tell Kai’s the one wearing it, that he still has it.

More than that, though… I can feel the other pearl as well. I thought I’d lost it, thought it was gone, but it’s there, and the energy I sense through it is so familiar. Did Turo find it? He must have. So it was always meant for him. Now he has it, even if the handover didn’t go the way I wanted it to.

Above me, Embros is laughing. He’s enjoying trying to hurt me with this. Fucking sadist. I’m not going to give in to tears in front of him.

“Oh, sweet prince.” He reaches down and scuffs his thumb against a tear track. “So pretty and delicate. If I didn’t already know Eleas was going to come after you, I might just let him go on living. But…” He heaves a dramatic sigh. “I promised his father I’d get rid of him, and the prince is as determined as that bodyguard of yours.”

“What… You’re working with his father?” So Turo’s grim guess was correct. Kai was betrayed by his own.

“I’m a great king, but there are only so many things I can accomplish on my own. I needed allies, and since your father wasn’t willing…” He strokes my cheek again, and I can’t stop my shudder. Embros either doesn’t notice it or doesn’t care. “But Dian and Anarx have made up for the loss, which is just as well. I’d rather keep you alive, pretty boy. Your future is going to be incredible if you manage to behave. I’ll tell you all about it once we’re farther from the mountains.” He smiles. “I don’t want to make it too easy to be found, after all. There’s still a long way to go.

“I’m going to free your arms. If you try to attack me at any point, I’ll cut one of them off.” His devilish grin is worth another shudder. “Do you believe me?”

I absolutely do. I nod.

“Good. You need to clean yourself up. You’re a wreck.”

Whose fault is that, asshole? I force another nod.

“Go to Dian and have her tend your wounds and give you some food. I’ll be along soon enough to tell you everything you have to look forward to.” He pulls an onyx-hilted knife from a slender sheath at his belt, then taps the flat of the blade against my cheek. “And Camrael? If you try at any point to run, I swear on my god Shevara I will drive this knife through your heart and offer you up as a sacrifice to him.”

Oh, I definitely do. I nod again, and he slashes down with the knife and frees my hands.

For a moment, I feel blissful relief at the change in position, followed quickly by my muscles reminding me that they’ve been bound for likely hours and are not happy with this state of affairs. I hunch over, my arms hanging dead at my sides, and do my best to breathe through the pain.

“Good lad. You’ll make a strong and obedient husband for us, I can tell. Dian!”

Reactive tears have blurred my vision, but I can hear soft footsteps coming toward us. “What?” a woman asks flatly.

“You’re not being very welcoming, dearest,” Embros says, his voice full of dark humor. “Aren’t you pleased to have me back safe and sound?”

“Of course I am.”

“Mmm, I don’t think I believe you.”

“That sounds like an issue of faith. You should take it up with your go—” She gasps and stumbles. I look up just in time to see Embros grab a beautiful, vaguely familiar woman’s arm and jerk her toward us.

“Do I need to remind you what your lions wear around their necks?” he murmurs. “Do you think it’s wise to provoke me, given everything I control?”

“You wouldn’t kill them out here,” she says, but her voice is shaking. “Not when you need them to pull the chariots.”

“There’s no timetable for our arrival, Dian. Speed is desirable, but unnecessary. I will absolutely kill those beasts in front of you if you don’t watch your mouth with me.”

She stills, then forces a smile. “I understand.”

“Husband.”

“Husband. ”

“Good.” He lets go of her and gestures to me. “This is Prince Camrael of Zephyth. From here on out, he’s your responsibility. If he manages to escape, even briefly, I’ll do to you everything that I do to him— twice as hard. Remember, I need you alive.” He smiles. “I don’t need you whole.”

She swallows hard. “I understand.”

“Good.” Without looking at me again, Embros turns and heads toward where his men are still setting up the camp. Dian turns to me, stares for a moment, then extends her hand to me. I manage to flop mine up far enough that she can grab it, and she pulls me to my feet.

She’s stronger than I expected, and tall for a woman—probably as tall as Turo. Her hair is held in tight braids across the top and sides of her scalp, then haloes out around her head like a corona in the back. Her eyes glow with moonlight, and she’s wearing a long-sleeve, split-legged dress just a few shades lighter than her tawny brown skin. She looks queenly, which fits, since this must be Dian of Antasa.

She lets go of my arm. “Come with me.” Then she turns and walks away toward a pile of… something about fifty feet away. After a moment, I follow—what else can I do? I’m not going to get another person ensnared by Embros into trouble if I can help it. Besides, I’m supposed to be broken right now. The last thing I want is for my captor to think I have a spine.

My willpower is tested when the pile we’re heading into starts to move. It’s a pile of lions , a literal pile of the beasts, each with a jewel-toned viper for a necklace. Most of them are sleeping, draped across each other and stinking of musk and meat. Dian moves among them like there’s no threat there, and I suppose for her there isn’t—Antasa’s god, Laigha, is a golden lion with dawn-colored wings. Embros wouldn’t be able to use these beasts to pull chariots if it weren’t for Dian.

Is that her magic? I don’t know much about Antasa or the abilities of its rulers. The older stories say their kings and queens could transform into lions themselves, but none of us have that sort of legendary strength anymore. It makes me wonder—

“Are you going to sit down, or are you going to stand there gaping all night?”

She’s crouched in the middle of the pride, a large leather satchel in hand. She points at the space next to her, and I gather my courage and step into range of the biggest predators I’ve ever seen before, apart from Ophiucas and a few dead sharks that washed ashore back home.

“Sit.”

I sit, almost falling at the last second. Dian’s bright eyes narrow. “Head injury?”

“Yes.” I point to where I took the brunt of the impact. She nods and pulls a smaller bag out of the large one, then tips some of the powder inside it into a canteen.

“This will help the pain and hopefully keep your brain from swelling,” she says, shaking the mixture together before handing it to me. “Don’t drink it too quickly.”

I sip, then make a face. It’s bitter. I definitely won’t be drinking this in a hurry, despite my thirst.

“What else?”

Honestly, I appreciate her briskness. She’s not pretending to really care about me, which is good, because I don’t know that I’d believe it if she did. She’s a prisoner here. We both are. That’s all we have in common—well, that and the fact that we’re both royalty.

Once every wound is cleaned and bandaged, she hands me a rope of thick, chewy jerky. “Eat.”

“Um…” I glance nervously at the lions snoozing around us.

“They won’t do anything to you,” she assures me. “They’re full.”

“Full of what?” I mutter. “Human flesh?”

Dian huffs a laugh. “Jaka bird.”

Oh. I stare at the jerky, my nonexistent state of hunger becoming nausea at the very thought of eating. This was something like Lulu once. My sweet Lulu…

I’m crying before I even realize it. Dian takes the jerky away and snaps, “Put your head down, idiot! Don’t let that awful man see that anything can make you cry!”

I do as she says, hiding my face in my knees as the tears keep flowing. I hate losing control of myself like this in front of someone I don’t even know, but she’s right—it would be so much worse if Embros was here right now. I cry as quietly as I can, and, gradually, the grief ebbs. It’s not just Lulu I’m crying for—it’s Rusen and Morfran, Deran and Ferow. It’s the villagers at Traveler’s Ease, their whole settlement destroyed by one man’s manic quest for power.

It could be so much worse, though. I could have lost Kai and Turo, too. I reach for the sensation of their pearls that I carry in my chest, comforted by the fact that I’m lucky enough to be able to feel both of them. That calms me down more than anything else, and by the time I look up my eyes are swollen and itchy, but my face is dry.

Dian is leaning back against a lion, one of its massive paws drawn across her lap. She points to my canteen. “Drink.”

The cool, refreshing water helps a little.

“You should eat.” Her face is expressionless, but her voice is thick with emotion as she says, “I won’t let you kill yourself, no matter how much it hurts to live. I can’t .”

“I understand.” I smile weakly at her. “I won’t kill myself, I promise.” I take the jerky from where she set it and begin to chew. It’s tough and nearly tasteless, and I frown around my bite.

“Spoiled Zephythan.” She sounds more relaxed now. “You people expect salt with every meal.”

“We are very fortunate,” I agree. Sea salt is one of our biggest exports.

“You’ve slowed your trade lately.”

“We were losing too many merchant caravans.”

She grimaces. “Ah. Of course.”

“The bandits generally haven’t been pulled around in lion-drawn chariots, though.”

She makes a pssht sound of dismissal. “Kamorans are foot soldiers first and foremost. The first thing Embros demanded once he stole my city was the use of my chariots.”

I hum in understanding, then ask, “How did he steal your city?”

Dian doesn’t say anything, just stares at me. It takes a moment for me to realize she’s actually staring above me, at someone standing behind me. I turn, my heart filling with dread, and—

Embros smirks down at me. He doesn’t have Kai’s breadth or Turo’s whipcord leanness, but there’s something about how he holds himself that automatically makes me think “danger.” Perhaps it’s the strange arch of his neck, like he’s rearing back about to bite. Maybe it’s the fact that his eyes barely seem to reflect the light.

Or maybe it’s the fact that he’s made a complete fucking mess out of my life.

“Look at the two of you, clustered together like berries,” he says, crouching next to me and slinging an arm over my shoulders. “I’m glad you’re getting along. This pampered prince is surely much easier to look after than Eleas would be, isn’t he, darling?”

“Surely,” Dian says in a flat tone.

“I thought at first we had ruined everything by lingering so long with the boats, making sure everything was safely tucked away. We barely made it to Zephyth in time to try and take Eleas before he could enter your city,” he says, looking at me now. “But the gods are on my side, because as soon as I saw you I knew you would make the perfect lure.”

I frown. “Lure for what?”

“For Prince Eleas, of course. Why take him in hand myself—and perhaps be forced to break him too soon—when he’s so determined to come after you ? He’ll follow us all the way to Inarime, see if he doesn’t.”

What the hell? “But… Inarime doesn’t exist anymore.” It sank into the inland sea a thousand years ago.

“Oh, but it does. It’s hard to get to, but I’ve already done it once.” There’s a light in his eyes—a manic gleam, pure zealotry. “And when we get there?” He laughs again, speckling my face with spit. “We’re going to resurrect Inarime’s all-powerful god and flood the land with magic. It wants to come back. You’ve seen signs of it already, haven’t you?”

I have, of course, in the children, but… “How are you going to resurrect Inarime’s god?” I ask.

“By killing our own, of course.”