The Horde King of Shadow (Hordes of the Elthika #1)

Chapter 6

KLARA

It was still dark on the wildlands when I stepped beyond the East Gate. Sarkin—or his horde of dragons—were nowhere in sight, and for a brief, dizzying, silly moment of relief, I thought maybe he’d changed his mind.

Dannik was beside me, stoic and stiff. He’d barely said a word as he walked me to the gate. It felt like a death march.

Last night, he’d come to my chambers. He’d begged me to leave Dothik—he’d even had a group of our father’s darukkars at the ready, to shuffle me across the wildlands and hide me among one of the outer hordes. He would speak with the Karag, he’d promised. He would make Sarkin Dirak’zar change his mind; he would offer another female in my place. He only needed time.

I’d denied my brother. It wasn’t only Sarkin’s threat, that his dragon had my scent now and they would find me anywhere—and likely destroy everything in their wake, including whoever sheltered me.

It was also Zaridan’s song. That pure moment last night and the sense that I was right where I was meant to be.

I had to do this even though I was terrified. Even though I didn’t know if my new life would be atrocious or kind at the hands of my new husband. What life awaited me with the Karag? What would I find across Drukkar’s Sea?

Like Vienne, the white-haired sorceress, my ancestor…I’d had dreams all my life. Visions, I assumed. I’d seen an alien place, one I’d never been able to find replicated in the archives. I’d seen the dragons. A forest of heartstones. And what of the stories my own mother had told me all her life? Her visions? Of things she couldn’t possible know?

It was all connected. I knew it. Finally I would have the answers I’d so desperately sought for over a decade.

Dannik had been right—our last heartstone was dying, fading with every passing day. Soon Arik’s sword would dull and tarnish, a great legacy beginning to rot with it.

What if I could find more heartstones across Drukkar’s Sea? Heartstones had saved us against the red fog. If we had none left, what would save us against the Karag if they came with their dragons? If they unleashed their ethrall on the capital, on the hordes, on the outposts? Nothing would stop them from conquering Dakkar when we didn’t have the power to fight back.

My father and his queen might not’ve wanted me. Alanis might’ve sneered every time I walked passed her in the palace. They might’ve deny my bloodlines…but Dannik was right. I had the blood of great Dakkari and humans alike running in my veins, and I had a duty to my people. This was my home. It was all I’d ever known.

So, when I stepped out onto the dark wildlands and didn’t see Sarkin or his dragons, I was both selfishly relieved and disappointed.

It was short lived, however. As the first rays of the sun began to lighten the sky to a soft purple, I saw a dark mass flying from Bekkar’s Shield—the mountain range to the west.

The group that was gathered beyond the East Gate was larger than I expected. Dannik and myself. My father and the queen. The high priestess of the temple, with her keen eyes that narrowed on me, as if loath to let me go. A few of my father’s council. And guards. Many, many guards.

There were archers along the walls, and I thought their presence was laughable.

“I know you’re angry with me,” I said to Dannik, far enough away from everyone else that I spoke freely. I had a trunk of clothing at my feet, everything I owned, and a leather satchel strapped to my back, a dagger nestled within its confines. “But I don’t want to say goodbye like this.”

Dannik let a breath loose. He stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the grouping of dragons that were drawing closer and closer in the rising sun. I wondered what they called a formation like that. Surely the Karag had a word for it.

“I will find a way to bring you home,” my brother vowed quietly. “Whatever it takes. The Vorakkar are riding in from the wildlands to meet with us. We are forming a plan to?—”

My brow furrowed, and I gave him a half smile, reaching forward to grip his shoulder. “Dannik. You saw what they can do. The best plan? It’s to understand them, to learn about them. It is not to attack blindly. To sail across the sea, searching for an uncharted continent that is home to powerful creatures who can wipe us out in a mere moment.”

“I told you that I would protect you. I promised it to your mother,” Dannik confessed softly.

My heart squeezed. “What? When?”

“Before she was sent away. She made me promise, Klara. I have broken that vow already.”

A stab of affection mingled with grief made me stand on the tips of my toes and press a kiss to his cheek. I embraced him.

Into his ear, I whispered, “Trust in me, brother. Zaridan gave me this scar. She gave it to me when I first dreamed about her, when I was just fifteen. And I have dreamed about her ever since.”

Dannik stiffened beneath me, even though I didn’t tell him about everything else I’d dreamed. The other dragon, specifically. The ones I’d seen even before Zaridan.

I pulled back, looking up into his eyes. I grabbed his arms, squeezing tight, though my voice was steady and unyielding. “I am afraid. But I know that this is my purpose. I have been preparing for it nearly my whole life. Let me go with them. Political marriages are made all the time, throughout our history—you know that. Father knows that better than anyone. Let me go as a daughter of Dakkar because maybe it will soften the Karag’s will against us. Maybe we can negotiate as allies and not as enemies. We cannot stand against them, against their dragons’ power. This is the only way. It might even be a mercy.”

Dannik stared down at me, turmoil swirling in his golden eyes.

“I always thought you would make a better ruler than me,” he finally said.

I heard the gust of the dragon wings before I felt the earth’s might tremble when one landed. The other nine remained in the air with their riders, circling overhead. When Dannik stepped to the side, I saw Zaridan, gleaming black and undeniably beautiful in her strength, illuminated by the rising sun.

My eyes caught on Sarkin’s, watched as he ran his palm down her wide neck. He swung his leg over, dismounting expertly with a long jump down in front of her left wing. He landed in a crouch and then rose.

I’ll ride a dragon this morning, came the sudden thought, so unfathomable that it didn’t quite feel real until this very moment.

My chin rose when he approached. Sarkin’s eyes narrowed on my brother, a curl of black hair drifting in front of his left eye when Zaridan gusted her wings. I heard Orak—one of my father’s council members—make a distressed sound. I got the impression Zaridan had done it on purpose.

I watched Sarkin assess the clearing, flickering from me to the group behind us, to the archers on the walls and the locked East Gate. Not that it mattered. He’d been in the market yesterday. He knew another way to get into the city. There were rumors of tunnels beneath Dothik, tunnels that King Arik had once used. Perhaps those?

I wondered how long the Karag had been among us. Since their very first dragons had been spotted? How long had they been gathering information on the Dakkari, waiting for the perfect moment to strike?

And why did that strike happen to begin with me?

“Sleep well, aralye ?” he asked, his tone gruff and mocking, raising his brow.

“Perfectly,” I lied. For once, my dreams had been strangely quiet.

Those beautiful eyes dropped to the trunk at my feet. “Where do you think you’re going to put that?”

My hand tightened on the strap of my brown leather satchel. “It’s my clothing.”

Sarkin made a sound in the back of his throat. “It stays. Let’s go.”

Dannik stepped forward and Sarkin’s eyes cut to him. The icy chill in them had me reaching out to squeeze my brother’s wrist, a warning in my own gaze when he looked over at me.

Sarkin looked behind me, directly at my father, assessing the distance he’d put between them. I could almost hear his thoughts. He didn’t think highly of the Dothikkar .

“At least you, heir, can look me in the eyes,” Sarkin said, voice rising as he looked at my brother. “Tell your father we will be in contact soon.”

“What is it that you’ll be in contact about?” Dannik growled.

“Our terms” was all Sarkin said, and I could feel my brother’s frustration.

“Fuck your terms. If you hurt her,” Dannik said, his voice so quiet and deadly that even Sarkin stilled to regard him, “I won’t care that you have your dragons at your back. I won’t stop until I find you, Sarkin Dirak’zar.”

The slow spread of Sarkin’s grin made me hold my breath. I felt my brother’s temper snap. Zaridan’s wings gusted again, and I wondered if she could feel the palpable tension in the small clearing.

“Enough,” I said quietly, stepping forward in front of my brother before a brawl began. Sarkin’s eyes fastened on my own when I looked up at him. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

Did I catch a hint of surprise? I couldn’t be certain as nerves began to rush, making my limbs shaky at the realization of what I was about to do. I hadn’t cried once since last night, and I refused to now…but all I wanted was to curl into a little ball on the wildlands and sob. I was leaving my home, where I’d been with my mother, where she was buried. Leaving Dannik, the city, the archives, Sora—who I wouldn’t get to say goodbye to, all my research, the comfort of my routine. My quiet morning walks along the Spine. My dusky evenings sneaking out on the wildlands.

Sarkin took my chin in his grip, turning my cheek to peer down at my scar. I swallowed loudly, discomfort swirling. I’d pinned back my hair this morning, leaving my scar on full display. And there was a reckless part of me that wanted everyone to see it. I’d hidden it away behind the curtain of my hair for years because it made others uncomfortable.

Now? I wanted my father to see it, who’d once loved my mother but couldn’t stand to look at me. My stepmother, who’d only ever hated me because I threatened everything she’d built. The Laseta Kalliri , the high priestess, who I assumed had always known about my abilities and had just been waiting for her own perfect moment to take me away to the North Lands. Now I had a strong suspicion Dannik had helped protect me from her grasp.

Sarkin’s thumb brushed the bottom edge of it, the marking that Zaridan had left on me. He recognized it. And I wasn’t a fool—I knew it had something to do with my being taken away.

The mark throbbed under his touch, making me flinch.

His lips pressed, and for a moment, he looked furious. He grabbed my waist, pushing me toward Zaridan, and I nearly stumbled into her. Standing next to her front clawed legs, as thick as tree trunks in the Ancient Grove, I craned my head to look at the dragon, my mouth bone dry in my fear and awe.

She huffed out a hot breath as I looked into her slitted eyes of gold. Zaridan moved, lowering her left wing, and I watched Sarkin ascend it before seating himself in the worn mount with the silver catches.

Looking back at Dannik, I tried to give him a small smile, but I feared it came out as a grimace.

“Strength,” he reminded me, the soft word meant for me drifting over the distance between us.

I inclined my head, my gaze catching on the trunk at his feet. Another part of me I’d leave behind, clothes I’d lived in every day for years. It felt…wrong. Every part of me was being stripped away, bit by bit.

“Ascend,” Sarkin bit out, voice cold and cutting. “We need to leave. Now .”

As if I were outside of my body, I felt myself move. Zaridan’s wing was surprisingly steady, like unyielding earth, beneath my feet, a testament to her strength. The climb was steep, my footing uncertain, the weight of my satchel at my back throwing me off balance.

I heard Sarkin’s sharp, impatient exhale when I nearly stumbled, catching words under his breath that I didn’t understand.

Zaridan breathed deeply, lifting her wing, and I cried out, landing hard on the mount, right into Sarkin’s side, my satchel nearing falling off my shoulder. My face was burning with fear and mortification, knowing my family had witnessed the pitiful scene. I wasn’t used to being so on display, but I could feel dozens of eyes directly on me.

“Sit behind me. Find your balance and hold my waist tight. If you fall, you’re dead. Remember that, princess,” Sarkin rasped. The mounting saddle was as hard as a boulder between my thighs, though I guessed it was marginally better than Zaridan’s scales. For a moment, he said nothing as my arms wound around his body, digging into his unyielding strength.

My breath was coming out in quick gasps and pants…and we weren’t even off the ground. Overhead, I heard the others flying.

“Learn quickly,” Sarkin said. His voice might’ve been quiet, but there was no mistaking the menace in it. “The Sarrothian will never accept you otherwise.”

Those words sounded like a promise.

With that, Sarkin’s hand tightened on two black tethers hooked into place.

“ Thryn’ar .”

I felt Zaridan’s body respond to his command. She seemed to hum to life, vibrating in her unmistakable power. Heat rushed. I swore I could feel her heartbeat, and for a moment, my fear was replaced by awe.

I felt her launch from the ground. One moment we were stationary. The next, the air was hurtling around us and we climbed higher and higher at a steep, terrifying angle. My stomach dropped at the unfathomable speed, the pins in my hair whipping out immediately.

The wind was so loud that I couldn’t hear myself scream.

But then we leveled out. Already I was panting and could barely hear over my pounding heartbeat.

“You’ll leave your own scar on me with those claws,” Sarkin grumbled when the world quieted again. I was gripping him so tight I was surprised I hadn’t drawn his blood.

Yet I didn’t loosen my grip. I didn’t care if I hurt him.

When the other nine dragons fell into formation around us, with Zaridan in the lead, though flying lower than the rest, I couldn’t help but look behind me.

There was Dakkar. In all its expansive, wild beauty. In the rising sun, I’d never thought it looked more beautiful. The mountains, the plains, the river that ran toward the coast from Dothik…

Outside the East Gate, my brother was a mere speck on the earth, growing smaller and smaller by the moment.

And I knew then…this was how the Karag saw us. Mere specks. How could they not on the backs of their mighty dragons?

I swayed, going dizzy. I couldn’t wrap my mind around the height. I imaged myself falling. How long until I reached the ground?

“Turn forward,” Sarkin ordered me.

In front of us was Drukkar’s Sea, glittering and seemingly endless.

My future lay beyond it.

The moment we crossed the threshold of the continent’s coastline, flying past the jagged cliffs and rocky shores beyond Bekkar’s Shield…I couldn’t stop the tears that dripped from my cheeks, though the wind whipped them away mercilessly. I imagined them landing in the sea below us.

Though Sarkin had ordered me to turn forward, I disobeyed him.

My heart ached as I watched my homeland become a mere speck behind us too.