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

Chapter 14

KLARA

“You need sleep,” Sarkin growled into my ear once I descended down Zaridan’s wing. I nearly cried in happiness when I stepped foot on the earth. Nearly fell to my knees too, every muscle in my body on the verge of giving out.

“Don’t worry about me,” I said, though I felt the heaviness of my eyelids threaten to close.

“I told you—you don’t need to fear sleep. You think I’ll let you wander away again?” Sarkin argued. “I don’t make the same mistakes twice.”

I believed him. And yet…I’d barely slept since the night I’d seen the heartstone forest in my dreams. We’d been traveling to the Arsadia for the last two days and nights. We’d stopped again last night, at the edge of a vast, wide lake that tumbled down into a waterfall. Even though we’d flown up to yet another cliffside for Zaridan’s sake, away from the camp, I couldn’t relax enough to rest and I’d been too exhausted to speak.

“I’ll be fine,” I informed him, my voice firm when I met his eyes. I’d been cranky too, irritation and anxiousness a constant companion today during our flight. I was tired of being hungry. I was tired of my body burning and aching with every step. I was tired of being tired.

For the foreseeable future, I wanted to stay in one place.

And it looked like I would finally get my wish as my eyes fastened on a horde spread out before us, vast and sprawling and on solid ground.

“Please tell me we’ll be here for a while,” I pleaded quietly, nearly stumbling into Sarkin when we took our first steps away from Zaridan. He frowned, reached out to steady me, and the heat of his hand felt so good against my back. Like a hot stone, loosening the soreness of my body.

“We will be here through the riding season,” he answered. “Yes.”

Relief and a twist of dread warred within me. Ever since I’d learned that I was actually expected to claim a dragon of my own, riding on the back of Zaridan had taken on a new trepidation. I’d begun to study other riders, sizing up their build and strength, only to realize that my future husband had been correct in his assessment…

I was small and weak compared to them. Perhaps I shouldn’t have spent so many years tucked into the quiet folds of the archives, where my only form of physical activity was walking the Spine of Dothik in the mornings and evening and pulling books and scrolls out from high places.

The Sarrothian were like the darukkars —the horde warriors—I’d grown up admiring. Only they held themselves in the strictest regard and were uncompromising in their work. Watching them interact among the camp, I saw they worked tirelessly and without complaint, even after long days on dragonback. I felt like a child compared to them, and I’d endeavored to hide my pain even more, to bite my tongue when I’d been on the verge of asking Sarkin for a reprieve.

I didn’t want them to think me weak. I couldn’t allow that.

Before my very eyes, I saw a horde. Only it was in a much different place, on an entirely different continent. And considering we’d crossed over another ocean today to reach the Arsadia, I wondered if I’d just stepped foot onto the third continent of my life. How many Dakkari back home could say that? None that I knew of, despite the mystery of the hordes along Sarroth’s coast long ago.

It might’ve been a horde, but it was a Karag horde and there were very stark differences to that of a Dakkari one.

“This is a permanent outpost,” I noted, realization hitting me when I saw structures that resembled the stone solikis in the Dakkari outposts, the permanent villages spread across the wildlands.

“ Lysi, ” he rasped, and my lips parted as our eyes met. Lysi meant yes in the Dakkari language. It was an odd sensation, hearing that word here, hearing it fall from his lips…but I liked it. It felt comforting, even if it only highlighted how far away from home I truly was. “The mountain village. We call it Rysar—the Sarrothian outpost in the Arsadia.”

“Rysar,” I repeated softly.

Unlike the domed tentlike structures called volikis in a Dakkari horde, here there were taller structures, made of a dark gray-blue textured stone that had marble streaks of black running through it like a river, glittering in the lowering sun. Not unlike the little home that was nestled in the wild gardens behind Sarkin’s citadel in Sarroth.

Some of the stone buildings even had carvings in them like the citadel’s, depictions of elaborate Elthika and Karag alike. Some homes were flat to the earth, others raised slightly depending on the elevation of the land, the entrances of which could be accessed by winding staircases.

In the distance, behind the horde was a tall mountain, much like in Sarroth. The top of which I couldn’t even see because it disappeared in the cloud covering. A gentle mist was floating, the air damp and alive here, which likely accounted for all the dark blue and green moss I spied.

To the east, I saw a circular building, taller and larger than any other here. To the west, I saw what I thought were training grounds, a vast section of the forest cleared away. Many of the riders’ Elthika were perched there, resting after the long journey. Others had already flown up into the mountain or had flown north, swooping in the sky as if pleased to be home.

Flying over the Arsadia, which was what the Karag called the Elthika’s homeland, I saw that it was a lush and vibrant place. Sarroth had been covered in deep, dark forests and mountainous valleys that gave way to rivers flowing out toward lakes and coastlines. As we flew farther north, the landscape had shifted subtly. There were open plains or vast hilly country surrounded by some of the tallest mountains I’d ever seen in my lifetime.

And here in the Arsadia? It was covered in forested land, but there were also open plains we’d flown over. At the base of this mountain, it was almost like the Trikki back home. A lush rainforest, giving way to tumbling waterfalls and vibrant life.

I couldn’t see the waterfall, but I heard it—the sound of rushing water violent and powerful. I wondered if that was why the air was so damp.

It smells good here, I thought. Wild and fresh and alive.

“This is a saruk ,” I noted softly, peering up at Sarkin after I’d observed all that I could from this vantage point. “Perhaps we are not so different after all.”

“Perhaps.”

“People live here permanently?” I questioned, confused about that small detail, but it was obvious that Rysar was inhabited year-round. People milled about, welcoming the rider horde like they were old friends, helping them with their supplies. One of the novice riders, who was friends with Sammenth, went up to someone I thought might be his mother and pressed a kiss to her cheek before embracing her hard.

My heart twisted, longing going through me at the beautiful sight they made.

“Yes,” Sarkin said. “I live here nearly half the year. For the rider season and the mating season.”

I stilled and asked carefully, “The mating season?”

Sarkin leveled me a hard look. “For the Elthika.” He waved his hand to the east of the horde. “The hatchery.”

Amazement shot through me, momentarily making me forget about the pain in my body and the way I was attracting the attention and whispers of the horde as we passed by. A millions questions bubbled up in my mind.

“Ah, ah, aralye ,” Sarkin said, surprising me, his hand still on my back, guiding me down a stone pathway. Was my curiosity so evident? “My priority is not to answer your questions this night. It is to get your wounds checked and get you rested, so I can attend to my saruk , as you call it.”

“I don’t have any wounds,” I lied.

He snorted with derision. “You forget so easily that I was once a new rider myself.”

“I’m not a rider,” I said quickly, a large part of me still rejecting the idea of what was expected of me.

“Yet you will be, Klara. Your instruction begins in the morning, which is why you need to sleep tonight.”

I sucked in a deep breath as we started up an incline. “You cannot be serious.”

“I am deadly serious,” he replied, cutting me a sharp look. “And I never say anything in jest when it comes to the Elthika. You’d best remember that.”

“Can I not have one day to rest, Sarkin?” I asked, stopping in the middle of the pathway when the muscles in my legs tightened so painfully that they began to spasm. I clenched my jaw. “ Please, ” I whispered, so onlookers wouldn’t hear my pleading.

Sarkin studied my features, those colorful eyes flitting back and forth. I wondered what he was looking for.

Finally he nodded. “Very well. One day of rest. Instead of your instruction beginning tomorrow, we will go seal our marriage bond in the temple of Lishara.”

My eyes widened. “Is there a rush to do that so soon?”

I would be married tomorrow?

Sarkin shrugged. “And I ask you, why wait? I want this done. I have an oath myself to Elysom that I am eager to see through.”

I remembered him mentioning that to his aunt. Something about mysar commands, whatever that meant. Elysom, I knew, seemed to be the governing body of the Karag, and his aunt was on the council.

“My mind is made up, and it will not change,” he added, his voice lowering as our eyes held. “I have chosen you as my wife, Klara. Waiting will not change that.”

My heart gave a frantic skip, my lips parting. The shock of hearing those words…they pleased a primal part of me I’d never known I’d needed calmed to begin with.

But, with the exception of my mother and Dannik, I had never been chosen by anyone. Even my own blood. My half sisters, my father…they had all turned their backs on me at the urging of my stepmother, and I had felt their rejection and sting for years. In Dothik, I had never felt like enough. For any of them. I’d been a disappointment. A painful reminder.

So to hear Sarkin say that he had chosen me and that it would not change…those words filled a desperate, gaping ache in me, one I hadn’t realized was an incredible, lonely void.

“ Lysi? ” he questioned softly, tipping my chin up with his calloused index finger.

I blinked, reality returning in a rush. I’d been staring at his exposed neck, tracking small scars there, as I processed his words.

“ Lysi, ” I whispered.

He nodded, pleased, though my thoughts raced. Before last week, I had never given much thought to marriage. I had filled my days with the pursuit of research and knowledge, to try to better understand my dreams and my mother’s own stories. I had always had an obsession with the dragon riders from across Drukkar’s Sea, ever since I’d seen one fly over Dothik when I’d been only twelve.

In the span of a week, my life had altered and shifted so drastically that it was hardly believable.

“What is it?” Sarkin grunted, urging me into a walk once more.

“This time last week, I was…” I took in a deep breath. “I was walking home in Dothik after a day in the archives trying to understand this . This place. Your people. What it all meant. I’ve given over a decade of my life trying to make sense of this. And I’m beginning to realize that it might have been a waste. Because I don’t understand anything at all.”

I’m wholly unprepared for this, and that frightens me, I thought, but I left that thought unspoken.

“But you will,” Sarkin said. An easy answer to a complicated worry.

Tears ushered into my eyes, but I tried to blink them away quickly, lowering my head as we passed a group of onlookers. Sarkin nodded at them when they called out a greeting. After we passed, I looked up, noticing that we were heading toward the back of the horde, toward a structure that I knew must’ve been Sarkin’s home here, given the intricate carvings on the facade. It was small, but it was overlooking the entirety of the horde, perched on a small hill, the pathway leading up a gentle incline.

My muscles screamed in protest as I walked up. But when we reached the top, I couldn’t help but turn. The sun was setting over the forest, and my lips parted in disbelief. I saw what I hadn’t been able to see over the structures of the horde or the forest beyond.

We were high up. The Arsadia, it seemed, had dramatic changes in elevation. Now I saw the waterfall. I saw the thick white plume of water billow next to the east of the forest and not far from what Sarkin had called the hatchery. Water from the mountain was running down toward the horde, where it pooled into a wide, sparkling river before rushing down a steep drop, into the depths of the forest below. While the forest that surrounded the horde was at our elevation, I saw vast wilderness stretch out beyond us in deep valleys as far as I could see.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed. In the distance, I saw mountain ranges, wild Elthika making dark figures in the sky, miles and miles away. I knew we weren’t far from the coast, but I couldn’t see it from this vantage point.

And it would be my new home.

Footsteps clattered on the pathway, and when I turned my gaze forward, I saw an unfamiliar male waiting for Sarkin’s permission to approach. He was tall and broad, his arms crossed behind his back. Not a rider, though, because I saw the sway of his tail behind him. But a warrior perhaps? His build was certainly similar to one.

“Go inside and rest,” Sarkin ordered me. “There’s hot water for a bath. I’ll send someone with food and to look over your wounds. Then I want you to sleep afterward—no questions tonight. Do you understand?”

His tone set my back straightening. “I’m not a child.”

His lips curled slightly in a humorless smirk, one that made my belly flutter and dip, which was quite quizzical and maddening.

“Syndras will watch over this entrance, so don’t fear sleep tonight,” Sarkin replied, nodding at the Sarrothian, who inclined his head at me, though his eyes were narrowed, curious.

“Where will you be?”

“There is always much to be done when we return to the Arsadia,” Sarkin told me. “I likely won’t return tonight. I’ll collect you in the morning.”

And with that, he turned his back, passing Syndras briefly, his head bending low to say something I couldn’t hear.

He didn’t turn back once.