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

Chapter 43

KLARA

“This is the last remaining heartstone?” Sarkin asked me, his voice hushed as he inspected what was nestled into the ancient sword.

We were below my father’s palace, in the room I knew like it was a part of me.

It was the day after our arrival. Though we were tired from endless discussions, tired from waiting for my father to meet with his council to go over our terms, I’d still wanted to bring Sarkin down here. We were waiting for their decision, after they’d heard what we’d had to say about the thalara tree. Dannik was in with them, as were the council members from Elysom. Alaryk was, apparently, wandering around and observing Dothik up close, making quite a stir wherever he went, or so Sarkin had told me.

“Yes,” I replied. “The very last one.”

It was even dimmer than when I’d last seen it, the power of it dying. Heartstones were not ageless, and this one had been used before, to vanquish the fog in the Dead Lands. Not to mention it had once helped Bekkar, an ancient horde king, shape Dothik into the kingdom it now was.

“I used to sit here all the time,” I murmured, walking to the stone bench that I was surprised wasn’t permanently imprinted with my backside. “I always felt calm down here. More connected to my bloodlines than even when I was out in the city.”

Sarkin took a seat beside me, threading my fingers with his and bringing the back of my hand up to his lips. His kiss was soothing. I hadn’t expected how stressful negotiations like these would be. How mistrustful my father and his council would be, fighting us at every turn, even though every last person in that throne room knew that it was the Karag who held all the power.

“Did you expect it to be like this?” I wondered, thinking about the demands of the Dakkari.

“Yes,” Sarkin replied. “It is always like this. It’s a dance, nothing more. We just have to go through the motions.”

I supposed he would know.

When we’d told them that we knew about the location of a heartstone tree within Dakkar’s border, I had felt the palpable shift in the room. At first they’d wanted Elthika of their own as payment for the tree. They argued that they couldn’t be equals—that they couldn’t be allies—when the power balance was so skewed. If we gave them Elthika, then perhaps they would feel more secure.

Sarkin—and Alaryk—had laughed outright. Having two Karag kings at the negotiations had been…interesting. I didn’t think my father and his advisors really stood a chance.

The representatives from Elysom—an older male I recognized from Sarroth, named Gevanth, and a shrewd-eyed female named Harnek—had been the ones to calmly explain that was not even remotely an option. The Elthika were a race of their own. They were not owned by the Karag. They were allies of them, and they were not for bartering and trading like property or goods.

The Dothikkar —and my stepmother, the queen—had harrumphed at that, as if they didn’t believe it.

When they’d pressed, growing bold, it had been Sarkin to shoot up from his seat, glaring over at my father across the long table as Dannik observed with his arms crossed, leaning against one of the columns of the throne room.

My husband had said in a calm yet icy voice, Let us make one thing clear, Dothikkar . We are here to negotiate for heartstones out of respect, not out of necessity. The Hartans were the last race that tried to take Elthika that were not ours to give. Do you know what happened to them? We went to war and nearly razed their cities to the ground. They now bend a knee to the Karag—and the Elthika—and we no longer ask what they want. He’d glared. We are here for one thing only. Heartstones. If you wish to share in those heartstones, that is what we offer you. We are offering you peace as allies , mostly in part because of my wife, because you are her father and these are her people. She is the queen of the Sarrothian now, and her title demands respect given to her kin. But I’m growing tired of these demands when every last person in here knows that, eventually, we will leave here with exactly what we want.

That had brought the meeting to a swift end as my father and his council met.

I heard footsteps travel down the spiral staircase, heavy on stone. A moment later, Dannik appeared.

“Any news?” I asked, straightening.

“I said my piece. Now we wait. Our father is still Dothikkar , and what he decides goes,” Dannik said. His eyes traveled to Sarkin “I’d like to speak with my sister. Alone.”

Sarkin looked over at me. When I nodded, he inclined his head and stood. “I’ll check on Zaridan and Lygath…and update my kya’rassa . I’ll return in a little while.”

When Sarkin passed Dannik at the staircase, he said, “Watch over her.”

“I always have,” my brother replied, raising a brow.

I bit back a smile. Despite their constant pissing matches, I thought they might’ve respected each other. In another life, they might’ve even been friends. Or killed each other. Either was possible, I supposed.

Sarkin left us, and Dannik came to sit with me.

“Last time we were down here together,” I began, smiling, “was the night that he came. The night everything changed.”

“And everything is changing again,” Dannik replied. He sighed. “This is what you want? You’re not just saying these things because the Karag are telling you to or?—”

“Dannik,” I said, my tone pleading. I faced him on the seat, and he peered at me carefully. “I know what you must’ve thought when I left. I know how scared you were for me.”

“Klara, I couldn’t sleep. For weeks. I kept imagining the worst thing. And remembering that I didn’t fight for you as much as I should’ve. I can’t ever forgive myself for that.”

“And what were you going to do? You cannot stand against an Elthika . You saw what we all did that night. Your only choice was to let me make my own decision and go with them,” I said. “I wish that I could have told you that I was okay. Sarkin…he’s not what I expected. He’s a good leader to his people. He cares about them, and he almost always puts them above his own wants and needs. Except when it comes to me,” I amended. “He’s not the villain you imagine him to be. Quite the opposite.”

“You really love him, don’t you?” Dannik asked, frowning as he studied me.

“Yes,” I said easily. “He made it easy. Dannik…I know how this must seem. But believe me, these terms are what’s best for the Dakkari. You have to make our father understand that. Do you really think that I would stand by and not try to help our people?”

“What you ask…it would bind the priestesses’ power. They will not stand idly by and allow that to happen,” Dannik said.

I’d brought up the terms to Sarkin, and he’d presented them. In exchange for the location of the thalara tree and half of the heartstones that were still rooted within the earth, my father would have to agree to strip the priestesses’ power in the North Lands. He would have to return back to the old customs, where the only people allowed to step foot within the temple were priestesses who chose to dedicate their lives to Kakkari, our goddess.

No longer would they have free rein to take anyone who showed signs of having heartstone magic. No longer would they try to create heartstones with experimental practices, killing innocent people in the process. It was an abomination, what they’d been allowed to do. Too long my father had ignored their growing, hungry power. If it wasn’t checked and bound now, I feared what would happen.

“It’s for the best,” I repeated. “Surely you know that.”

“I do. But their power stretches far, Klara. They have their influence in every horde, every outpost, every district in Dothik. It will not be easy to extinguish their reach entirely,” Dannik pointed out, sighing.

“This will be a start,” I said. Lowering my voice, I said, “And once you take the throne, I know that you will be a strong king, one whose mind is not swayed by greed and power.”

“And what if I don’t want it?” Dannik asked quietly, a strange tone in his voice that had me straightening.

“What?” I whispered, quick and sharp.

He smiled, but it didn’t quite meet his eyes. He stood while I frowned up at him, my heartbeat quickening in my chest.

I…I had never asked him if he even wanted the throne. I supposed I had always assumed because he was so well suited for it.

“Do you think that King Arik and Queen Kara intended the throne to always pass through bloodlines? Wasn’t that the knotted mess that they’d been trying to unravel in the first place?” Dannik asked. “Maybe it’s time for the people of Dothik to choose their king or queen. Maybe we should be more like the Karag in that regard. Or like the hordes of our wildlands that have withstood centuries of hardship and still have managed to flourish.”

I stood, taking his hands in mine. “If that’s what you want,” I replied, sincerely. “Perhaps we can help you make that change, but I don’t think it will be easy.”

“ Nik, ” he replied. No. “It won’t. Don’t listen to me. It feels like years have passed since you left. I’m merely…tired. And I don’t have the luxury of being tired.”

“Sarkin gets like that sometimes,” I told him. “When so many rely on you, the weight of it gets heavy.”

“How does he stand it?”

I laughed. “Maybe you need a wife. He says that I’ve helped him.”

“Maybe I do,” Dannik said, the corner of his lip quirking, though the rest of his expression remained serious. “Regardless, I do think the heartstones would help. Because when this one dies…” He gestured behind him. “I fear what will happen.”

“Then sway Father,” I said, squeezing his familiar palm. “That’s the only way forward. That’s the only way to a stronger Dakkar—one allied with the Karag. It would be a new age for us all.”

His eyes were bright. “It would,” he agreed.

I smiled. “And I, for one, would love to see that.”