Dragonoak (65 page)

Rylan
himself sat astride a pure-white horse, a hundred feet ahead of his
army. He wore dragon-bone armour, despite being no Knight, and from
a distance I saw he had carved the ends of a dragon's horns off and
fixed them to the front of his helm. A dozen soldiers surrounded
him, all of them holding bows I'd never seen the like of before.
They were turned onto their sides, fixed atop a solid slab of wood,
arrows pulled back though the soldiers' fingers were nowhere near
the strings. They held the strange bows not unlike the way Reis
wielded their gun.

Bizarre
though the weapons were, I understood what having arrowheads
pointed at our chests meant.

“I do so
hope that you are only here to tell me my sister is running late,”
Rylan said, voice booming out from beneath his helm.

“Claire won't be joining us,” Kidira said, having her horse
take a single step forward. We were a dozen feet away from Rylan,
and that was how the soldiers intended it to remain; every bow was
turned towards Kidira's chest. “Oh, put your crossbows down. No one
is
impressed
,
Rylan. We've come to talk on Claire's behalf. Let's get on with
it.”

The
soldiers glanced towards Rylan, but he gave no signal for them to
lower their weapons. Instead, he hooked his thumbs around the edge
of his helm and pulled it off, hanging it from a hook on his horse'
saddle. He looked between us one by one, letting us feel the weight
of his gaze, now that we could see his eyes.

He was
older than Claire, but it was by so few years that it hardly showed
at all. There was Myrosi blood in him, and he wore his hair as long
as Akela's, clasped back neatly at the nape of his neck. He was not
an unkind looking man: he scowled, lines worked into his forehead
where his brow was furrowed, but his skin was not scarred and his
eyes were only hard because of the effect war had had on
him.

“You are
Queen Kidira,” he stated plainly. “Working with the rebels you once
fought so hard against. The rebels who assassinated King Jonas.
Claire has chosen her companions poorly indeed.”

Kidira
kept her jaw tilted up and didn't for a moment succumb to the urge
to explain herself, as Rylan wanted her to. She didn't point out
that only a small faction of the resistance had been responsible
for King Jonas' death, or that change was never affected
peacefully.

“Did you
honestly believe you could force cooperation out of Claire with a
single threat? Did you expect to meet her here?”

“I did
not,” Rylan allowed, lip curling. “She only grows more cowardly
with each passing year.”

“Claire
isn't a coward,” I snapped so abruptly that every crossbow was
turned towards me.

I ground
my teeth together, holding my tongue as Rylan fixed his eyes on me.
His expression didn't change as his gaze bore into me, and he
didn't dignify my remark with a reply. Slowly, so as not to alarm
us or his own soldiers, Rylan raised a hand, gesturing to the
soldier on the left. She started, lowered her crossbow, arrow
pointed towards the dirt.

She took
a horn from her belt, and Kouris took a step forward as a low note
rang out into the air. All arrowheads were turned towards her, and
the soldiers inched closer, forcing her back as Rylan continued to
stare at me.

I was
convinced the entire army would march towards us, but the cry drew
out a single figure from behind the front lines. I tore my eyes off
Rylan's, though I didn't need to look at the rider to know who it
was.

Inside,
I roared, banishing the sickness to the pit of my
stomach.

“This is
the necromancer, isn't it?” Rylan asked when the pounding of hooves
drew near, but Katja galloped straight past him.

Charley's reins bit into my palms.

Dirt
rose in a cloud around the hooves of Katja's horse, and she came to
a halt in front of Kidira. She wore armour, though not the armour
of Felheim; the metal was stained gold, but all sigils had been
pried from it; and she carried a sword she didn't know how to use
at her hip. She had forgone a helm, having no intention of masking
her presence from us, face turned a watery grey.

“Mother—” she said, swallowing the lump in her throat when
words failed her. She circled Kidira, horse as restless as she was,
and Kidira kept her eyes fixed on Katja as Kouris and I both did.
“I... goodness me. Ightham told me that you were alive, but seeing
isn't the same as knowing, is it? I'm so happy to see you again,
mother.”

“Kouris,” Kidira said in a tone she ought to have used to
send Rylan running. “What are you doing?”

Remembering herself, Katja tugged sharply on her horse's
reins and turned in a half-circle, moving to Rylan's side. She
wasn't his prisoner. That much was abundantly clear. She moved
freely, used a gloved hand to sweep her hair over her shoulders,
and sighed, exasperated at the sight of me.

“That's
the necromancer,” Katja said to Rylan in a low voice that was still
loud enough for us to hear, before returning to her mother's
question. “I'm doing all I can for these lands. Don't you see? This
war ought to have ended months ago. Your fight is long since over,
mother. You do not have the resources, the bodies, in order to best
Prince Rylan's forces, much less restore Kastelir to what it once
was. I'm begging you, please. Do not be so stubborn.”

“Do you not hear yourself, Kouris?” Kidira said, voice too
quiet, to even, for Katja to relax. “You have sided with the man
responsible for all this. The man who saw
your
Kingdom turned to ash, your
cities reduced to little more than charred wood; everyone we have
lost, every friend, family member, citizen, servant, is dead
because of him and his ilk.”

After
all Katja had been through, after all she'd endured and forced
others to endure, mere words from Kidira could still make her
cower.

“The
past is the past,” Rylan interjected. “We cannot change that, no
matter how desperately we fight. We ought to look to the future,
and how we might make Kastelir better than it once was.”

Kidira's
horse stomped his front hooves in the dirt and Kidira paid no heed
to the arrows aimed at her throat.

“Do you not hear
him
? He speaks of razing Kastelir in
order to purify it,” Kidira spat. “And
you
would go along with it, because
it is easy.”

Inhaling
sharply, Katja said, “Mother, I know I've disappointed you
terribly, but if you'd only—”

“Disappointed
?” Kidira repeated,
incredulous. “I have always loved you, Kouris. More than anything
in this world. I stood by you your entire life, ensuring that no
one, no matter how high-ranking, confined you to a life dictated
solely by the nature of your powers. I let you do what you loved,
and what you loved was helping Kastelir. Studying our past and
bettering our future. And now? Now you make a mockery of who I
raised you to be. I could endure being disappointed in you, Kouris.
I could find a way to rid myself of the sting of disappointment, in
time.”

Katja's
jaw trembled and Rylan took the chance to regain control of the
situation.

“Finish
this some other time, both of you,” Rylan said. “I did not come
here to argue.”

To
Kidira, Katja was the only person within a thousand miles. Kouris
spoke up, taking care not to move too close to the soldiers who'd
been holding their crossbows up for far too long, arms
aching.

“What
did you come here for, then?” she asked. “Other than to intimidate
us, that is.”

“I came
seeking peace with my little sister, who didn't even have the
decency to accept my invitation,” Rylan said, as though he had any
right to speak of decency. “Her rebellion is crushed. Orinhal is
ours. Yet I am willing to put this all behind me. If she
surrenders, all of this misfortune will be forgotten.”

“Surrender?” Kouris laughed heartily. “I reckon you don't
know your sister half as well as you think, Rylan.”

“Prince
Rylan,” he snapped, pressing
two fingers to his forehead as he took a deep breath. “Regardless,
we are willing to make a deal with you, to show that our intentions
are good.”

“Can't wait to hear
this
,” Kouris said to me, rolling
her eyes.

I huffed
a laugh and Rylan went to great lengths to ignore what he
considered to be insubordination.

“The fact that I'm going to let you leave ought to be
generous enough. But in addition to that, you'll have my word that
we won't march on Kyrindval. What's more, we'll return your people
to you. King Atthis and his family reside within Orinhal, don't
they?” Rylan said. “I have matters to deal with in the west, but
I
will
be back
here in one month's time. Tell my sister that I expect her full
surrender. Until then, a single trade ought to kindle trust between
us.”

“You
won't
slaughter a tribe full of innocents. Very generous of you,”
Kouris said, rubbing her chin. “What's our end of the bargain,
then?”

“Kyrindval and King Atthis,” Rylan said, tilting his head
towards me, “For the necromancer.”

Kouris
growled from the back of her throat, but it was Kidira who rushed
out in front of me. She placed her horse between me and Rylan, one
hand going for the spear on her back. Whatever Katja had been doing
to make me nauseous was gone; I was clear-headed when my heart
ought to have been pounding, more shocked by the way Kidira had
been spurred to action than by Rylan's words.

“You
aren't taking her,” Kidira said plainly.

“Queen Kidira,
the
Queen Kidira, protecting a necromancer,” Rylan
said, darkly amused, “Have you forgotten who you are?”

“No. Nor
have I forgotten what necromancers can do.”

Rylan was wise enough not to engage Kidira any further. He
tilted his head to the side, and looked around her to catch my eye;
he was debating whether he ought to try taking me by force. I
turned my head, gaze drawn by the way Katja was staring at me from
the corner of my eye, and saw her mouth something to me.
Rowan
, she said
silently.
Wait.

“A
month,” Rylan hissed. “You have a month. And if you rightly change
your mind, send word to Orinhal. It's made quite a worthy base for
us.”

There
was something beneath his words, something beneath the frustration
he was trying to keep from seeping into his tone.

“You
need Claire's help,” I said, realisation coming to me as I spoke
the words. “Something's gone wrong, hasn't it? You need her to help
you, because... is it the Agadians?”

He'd
struck a deal and found himself unable to uphold his end of the
bargain, or he'd become too involved in their politics. Whatever it
was, Rylan was desperate for help Claire would never give
him.

“You accuse
me
of working with the Agadians?” Rylan scoffed a second too
late. “Felheim would never associate with Agados, unlike
Kastelir.”

“Unlike
Kastelir?” Kidira asked.

“Don't make yourself out to be oblivious. We received
dozens
of reports that
Agadian diplomats had travelled to Isin in order to forge treaties
with the Kastelirians, unifying the lands,” Rylan said.

“Nothing
of the sort happened,” Kidira said slowly, piecing together the
assumption Rylan had built up in his head. “The Agadians came for
King Jonas' funeral and the Phoenix Festival, and in order to
discuss continued trade until Jonas' replacement was
chosen.”

Rylan
stared at Kidira, desperate to refute what she'd said. When no
words came to him and Katja didn't speak up, he tugged on his
horse's reins, turned towards the rest of the army, and took slow
steps away.

“Remember: Claire has a month,” he said over his shoulder,
putting the dragon-bone helm he hadn't earnt back on. “If you care
about Kyrindval, you will hand over the necromancer sooner than
that.”

Katja
tried to garner my attention and failed. I'd yet to tremble around
her and had every intention of keeping it that way, and so kept my
eyes fixed on Rylan's back. His soldiers had yet to retreat, and
their crossbows pointed up when Kouris took wide strides
forward.

“Rylan.
You'd best be listening to me,” Kouris called after him. Rylan
continued on his way and she growled, words coming out louder. “If
you send so much as a single soldier to Kyrindval, I'll gut them.
If that's what it takes to protect the pane, I'll do it. I'll rip
out their throats, I'll—”

Kouris swung out a clawed hand to help illustrate her point,
and one of the soldiers started. A sickly
thwupp
shot out of the crossbow as
the soldier's finger slipped on the trigger, shoulder rolling back
with the impact, bolt flying loose with enough force to embed
itself in a pane's chest.

Kouris
roared, stumbled back, and two more soldiers panicked. Their arrows
shot towards her, all three digging deep into the left side of her
chest. Rylan bellowed for his soldiers to stand down, words knocked
out of the air by the way Kouris growled her throat raw.