His smile faded. “Fine then. If you win, what do you want?”
Roa was about to sayNothing, because she wasn’t going to race him. Except therewassomething she wanted.
“I want you to call an Assembly as soon as we return to Firgaard.”
The next scheduled Assembly—where Dax and his council made decisions, passing or overturning laws before a public audience—wasn’t for three weeks. Roa didn’t want to wait that long. She wanted the treaty terms imposed as soon as possible.
Dax cocked his head, studying her. “Fine,” he said, turning to squint into the distance. “But if I win, you owe me a kiss.”
“Fine,” she agreed. After all, Oleander was a lackluster horse who did as she was told only half the time.
Roa didn’t wait for him to count them down. She dug her heels into Poppy, who lurched forward. Her hooves kicked up a plume of gold dust that bloomed through the air as they galloped away from Dax and Lirabel.
Roa kept her eyes on the white walls ahead, following the path carved through yellow grass. Essie soared high above, trailing her.
Suddenly, the hooves of a second horse drummed the ground behind her, coming up on her right side.
Roa threw a look over her shoulder. The dragon king kept low to his horse, gaining ground fast, covered in a thin layer of dust.
Roa slowed long enough to ask him where the finish line was.
“The stables!” he called, as the wind whipped through his curls. “Around the back of the house!”
Roa nudged Poppy, who pulled ahead.
There was no gate in the walls, just an opening wide enough to fit a wagon. It reminded Roa of home, where doors were always open or unlocked. Where gates were unnecessary.
She rode Poppy past the walls crawling with green ivy. A hill rose before them, painted in reds and greens, sloping with gardens and jagged with rock.
Amina’s house stood at the top of the hill, half-hidden by jacaranda trees.
This was the dragon queen’s abode, and yet it felt nothing like the close confinements of Firgaard. It felt wild and fierce and free. Like the scrublands from which they’d come.
When the path diverged, Roa had to slow. Dax said the stables were around the other side, but which path would take her there?
Essie flew higher.Help,Roa pleaded. But before her sister could see the clearest path, the clatter of hooves made Roa turn. Wind rushed into her face as Dax raced past them. Looking back over his shoulder, he gave Roa a mock salute.
Follow him!Essie swooped after the king.I’ll find you a shortcut!
Roa dug her heels into Poppy, who lurched forward.
But the path twisted and turned around thorny angular trees, then broke off—again and again—in different directions. She lost Dax. She halted Poppy twice, looking for Oleander’s hoofprints, waiting for Essie’s directions, before gritting her teeth and racing on.
Finally, through the trees, she saw a long white stable with a thatched roof.
When they entered, Poppy’s hooves clopped on the stone floor. Their echo broke through the quiet. It was cool and dim inside. It smelled like dust and old hay.
Roa scanned the aisle of stalls for Dax, but found no sign of him.
Letting out a breath, she relaxed.
The moment she dismounted, a shape materialized out of the shadows.
“That’s one pokey horse you have.”
Roa spun. The dragon king leaned against the door of a stall farther down, arms crossed over his chest. The evening’s lazy sunlight slanted through the narrow windows, casting him in warm, golden light.
Oleander poked her nose out of the stall, already untacked.
