“Kindly move aside,” he told Dax, though his eyes were on Safire. “She’s under arrest.”
Dax’s eyes widened. “What?” Safire saw his hand reach for his hilt. She grabbed his wrist to stop him. Their eyes met as he whispered, “For what crime?”
“Impeding the law,” the Lumina answered.
Suddenly, Dax and Roa’s guards were there, forming a protective ring around their king, queen, and commandant.
This was not good. Roa and Dax hadn’t even arrived at the citadel yet, and they were already making enemies of the empress’s army.
This was Safire’s fault. She needed to fix it.
“He’s right,” she said, remembering the woman cowering in the alley. “I did impede.” She held the gaze of the soldier in command.But not a just law.
Safire knew a couple of bad soldiers didn’t mean an entire army was corrupt, though. The empress, she was sure, wouldwant to hear her story. And once Safire gave it, the Lumina involved would be punished for their abuse of power.
The captain nodded to the two soldiers at his left. “Restrain her.”
Frowning fiercely now, Dax moved to intervene. But Safire gripped his wrist harder and shook her head. She’d ruined enough things for one day. She didn’t want to ruin the alliance between Dax and the empress before it even began—especially if Leandra really could help the scrublands.
“What happened?” asked a familiar voice as the two soldiers gripped Safire’s arms, their hands pinching like vises. “Where’s the fugitive?” A newly arrived Raif stood near her now, his gaze sweeping the scene. In his hand was the rope Safire used to bind Eris’s hands. Eris had picked the knot.
“I lost her,” said Safire.
On their way to the citadel, the Lumina marched Safire through three checkpoints, with Dax and Roa following closely. At the third and final gate, the checkpoint guards stopped them, taking the Lumina captain aside.
The checkpoint was a thick, wrought iron gate that rose nearly as high as the walls of Firgaard. The steel twisted in a repeating star pattern all the way around, and when Safire glanced up, she found the top fixed with tall, serrated points—to dissuade climbers.
Beyond the gateway was what seemed like a vast, empty courtyard. Only Lumina marched across it. Anyone getting past the gate would have to walk or run to the fortress wall, which was heavily guarded from the top, meaning any runnerswould be spotted—and likely shot with arrows—long before they reached the wall.
“Takeherto the holding area,” Safire heard the Lumina captain say as she studied the last gate. The iron twisted like frothing waves. “The king and queen you may show to their rooms.”
Roa moved through the soldiers, flanked by her personal guards, each of them handpicked by Safire. “We would appreciate it,” she said, her dark brown eyes flashing as she tried to join her commandant, “if you took all of us to the holding area until this is sorted out.”
The captain grabbed Roa’s wrist, halting her. “The holding area is forcriminals, my lady.”
A flame ignited within Safire. Roa’s guards all drew their weapons.
The dragon queen was considerably smaller and shorter than the Lumina captain, but her defiant stance and withering gaze made them appear equally matched. Her voice was thunder as she said, “Kindly take your hands off me.”
“Step away from the criminal”—the captain glared down at her—“and I’ll think about it.”
And then Dax arrived.
“First you detain my commandant like a felon”—the dragon king’s voice belied just how much restraint he was demonstrating as his gaze pinned the captain—“and now you manhandle my queen?” His hand wasn’t on his hilt, but it might as well have been. The look in his eyes was murderous. “Is this what hospitality looks like in the Star Isles?”
Faced with the implacable king and queen, surrounded by their guards, the Lumina captain released Roa. But he didn’t standdown. Safire could feel the tension building like a coming storm.
And a stormwascoming. A storm in the shape of a woman.
“Someone please explain to me why my guests are detained at my gate.”
All eyes turned toward the one approaching from beyond the iron bars. She spoke with the authority of someone who was used to being obeyed, completely and immediately, but she didn’t look like a queen.
No guards trailed her. She wore no extravagant fabrics or ornaments and nothing but a pale braid crowned her head. In fact, as Safire’s eyes trailed her, from her calf-high boots, to her shining belt buckle, to her fitted blue jacket that buttoned down the left side, she thought this woman looked more like a navy captain than a monarch.
She seemed neither young nor old, but something in between.
“Tides, Caspian.” The soldiers parted for their frowning empress, who was staring at where two Lumina gripped Safire’s arms, keeping her hostage. Her eyes were the color of a raging sea as she turned her gaze on Caspian, the captain. “I hope there’s a very good explanation for this.”
