“What?” he asked, leaning forward. His eyes darted between them. “What news do you bring?”
“Apparently your leader was scouted by the Jantari, over a sun ago,” Elena said slowly. “He’s been spreading lies and misinformation while sharing the recruitment numbers with his superiors. Why else do you think he campaigns so heavily for the war effort? In areas full of low-wage Ravani and Sesharian refugees, men and women who know nothing about war? He’s not servingourking. He’s serving the Jantari.”
Elena patted the pod. “When you are alone, view its contents. And you’ll see thatyouwere serving a traitor.”
It was a lie, of course. Jangir was a loyal royalist, but like her father, Elena had had no trouble concocting the reports, though she did have some difficulty replicating Muftasa’s seal. But Varun would not know the difference.
Most people will believe what you put in front of them, her father had told her once.Especially if you show them what they want to see.
“How… how did you get this?” Varun asked finally.
“My sources are credible.” Elena reached forward and turned over the pod, revealing the official insignia of the king etched into the metal. Varun gasped. His eyes widened in understanding, and when he looked at Elena, there was a new consideration in them. Respect. And cold calculation.
“Who are you, really?” he asked.
“My people believe you are the right man to lead the gold caps. And we wish for a quiet changing of power. Do you understand what I’m asking you?”
After a moment, Varun closed the pod and pocketed it. “I underestimated you, dealer. If that is what you really are.”
“Consider me someone who cares deeply for the future of our kingdom.”
She stood, Ferma rising with her. Varun gave her a quick nod.
“I will find a way,” he said.
Jangir was still speaking in heavy, impassioned tones when Elena and Ferma left the square. His voice haunted Elena through the winding bazaar streets.
We have the fire of the Phoenix on our side. And She will never leave us so long as the king is here.
So long as the king is here.
Elena was to ascend the throne in just over a month, on her twenty-fifth birthday. She would become regent, the queen of the Fire Throne. This would become her kingdom, her domain. It would be her responsibility to protect and guard the Eternal Fire.
So why didn’t anyone else seem to welcome her rule?
Once they were a safe distance away, Ferma touched her arm.
“Did you give Varun the right pod?”
Elena slipped out the other pod in her pocket, the twin to Varun’s. She turned it over. Like the other, it bore the official insignia of the Phoenix, but below it was her family’s personal coat of arms: the crossed slingswords. Only she and her father could use such pods.
“You told Varun you wanted a quiet secession of power, but I thought—”
“I want them to tear each other apart.” Elena stopped at a corner. In the distance, the Agnee Palace sat on its gleaming perch over the desert. “And I want my father to see it.”
When Ferma made no response, Elena turned. Ferma dropped her hand from her ear, her eyes raised heavenward.
“Well, I don’t think you’ll have to wait for long.”
Elena followed Ferma’s gaze to the west. There, she saw the black oval shape of a hoverpod, like a smooth stone in a desert oasis. It descended in the direction of the dunes.
“Your father wants to seeyou.”
CHAPTER 3
YASSEN
When the dragons began to leave, no Sayonai noticed. Not at first. It wasn’t until the droughts came and fires raged throughout the countrysides that the people raised their eyes to the heavens and realized—no one was there.
