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Love? She was not interested in loving King Ajali or any other man. Love bred selfish desires…ones that could only bring ruin to her people. “We are speaking of the man who murdered three thousands of our people in one blow,” Saieke snapped harshly. “There will be nothing in my heart but enmity. He wants to rape our kingdom because we possess the elixir springs. He is a brutal king who will change the laws, will and spirit of our people. And when he does, my blade will pierce his heart.”
If I am alive.
The silence that entered the room was overpowering.
Icy smoothness settled on her mother’s face. It was Queen Izumi, not her mother, who stood. “King Ajali arrives at first light. You will comport yourself as the Princess of Boreas when you meet with him. I command you to give him a chance.”
“And when is the binding ceremony?”
“Your only concern is to confirm our promise when the High Bishop speaks,” the harsh voice of her father snapped through the room. With a flick of his fingers, he used the wind to slam the chamber door shut.
Saieke stood. “Father, I—”
He flashed to her. “I will not hesitate to order you whipped for even thinking to disobey my command.”
She hoped her eyes did not reveal the rebellion brewing in her heart. “Tales of King Ajali’s brutality are legendary. He will not care about me or our people.”
Her father’s face closed even further. “You will present yourself at first light to greet your blood-bound king. If you are willful in any manner, you will be confined to the towers until you are summoned for the ceremony.”
Pain sliced through her like a poison tipped dagger.
The towers. The cold, dank, and terrifying place her grandmother lived in exile until the end of her five hundred year sentence. There was a time Saieke had been allowed to visit, but those infrequent and precious times had been banned when her father discovered grandmother had urged Saieke to refuse the Nurian king.
She nodded and moved with measured steps out of the chamber. She drew the wind to her, whispering words, infusing her message with intricate codes, and then allowed it to travel on the air with surety to Thyon and Kamu.
Meet me in the mountain caves.
The west wing parapet would have too many spies hovering. She inhaled and whistled. The iciest of wind swept through the corridors, and if anyone had been spying she should have felt the flash of surprise through their chakra.
Saieke could waste no time debating impossible options or pleading with her parents. King Ajali’s arrival tomorrow would herald the end of her free movements in the castle. She would be guarded until she was forced to bend to his will. Her path, though uncertain, was clear.
She would leave her kingdom tonight and be branded as the betrayer.
***
Saieke gasped for breath in the thin mountain air as she raced through valleys, harnessing the wind to move at maximum speed. She’d escaped the castle with her two most trusted Queen’s Blades, Kamu and Thyon, her protectors from birth. They moved through the night without a whisper of sound to betray their passage through the mountain paths of Boreas. The mountains were intricate—death traps to those who did not know them and her Queen’s Blades maneuvered through the maze-like passes as shadows.
They raced against time and discovery. Thyon loped ahead to scout, using whistles and patterns of the wind to notify them if warriors or civilians lay ahead.
Melodious notes travelled on the wind, and she listened to their keen fluttering, seeking if danger awaited them. She ran along the mountain side’s crumbling stones, which clattered down to the earth.
“Princess!”
She flashed behind a boulder. Kamu moved with stealth to the mountain’s edge, and after a brief moment, he signaled clear. “It is not too late to alter our course, Princess,” he murmured.
She flinched; her feet shuffled crackling and crunching the leaves on the mountain path. The trees swayed, parting to reveal the sun, bringing the warmth she needed to thaw the cold knot of doubt that constricted her. “We will forge ahead. We must make it to the border before the rising of the second sun and before my father discovers we are missing,” she ordered with only a slight waver in her conviction.
“As you wish, Princess.”
In a quick motion, they launched, flashing with speed, covering hundreds of miles. The second sun took much longer to rise as winter approached, giving the breaking dawn a bleak cast. Yet, the bleakness could not overshadow the enchantment of Boreas. She flashed pass waters as blue as the ice lakes of the northern mountains, lush valleys with rare flowers and plants of vibrant beauty. Their exotic scents calmed her racing heart and filled it with poignant sweetness. Unending minutes passed in silence before he pumped a fist in the air, and they jerked to a stop.
The flat lands seemed to stretch endlessly before mountains rose behind them, dark and intimidating. Taryllion—thousands of miles of land separating the borders of the seven kingdoms. Its mountains stood eerily silent, and the grey, stark, foggy landscape echoed her feelings. Gritting her teeth, she tried to ignore the hovering sense of dread.
“Are we prepared, Kamu?” Saieke asked, her gaze penetrating into wide eyes set in a granite hewn face.
“As best as we can be, Princess.”
They scanned the horizon, probing for danger. Taryllion was vicious and harsh to maneuver, with hardly a position to hide and defend from attacks. Until they reached the mountains or ravines, they were exposed.
