Page 48 of Blood of the Sands

I had wasted far too much time talking to the woman, and I still needed to have my own kill back to the encampment by midday.

Chapter Fourteen

Keera

The ride back to the walls passed quickly, but I wished it hadn’t. The pounding of Daiti’s hooves and the hot wind in my face was a balm to my swirling thoughts after my encounter with the Viper, who haunted my steps, both awake and asleep.

After his dramatic appearance at the opening of the Trials yesterday, rumors had swirled amongst the members of the other clans. They shared stories of his ruthless efficiency as Lord Alasdar’s enforcer with the citizens of Kelvadan, who were all curious about the man who had garnered such a stiff reaction from the queen. Not wanting to spark any interference in the Trials, she had kept the stakes communicated to her by Oren between her close advisors and the ambassadors.

The rumors told about the Viper by other competitors from the clans spanned from unsettling to outrageous: he killed anybody who opposed him without hesitation; he drank the blood of his enemies to gain their strength; nobody who saw his true face lived to tell of it.

I kept silent as I heard the last one. I remembered his face more clearly than I would have expected, considering the brief glimpse I had gotten of it months ago. Perhaps his proud features had seared themselves into my memory as I’d expected them to be the last thing I ever saw. Or perhaps it was his expression—not the one of bloodthirsty rage I would have expected of somebody about to snuff out my life, but an odd smoothing of his brows in something like surprise.

Now I sat back, pressing my sits bones into Daiti’s back to slow him to a walk as we passed into the outskirts of the encampment. It was still quiet compared to last night, with most of the riders out on the hunt; only their families and a few spectators gathered to see who would be bringing back fresh kills.

Most citizens of Kelvadan, and those who had travelled to watch the Trials, were likely still sleeping off the excess laka as the opening celebration had lasted well past midnight.

At the open circle in the middle of the encampment I dropped off my kill in the small pile of oryx and red wolves, alongside the occasional jackrabbit, from those who had returned before me. I glanced around to see if Queen Ginevra or Aderyn were present but found no sign of them.

Aderyn and the queen had disappeared last night as soon as the competitors had finished declaring their intent to participate in the Trials. They had seemed shaken by the appearance of the Viper, although we had known he would come. Perhaps, like me, they found the reality of him in person more foreboding than they had anticipated.

After the volunteers marked my name on their lists with a checkmark, indicating that I would be competing in the next round of the Trials, I joined the spectators for a while, curious how many would be joining me in moving forward.

After a frustratingly short amount of time, my eyes darted to the horizon, where the dark silhouette of a rider approached. I knew from the tall black mount and the feeling in the pit of my stomach that it was the Viper.

It was not as though I had expected him to fail in the first round, but I had hoped he would arrive more than a quarter hour after me, considering I had stolen his first kill. The small amount of hope that had been lit within me, that perhaps he wouldn’t be crowned Champion after all, was dampened by his quick appearance. Before he could enter the encampment, I turned and led Daiti away toward the arched entrance to the city. There was only to be one event today, as the Trials would grow in intensity throughout the weeks, and this was just the first day. I wanted to make sure Daiti was safe in his stall with a bale of arrowgrass before I returned to the encampment to help Neven with his stall for the remainder of the day.

When I arrived at the stables where the Kelvadan riders and their recruits kept their horses, the air was static, most mounts still on the hunt. It wasn’t until Daiti was in his stall, and I was brushing over his coat again, even though it already shone like burnished bronze, just because he seemed so pleased with the sensation, that I heard voices.

The voices were growing in volume, enough that I could now hear them through several walls, as they were coming from the large stall that marked the end of the long, narrow building.

“—dead. He has been for a decade, and I can’t keep watching the horizon, waiting for him to return.”

The first voice was gruff and unyielding where it normally held laughter: Kaius.

“You would give up on our son so easily?”

I almost gasped and threw a hand over my mouth to stifle the sound. The poised tone was unmistakably Queen Ginevra, although I had never heard her mention a child before.

“It’s not giving up to face the truth.”

“You weren’t there. You didn’t hear him. He sounded like Erix. Older, but still Erix.”

There was a pause and a rustle. I leaned closer to the wall of Daiti’s stall, not wanting to miss a word. Part of me nagged that this conversation clearly wasn’t for my ears, but the notion of a son in the royal family intrigued me. After all, didn’t I bear the same burden as their bloodline?

“Do you really remember the sound of his voice?” Kaius’s voice was quieter now, and I strained to hear. “I think I do, but with each passing day, it gets dimmer, as if the sun is bleaching it out of my mind like dye from cloth. The only thing I know I remember anymore is the way he rode a horse, as if he could outrun time itself.”

“He’s still out there. The Viper in the mask—I swear it’s him. Why else would he conceal his face?”

“And even if it is?” Kaius’s voice rose sharply. “Is Lord Alasdar’s snake really our son anymore, even if he wears Erix’s face? He’s not the same person. Not after all they say he’s done. Not after how we failed him.”

My chest tightened, Daiti’s coat blurring before my eyes as I subconsciously leaned on him for support. He tossed his head and pawed the ground, and I stood upright again, my head spinning.

The man in the mask—the one who had delivered me to my doom, only for me to find a new purpose for my survival—was Kaius and Ginevra’s son.

Erix.

It felt odd to give him a name, when for months he had existed as more symbol than man in my head. A faceless figure in black and a nameless threat to Kelvadan. A danger I trained to stand against.