Page 66 of Blood of the Sands

“Find Axlan, and bring him here.”

I shot to my feet when a commotion sounded at the entrance to the terrace where the queen and I sat drinking lyra tea, rejoined by Aderyn who was not partaking. The reason for the noise became clear as four guards dragged not one, but two struggling figures before us.

My mouth fell open, but the queen beat me to the gasp of recognition.

“Hadeon?”

Gone were the dancing eyes of the man who had urged me to dance at the feast almost a week earlier. Instead, the expression that met me was the calculating gaze of a man appraising a horse.

“We found the two of them meeting together in Hadeon’s quarters,” one of the guards explained. “They had this.”

A second guard stepped forward and presented Aderyn with a vial filled with a viscous black liquid. Aderyn popped the cork off and took a delicate sniff before drawing back and blinking rapidly.

“Pit viper venom.” Aderyn’s tone was grim. “It would cause the bleeding Keera described when she returned.”

I whirled back toward Axlan and Hadeon, the former of which at least had the decency to look ashamed. Fury boiled in my veins, and if not for the lyra leaf tea I had just finished, my magic would surely be bubbling up beneath my skin. As it was, it frothed discontentedly in my belly. It didn’t matter that I was too angry to speak though, as the queen stood from her chair. No matter that she was the shortest in the group, everybody shrunk back a step.

“You come here as ambassador and enjoy my hospitality, only to turn and interfere with one of my land’s most honored traditions? Even when you knew what rested on Keera emerging as Champion?” she demanded.

Axlan shrank back but Hadeon stood tall.

“It was your mistake admitting that Kelvadan might fall if the Viper were to win the Trials,” Hadeon commented as if discussing the weather and not the fate of the entire desert. “It was too good of an opportunity to pass up, when all it would take was a subtle push to set the fall of your Great City into motion.”

“Opportunity?” I spluttered finding my voice again.

He leveled me with a gaze full of condescension. “For two hundred years, Kelvadan has stood between the rest of the world and the desert. This city is the one entrance point that would need to be overcome for Doran to invade through the mountains. With the city gone and all the clans fighting for themselves it would be all too easy for our armies to march in and take what we want by force: the horses of the Ballan Desert.”

This time, it was Aderyn who cut in, her voice dangerously calm. “You think it would be so easy to subdue the clans?”

“Nothing but ragtag savages with swords,” Hadeon sneered.

“I thought you were on my side,” I snarled. All his talk of how he wanted to be friends with next Champion of the Desert. The feeling of his hands on my skin, one of the first times I had allowed even a casual touch on the arm. The golden armband he gifted me.

“A means to an end.” Hadeon shrugged and my skin crawled. “I had hoped that I could charm my way into your bed where I could knife you quietly in your sleep without having to get anybody else involved. Due to unforeseen interruptions, I had to recruit some help.”

I swallowed bile. This marked twice that a man had shown romantic interest in me since I arrived at the city. Instead of feeling desired, or like I belonged though, I just felt sick. Dryden’s interest had abruptly ended when the truth of my power had been exposed. Hadeon had only feigned interest in me for my power. Either way, the magic that I couldn’t control defined me.

“And Axlan, why would you agree to violate the peace of the Trials?” Queen Ginevra demanded.

Axlan’s eyes flicked back and forth between the queen and me. I stared him down with all the rage that simmered below my breastbone.

“He offered me a place in Doran—a way out of the desert.” Axlan’s voice was halting but did not shake. “No matter the outcome of the Trials, the desert shudders at the seams. I was there when a bone spider attacked my clan. We will not survive if we stay in the desert, and I have no desire to die to a creature of legend.”

My heart sank. A bone spider. The desert had moved beyond sandstorms and thinning herds. Now, creatures that had not been seen since the desert had been crossed were rising again.

“Well,” the queen said tersely, “you shall both get your wish. You are to depart for Doran immediately.”

Axlan’s eyes widened. “I am not going to be punished?”

“This is your punishment. You wanted to leave the desert, and so you will never see it again. You are stripped of your clan and your horse.”

The moment the weight of his choice hit him, Axlan’s face crumpled. The desert was harsh, but it was home, and to those who rode with a clan, their horse was their life.

The guards began to pull the men away, ready to send them on a perilous journey through the mountains. Before he was dragged away, Hadeon managed to sneer, “Doran will be watching, and we will be waiting for the desert to fall.”

As the group retreated into the palace, Aderyn released a long breath. “Are you sure we should let them go?”

“I’m sure of very little anymore.” The queen shook her head. “But imprisoning or executing an ambassador is asking for a war we cannot afford right now. Keeping the Trials fair so Keera can become Champion is still our best hope for peace.”