Page 129 of Crown of the Dunes

A sharp whinny cut the air and Kaius appeared in the arrow’s path, seated atop Cail. With a fleshy thud, the arrow buried itself in the front of his shoulder. He grunted in pain, and Erix’s eyes widened in horror. He reached for his father, but Kaius shook his head.

“Ride,” he demanded through gritted teeth, the word infused with the wildness of horses.

Daiti beneath me lurched into action, pulled by Kaius’s command—his undeniable connection to the favorite beasts of the Ballan Desert. All four of us crashed through the palace gates, the horses galloping headlong through the streets. Aderyn clutched Neven tightly before her, and I leaned forward over Daiti’s neck, gritting my teeth as I tried to get my muscles to cooperate as the remaining poison leeched from my blood.

“Father!” Erix shouted, looking over his shoulder at Cail and Kaius, who rode behind him. Kaius slipped sideways on his mount, tilting dangerously toward the stone ground rushing by beneath us. Erix sat back, getting Alza to slow. Once Cail and Alza were abreast of each other, Erix hiked his feet up onto Alza’s sides until he could crouch on her back.

It was all I could do to cling to Daiti as I watched him leap from one galloping horse to another, landing just behind his father and pulling him firmly back into his seat. Alza continued to gallop along beside us.

The movement of a horse under me and the wind whipping my loose hair shook the magic within me awake again, having been muted by the poison. Panic and rage hit me full force through the tether in my core, the force of Erix’s emotions nearly knocking the breath from me.

“Keera!” Aderyn shouted, though I could barely make out her voice over the thunder of hooves. I blinked against the wind to see her concerns. We charged headlong toward the main gate of Kelvadan, and where it had once remained open, now it stood closed and barred in our path. Archers topped the wall, but they did not wear the traditional brown and tan of a Kelvadan rider. My stomach dropped as they nocked their arrows, drawing their bows and pointing them toward us.

Over Erix’s fear and anger that still echoed in my belly, grew another rage—hotter and brighter and so much closer. Prince Calix may have stolen this city from me. He had stolen Neven’s hand from him and nearly stolen the Heart. But this was my family, and I would let him take no more from us.

I sat up and raised my arms. The flow of magic within me grew to a torrent, pulsing in time with Daiti’s hooves, but it wasn’t enough. All the creatures and varied landscapes of the desert spread out before me in my mind, and I called on the power they held. It rushed through me in a violent flood, nearly carrying me away with it, but I collected it all behind a dam in my mind until I felt that I might shatter.

Then, I let the dam collapse. An earth-rending boom split the air and the gate exploded—not just the wooden door, but the stone wall around it. The screams of the archers caught in the blast were buried in the sound of the chunks of rock falling to the ground.

The horses did not slow as we charged through the dust, barreling right past where the gate had once been. Then, we were out on the sands, galloping toward the horizon and leaving the city behind us—and in the hands of an enemy.

Chapter thirty-four

Erix

The short minutes we spent putting distance between us and the city behind us were the longest of my life. While usually, time slipped away, becoming meaningless as I rode with complete abandon, now I counted every breath—every inhale and exhale that rattled my father’s body before me.

He was conscious, but he leaned heavily against me, and only my hold kept him from tumbling off the dappled mare’s back.

I had never seen him have anything but a perfect seat on a mount.

Finally, our horses slowed, the veritable sandstorm kicked up by our wild retreat turning into small clouds of dust around their hooves. Keera twisted on her stallion’s back to look behind us and sighed in relief.

“The desert seems to have aided our retreat.”

I followed her gaze, finding that the city had disappeared behind us. In the constantly changing landscape of the Ballan Desert, she had seen fit to put distance between us and our defeat. Kaius shuddered in my arms, drawing my attention down to him.

I worked quickly, dismounting and lifting him off his mount’s back after me. I wished we had something to lay him on, but we had nothing but the clothes on our back and the meager weapons we carried, so I lowered him to the ground.

Another shudder wracked his form, and dread took root in my heart as I took in the pallor of his tanned skin and the blue tinge of his lips.

“We have to get this arrow out of you,” I murmured. A way away, I heard a pained whimper as Aderyn helped Neven off her horse, but I paid it no mind, instead reaching for the shaft that stuck out of my father’s flesh. The arrow had embedded itself deeply—I thought it had hit his shoulder, but now I saw that it had pierced his chest, deep enough that it must have found a space between his ribs.

As I moved to pull it out, his hand grasped mine, stopping me. His hold was startlingly weak, but it was sure.

“No,” I insisted. I wrenched free of his hold, reaching for the arrow again. This time, a different hand stopped me. My eyes flicked up to find Keera kneeling beside me. Her eyes were overbright with unshed tears, but I didn’t want to see them. I knew what they meant, and I shook my head.

“She’s right,” Kaius gasped, his voice thin and reedy, barely stronger than the wind rustling arrowgrass. “I knew she was a smart one. You should hold on to her.”

I shook my head, unable to speak around the lump rising in my throat, but hoping that if I just denied it enough, I could stop the life I could already feel slipping from his body. Every living being in the desert carried a flame within them, and his was already flickering and sputtering—and it had always been so steady.

“Promise me something,” Kaius said, each word sounding like a tremendous effort. “I gave you a great name, not because I thought you would be a great king, but because I saw in you the potential to be what this desert needed. The whole desert, not just Kelvadan. Don’t make me look like a fool.”

The burning in my eyes grew to a point I could no longer contain, and I blinked, trying to keep my father’s face in focus, sending hot tears streaming down my cheeks. I opened my mouth to speak, but only one choked syllable came out.

“Dad.”

“I’m glad you came home.” With one last crooked smile, my father died.