Chapter 37

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Erix

K eera stared up at me with the same glare she wore the first time I pressed my great-grandfather’s saber to the hollow of her throat—somehow both hopeless and defiant.

“I will be free of my weakness,” I insisted. My hand trembled from tension and the adrenaline still coursing through my body after Lord Alasdar’s lesson. The tip of my saber scratched Keera’s skin with the movement, and she gasped quietly. I could only hope she understood what I meant.

Then I struck, swinging out in a decisive arc at where Lord Alasdar stood behind me. Before my blade could meet his neck, I found myself on the ground, saber clattering to the floor next to me, though I didn’t remember dropping it. A scream tore from my lips as Lord Alasdar stood over me, hands outstretched. A commotion beside me told me Keera was fighting against Izumi, shouting too, but I couldn’t make out her words against the sensation of Lord Alasdar’s magic ripping into my own well of power at the base of my skull.

Where Keera’s power was always flowing water, sometimes a calming coolness and other times the raging ocean, Lord Alasdar’s magic was lightning. It seared nerve endings I didn’t even know I had, pinning me in place .

“Maybe I need to remind you how the people this girl serves tried to control your power,” Lord Alasdar sneered down at me.

The flickering orange light of the lanterns in the tent disappeared, leaving me blinking in confusion. My fuzzy eyes could only make out dull gray around me. Lord Alasdar was nowhere to be found. I sat bolt upright, whipping my head around. Keera was gone too.

I was about to shout her name when I realized where I was. Everywhere around me was solid stone—hard and gray and unforgiving. Unlike the last time I had been in the chamber in the heart of the mountain, there wasn’t even a door. Just a cube large enough for me to reach out my arms and touch both walls.

I reached for my magic, and while the phantom talons of Lord Alasdar still ripped at my mind, the comforting yet maddening presence of the desert was nowhere to be found. I was trapped and alone. I would die here, never feeling the wind of the desert or riding Alza across the sands again. Without ever telling Keera I loved her. Because I did.

I had loved her the first night when she spit in my face and for every inch she had pushed me after that. Even when I’d pretended I didn’t exist, letting the monster Lord Alasdar wanted me to be devour the man I was, the heart buried underneath all that darkness only beat for her. And now my weakness would cost both of us our lives.

I screamed, voice echoing back at me in the close quarters. It wasn’t enough to drown out my pain, at being separated from the desert—from Keera—forever.

The desert gives and it takes, and it had given Keera to me only to snatch her away in the cruelest way possible. I pounded against the floor, skin on my fists ripping until blood dripped down my wrists but it wasn’t enough. I clawed at my face, trying to pull off the stifling mask and take a full breath, but it had attached itself to my face. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t hear, couldn’t think.

The stone walls around me shattered, and I lay on the floor, staring up at the canvas of Lord Alasdar’s tent.

A soft ping of liquid dripping against my mask drew my attention, and I focused my eyes to see the bloody tip of a saber—my great-grandfather’s saber—hovering above my face. It was protruding from the center of Lord Alasdar’s chest, a look of utter shock etched onto his face. A single drop of blood bubbled from his mouth, dripping down his chin.

“You don’t get to hurt him anymore.” Keera’s voice was weak but sure. She wrenched the blade from his body, and he crumpled, dead before he hit the ground. Crimson spread from where he lay, staining the rich rugs beneath him. I could only stare at his slack-jawed face, the gray eyes that held so much power over me now empty of life.

My savior and my torturer, my mentor and my jailer, dead at Keera’s hand in one decisive strike. Trembling overtook me as I stared at the corpse, relief rushing through me, turned bitter by the grief for what Lord Alasdar might have been for me—the father that I had painted him to be.

I looked up at Keera, finding her panting, complexion ashen, eyes red and swollen from crying so much, and utterly perfect.

She wavered where she stood, balancing on her unbroken leg through sheer will alone, although she trembled with weakness. I lurched forward, but Izumi got there first, helping her keep her balance as if she hadn’t just slain the man we’d both had pledged our life to—somebody Izumi had betrayed her clan for. I wanted to ask her why, but it didn’t matter right now. Not when Keera was about to pass out.

I struggled to my feet, reaching for Keera. Before I could grab her by the shoulders and press my ear to her chest to make sure she was alive, a crash sounded outside the tent. All three of us froze.

A moment of silence stretched, followed by the sound of screaming. Izumi shoved Keera toward me before rushing from the tent. Clashing metal split the air, but my focus stayed pinned on the woman in my arms as I lowered her back to the bed of pillows.

She whimpered as her skin touched the fabric, and I stroked the remaining half of her hair gently. Reaching up, her fingers trailed down my mask, coming away red from where Lord Alasdar’s blood had dripped. Without further thought, I ripped it off, throwing it down on the ground next to Lord Alasdar’s corpse.

“You saved me,” I murmured in awe.

Keera grimaced, her eyes watery, but I got the impression she was trying to smile at me. “I meant it. You’re mine. Nobody gets to touch you but me. ”

“You saw how broken I am.” I shook my head. “I’ll happily be yours until the day I die, but I don’t think you can fix me.”

Keera’s voice was thin as she spoke, clearly succumbing to the exhaustion and pain she had battled during the confrontation. Still, every word hit me like a punch to the gut. “You don’t need to be fixed. You just need to be loved.”

A lump rose in my throat, and I choked around my own words. “And I love you.”

Keera’s eyes fluttered closed as she went limp in my arms before I even got the words all the way out. I touched my fingers to her neck, finding her pulse to make sure she still lived. It was steady if rapid and thready beneath my fingers. She had just overexerted herself.

Before I could set to work getting her comfortable, a clatter drew my attention to the tent flap. I glanced up to find Izumi, armor disheveled and sword drawn. Crimson glimmered off the wicked blade.

“Kelvadan attacks,” she panted.

I didn’t respond, looking between Izumi and Keera. To the body on the floor.

“You must fight,” Izumi insisted with increasing urgency.

“Lord Alasdar is dead. There is no point!” I spat.

“No point?” Izumi’s eyes flashed. “The desert still rips itself apart at the seams, and Kelvadan is still to blame. You might have fought for Lord Alasdar, but I fight for the people of the desert. They now stand against the riders of Kelvadan, unorganized and afraid, and they are the ones who will die tonight.”

“Then lead them!” I snapped, turning back to Keera, wanting nothing more than to bundle her into my arms and ride away to somewhere safe. There had already been too much pain and death in this tent.

Izumi stomped over to me, clapping her hand on my shoulder. “You must lead them.”

I looked up at her, the sincerity in her eyes taking me aback.

“You are the one they are here for. The Viper was named Champion of the Desert, and he is the one that delivered the clans from the lava wyrm. The lord of Clan Otush arrived and pronounced her clan loyal to you, not Lord Alasdar. They know the power you wield, and they only ever followed Lord Alasdar because of you. Now they have gathered here to serve you, and if you do not help them, their deaths will be on your hands.”

I clenched my jaw, looking back and forth between Keera and Izumi. Keera had nearly died fighting the lava wyrm to protect the clans of the desert. She spilled Lord Alasdar’s blood for me because she thought I was worthy. Would I be worthy if I let the people she was willing to die for perish during a surprise attack in the night?

“When the encampment is secure, we will help her. She is strong and will survive until the threat is driven away.” Izumi’s voice was gentle but brooked no argument.

“Sands,” I swore.

Moving quickly, I bent to retrieve my saber. I contemplated for just a moment before laying it next to Keera’s outstretched hand. I would feel better leaving her with a weapon, and my sword felt like the next best thing if I could not be there to protect her myself. Instead, I grabbed the sword from Lord Alasdar’s belt, testing it in my grip. It was shorter than I was used to and the blade broader, but it would do.

Before I could charge from the tent, Izumi reached out, offering me something.

My mask.

I only hesitated for a moment. Then I grabbed it and shoved it back on my face, even as my skin crawled. The riders of the clans knew me as the Viper, the Champion of the Ballan Desert, and now was not the time to change that. If I could be a symbol that saved instead of only destroying, then I could stomach the contraption again.

I chanced one more look at Keera, vulnerable but alive, nestled in a bloodstained nest of rugs and cushions.

“I’ll be back,” I promised, and then shoved out into the chaos of the encampment.

Alza’s muscular body between my thighs dispelled the quivering that had overtaken my limbs since I had woken chained in Lord Alasdar’s tent. I charged through the camp, sword held aloft and rallying riders to me. Fighters who had run to-and-fro without direction, dousing burning tents and trying to protect their own clans without a clear chain of command, grabbed their mounts and fell in behind me.

Forces that had been scattered, nine fractured factions fending for themselves coalesced into a solid band. With a cry, I struck out at a Kelvadan rider who had managed to make it deep into the encampment.

With the element of surprise on their side, the riders of Kelvadan had penetrated far beyond our defenses in a matter of minutes. I directed the riders with me to push them back toward the west where they had attacked from.

Swinging my saber in vicious arcs and urging Alza to kick out with her deadly hooves, I positioned myself in the thick of things. As clansman saw the masked rider on the black horse, they shouted and rallied to me, although I did not miss the way some of their gazes flicked to the freshly burned handprint on my still-bare chest.

Meanwhile, riders of Kelvadan began retreating the moment they spotted my mask. The Viper ruled the battlefield, even if I knew he lay dead on the ground next to the corpse of Lord Alasdar. I wore his face, and that was all that mattered.

I savagely attacked any fighters I spotted advancing toward the center of the camp. I had left Keera in the tent there, and I didn’t intend to let anybody get near her. At I thought of Keera, I pulled on the magic between us, drawing power.

Soon, the mind-numbing hum of battle washed over me. My sword blocked blows before I even noticed them coming, and Alza followed commands before I could give them, as if she and I were of the same mind.

By the time we had pushed the riders of Kelvadan to the borders of the encampment, the full force of all nine clans were at my back and blood splattered my bare chest. Still, battle raged on outside the line of tents. Horses screamed and the harsh screeching of blade meeting blade filled the air. The metallic tang of blood filtered in through my mask, and the threads of my magic began to tremble, tying itself into knots.

I itched to advance, the bloodlust bred into me by Lord Alasdar rearing its head and urging me to push on until all who opposed us had fallen. Still, a tether in the back of my skull to an unconscious woman behind me held a shred of my sanity intact. We needed to be safe. Lord Alasdar was dead, and we needed a chance to regroup. Still, power danced at my fingertips and the sands began to swirl around me. The desert itched to be unleashed upon those who stood against me.

Those in combat closest around me noticed the change, horses edging away from me as white showed around their eyes. Izumi, astride her piebald to my right, eyed me warily.

“Pull back!” I shouted, holding my hands out before me.

Izumi echoed my order, rallying as many riders to her as possible in a hasty retreat. The battle cries of the Kelvadan riders turned to shouts of victory, seeing the clans turning tail as surrender.

I closed my eyes, letting the cacophony roll over me. The voices of both sides turned into an overwhelming rumble as my awareness dissolved, skittering across the landscape. I was every horse and every rider. Every grain of sand moved at my command even as my sense of self dissolved nearly entirely.

A crack split the air the same time I snapped back into my body. Shouts of victory turned into screams of terror. I opened my eyes to find Alza’s hooves on the edge of a gorge, so deep that the bottom was swallowed by darkness. Riders of Kelvadan who had been in the vanguard, chasing the clansman in a hasty rout, plummeted into the chasm, falling to certain doom.

The split in the earth ran as far as I could see in both directions, gently curving around the encampment and effectively splitting it from the attackers. Kelvadan’s forces skittered backward, retreating from the chasm as if afraid it would advance and swallow more of them.

Among the retreating riders, I spotted a familiar shaved head, marked by a vertical line of black ink. Aderyn shouted orders and wheeled her horse around. She appeared to be carrying a burden with her, but my vision began to blur.

A hand on my shoulder braced me before I even realized I had slipped sideways on Alza’s back, tilting dangerously toward the earth. Izumi pulled her mount up next to me, wrapping an arm around my waist in support.

“It’s all right. We’re safe now.”

At her words, the last of my energy drained out of me. I had scarcely slept for two days since fighting the lava wyrm. After bearing Keera across the desert, torture, the upheaval of Lord Alasdar’s death, and a battle that left my mind fizzling with aftershocks of power, I wanted nothing more than to answer the seductive call of unconsciousness. I needed one thing first.

“Keera…”

“We’ll take care of her,” Izumi assured.

Try as I might, I couldn’t stop the darkness from claiming me.