23. Chapter 23

Chapter twenty-three

They heard the sound of hooves from a distance and Tsaria’s heart threatened to stop. It was an exact repeat of the clash that had resulted in him being taken to the sewers and nearly dying, except Moxie had saved his life. “Stay down,” Tam ordered. “Get under the seat.”

Tsaria obeyed. He had no fighting skills. The hooves sounded louder, and he knew the moment the driver realized he couldn’t outrun them and slowed. The cart came to a stop, but he was so covered in sacks he couldn’t properly hear what was being said. What was Tam saying? Any second, they would search the wagon. He heard Tam shout something, then the sound of a blade drawn, and that was it. He shoved the sacks away as best he could and yelled. “I’m here. Leave them alone. I just hired a cart,” he added. He might not have any skill with weapons, but he wasn’t about to hide while they hurt Tam. The flap, ripped as it was, was roughly torn aside by one of the biggest men he’d ever seen.

He caught a flash of dark brown eyes, jet-black skin, a completely bald head, and a gold ring through the man’s nose before rough hands grabbed him and yanked him out of the cart. Another man held Tam with a knife across his throat, and the driver was slumped on the ground. Tsaria hoped he was just unconscious.

A fair-skinned man with more tattoos than Tsaria had ever seen swaggered up to him. “You’re the emir’s fuck-toy.”

Tsaria kept his mouth closed. He’d learned to be silent. First with his father, then Ishmael, then every person who had hurt his body because they had the right, and he had none. The man laughed. “I don’t suppose you’re used to talking. I imagine your mouth is used for so much more pleasurable things.”

The man standing to his left leered at him, grabbing his crotch and squeezing. “Do we ‘ave to hand ‘im over?”

Tattoo man, who seemed to be in charge, grunted. “To get the reward.”

Reward? What reward?

“What reward?” Tam demanded.

Tattoo man laughed. “You didn’t know? The palace in Rajpur has posted a very tasty reward for him. We were just lucky we got here first as you passed the border, but there’ll be plenty out trying.”

“Whatever it is, I’ll double it,” Tam said. This time, there was a general snicker all around.

Tattoo man thought that was especially funny. “You got chests of gold in that cart, do you?”

“He means the emir,” Tsaria said. “Kamir will pay any amount to set me free.” Would he, though? He still couldn’t help the little voice that whispered so insidiously that he wasn’t worth what he hoped.

Another snicker. "Well, seeing as how it was his highness that posted the reward, I’m thinking he had a huge change of heart.”

“You saw him write the order, did you?” Tam croaked out. Tsaria saw a line of red bloom on his throat, and he wished he would stay silent. Tattoo man shrugged.

“Royal order means coin. Don’t care who signed it.”

Tsaria swallowed, but it was difficult. He didn’t have a knife to his throat because he supposed they took him to be less of a threat.

He heard a soft twang. A strange noise, but one second the man that held Tam was grinning and the next an arrow was lodged in his forehead. Everyone seemed to freeze, then bedlam erupted.

Or it tried to. The reality was it wasn’t the only arrow, and it was followed by people brandishing swords with deadly accuracy. The men who had stopped the wagon were all lying dead in less time than it had taken him to take a breath.

Tam appeared in front of him, while Tsaria was still trying to process what had happened. “Are you safe?” He couldn’t seem to form words, but then another figure stepped in between him and Tam and chuckled, bowed, and removed his…her hood. “I am sorry we were late.”

It was the same woman who had held him and Jael on the horse when he’d been rescued before. She was stunning. Ink wound its way over both her arms and slid up her neck. She was dressed the same as the rest of them in practical fitted breeches and a shirt, but she stood out even then.

“Who are you?” Tsaria whispered.

She smiled. “Kamir’s sister, Veda. I am very happy to meet you again.” Tsaria didn’t manage to swallow this time, and tears leaked unbidden. Before he knew what was happening, slim but very strong arms surrounded him in a hug he remembered from his flight from the palace dungeons. He tried to remain stoic, cautious, but his heart hurt so much and after a moment, he clung on. He’d have loved a sister.

“I need to get to the palace,” he croaked out.

Veda stepped back and let him go. “Why?”

Tsaria frowned in confusion, but Veda spoke again before he had the chance to. “I’m not saying I don’t think it’s necessary. The exact opposite. I just want to know why you think you need to go.”

And here it was. “Because I love him,” Tsaria almost whispered. “And because I need to tell him that. Because he doesn’t think I do. Because I… failed him.”

Veda hugged him again. “Good answer,” she said, but then her men made Tsaria get back in the cart, surrounding it as they led it off the trail before they decided to stop and camp.

Before Tsaria had much time to think about his declaration, he was sitting nursing a mug of some sort of stew. He doubted he could eat, but Veda simply said that as soon as they had eaten, they were pushing on to the palace. “We’re waiting on information,” Veda explained, “And a safe place to hide. It isn’t that we don’t think it’s urgent.”

“You’re just going to ride in?” he asked doubtfully.

Veda smiled, but it wasn’t as confident. “No, we’re working out a distraction.”

“Meaning?”

She leaned forward. “Kamir has to shift. It’s the only thing that will work. If we just take him back, then the punishment for the villagers stands and they will kill the children. We have men in every one, but the soldiers could overwhelm them.”

Tsaria hung his head. This was his fault. “I don’t know how to make him change.”

Veda tipped her head to the side and considered him. “What happened last time?”

“We-we just touched.” It had been so much more, but he didn’t know how to describe the feeling.

“Did you?” she asked softly.

He met her understanding gaze. “I never felt anything like it.”

Another man Tsaria didn’t recognize came and sat beside Veda, and brushed a kiss on her cheek, handing her a mug. He passed the other to Tsaria and he took it, recognizing the smell of tea, grateful not to have to eat the stew or answer her question when he didn’t know how. “I have a rider on his way with information,” the man said, then stuck his hand out. “Name’s Draul, and I’ve met your emir. He’s not bad. Needs a bit of backbone, but between you and Attiker, I’m sure you can set him straight.”

Veda grinned. “Another territory to cross off your list.” He laughed, then sighed.

“The next won’t be easy.”

Tsaria frowned in confusion. “You have a list?”

He smirked, and Veda giggled. “I won’t be able to join you right away.” She put a hand to her flat belly meaningfully.

Draul hesitated. “Don’t bite my head off, but I’m not sorry you won’t be there. Abergenny is a huge mess, and it will take weeks to get there.”

She noticed Tsaria’s confusion. “Meet my mate, Draul Eryken.”

Tsaria gaped. “Leader of the anti-shifter alliance.” Everyone had heard of him. He should have known with his first name, but he wasn’t expecting to meet a hugely famous human rebel leader. “I don’t understand. I thought you hated the wolves.” How was he a friend of Attiker?

Draul sipped his tea and Tsaria took a sip as well. “Yes, until meeting Attiker, I wanted nothing more than to remove their royal arses, but I found out that sometimes they’re exactly what’s needed for the people. I was wrong about Raz, and he proves it every day. Someday it won’t be birthright that dictates who’s in charge of other people’s lives, but that might not happen in my lifetime.” He shrugged. “In the meantime, I want to make sure empty bellies are filled and if people want to trade their bodies, they do that by choice.”

Tsaria froze. “Choice?”

“I have no issue with adult sex workers, so long as they choose it and get paid,” Kamir said. “What I have trouble with is anyone forced into it because of poverty and drugs. Fever white won’t ever go away, despite what some wish. But most take it as an escape, a promise of a better life even for a bell and only in their imagination. Who wouldn’t want to escape from drudgery?”

Tsaria met Draul’s brown eyes and recognized the pain he had seen in many others. He was speaking from experience, and his heart ached for him. He glanced at Veda. “Should I offer my congratulations?”

She smiled and patted her belly affectionately. “This one’s for Attiker and Raz. I’m merely a surrogate because despite them working on it and him being perfect, Flynn doesn’t have a wolf because Raz definitely can’t sense one, and that’s so enshrined in the Cadmeeran constitution, even the humans might object. Raz and Attiker are hoping for a compromise, but we’ll see. It’s interesting times.”

Tsaria remembered Flynn and how he was with Jael, and his heart ached for them both. Jael must think he’d been abandoned, and he’d be right.

What a waste. Tsaria had made so many foolish mistakes. In protecting his heart, he’d probably lost it.

He heard running footsteps, and a man hurried over and whispered something to Draul. “Good,” Draul answered. “Ask him to come and warm himself here and see to his horse.”

Tsaria heard the hooves and assumed this was the rebel with the information they sought. Draul stood up as a man in a cloak came striding over to them. Draul shook his hand and pulled him in close. “Come and sit. Tell us what is going on.” The man sat cross-legged on the matting by the fire, accepted a mug that Veda passed him, then pulled back his hood and stared right into Tsaria’s eyes.

Tsaria gasped in shock and stared back, open-mouthed.

Draul glanced between them and frowned. “You two know each other?”

Tsaria couldn’t have found words if his life depended on it.

“You could say that,” Tomas said slowly, “Tsaria is my little brother and I haven’t seen him for over eight summers.”

The silence was suddenly all-encompassing. Tsaria didn’t move. He couldn’t get his frozen limbs to do anything. Tomas was in the human alliance? Draul sighed. “I know this is shite, but we don’t have time for family reunions now. What do you know?”

Tomas dragged his eyes from Tsaria. “Iskar is dead, and Damatrious is blaming Kamir’s dragon—”

“No,” his tongue suddenly loosened. “Kamir would never kill anyone.”

Tomas eyed him. “Well, someone did. I couldn’t get into the main hall, but seven members of the ruling assembly are also dead. Damatrious has summoned Kamir at twelfth bell to be charged and if the majority of the assembly find him guilty, he will be cleansed by fire.”

Veda paled and covered her mouth with her palm as if she was going to be sick.

“What does that mean?” Tsaria asked, even though he wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Draul looked at Veda and she lowered her hand. “It’s an ancient punishment,” she said. “Not been used for centuries. It basically means my brother will be tied to a stake and burned alive.”

Her last word was choked out and Draul drew her into his arms. Tsaria was on his feet before he even realized it. “We need to go.”

Draul looked at him. “You said you didn’t know how to bring forth his dragon.”

“True, but I will never find out hiding here,” Tsaria said.

“That was you?” Tomas asked, disbelief obvious in his voice but got to his feet. “Then you ride with me. We haven’t time for carts, and we need to be quick. We barely have four bells before the twelfth.”

Everyone else stood, but Tomas shook his head at them. “Be ready at the south gate, but you can’t come with me now. I cannot get more than one inside.”

Draul nodded once. “We have fresh horses waiting.” Except it became clear that Tsaria had only ever sat a horse once in his life, so Tomas picked the largest of the two and Draul practically lifted Tsaria up so he was sitting in front of Tomas.

“Ready?”

No. But if he had any chance of saving Kamir he had to be.