Penda leaned on his arm as if she needed his help in her advanced pregnancy, but Adan leaned on her just as much. She gave him strength to face the crises blowing in like sandstorms from the Furnace.
Despite the uproar coming from the room ahead, Penda forced a sense of calm on him. Her long dark hair flowed back, enhancing her deep brown eyes. “Breathe, my Starfall.”
“How can you be so calm?” he asked.
“There’s an Utauk saying: ‘In the pause between a flash of lightning and the sound of thunder, a person can find a stillness to weather the worst storm.’ That is what you need now.” With her free hand she traced a circle around her heart and whispered the mantra of her people, “The beginning is the end is the beginning.”
Riding on her shoulder, the green reptile bird flapped his wings and burbled as if in agreement. Xar, her pet ska, was fierce and devoted, bound to Penda by a heart link. With his talons, he gripped a padded leather patch on her shoulder to keep his balance. The hawk-sized creature always vied with Adan for Penda’s attention.
Adan allowed himself a moment to consider his love for her, to let it drive away the turmoil and shadows for a brief instant, like the pause between lightning and thunder. “Thank you.”
Arm in arm, showing a grace that belied his distress about the world falling apart, the king and queen entered the chamber where the vassal lords, advisors, and military commanders had gathered. They had already begun their debate, expressing dread over the turmoil in the three kingdoms.
When Adan stepped into the room, one lord rose to his feet. “Sire!” The others rapidly stood, showing their respect and relief.
Adan said in a wry attempt at humor, “I see you have solved all the problems without waiting for us.”
Penda’s father, Hale Orr, grinned, flashing his gold tooth. “There you are, dear heart.” He wore the maroon and black silks of his tribe and a distinctive shadowglass pendant in one ear.
Adan said, “We have much to discuss, much to fear, and much to decide. Events happen swiftly, and news travels at a much slower pace.” He led Penda to the head of the table, where they each took a seat. Behind the queen’s chair was a wooden T-shaped ska stand, where another young ska perched. Ari fluttered her blue plumage in greeting as Penda placed Xar on the stand beside her.
One lord, who often did not think before he spoke, called out, “Tell us of the dragon hunt in the Furnace. And the sandwreths!”
Beside him, another advisor glanced at the restless blue ska on the crossbar stand. “Sandwreths…”
“And with Konag Conndur murdered, what will happen to the Commonwealth?”
Adan paused as another unexpected wave of grief rolled over him. “My brother is konag now,” he said, hoping that might reassure them, even though he could not believe it himself. Mandan, as konag? He turned his thoughts to Suderra. “Let us talk about the sandwreths first, and dragons.”
Taking turns, he and Penda described how the sandwreth queen and her hunting party took them into the barren wastelands and summoned a dragon for sport. “The monster caused great havoc before the wreths finally killed it. They called it a small dragon,” Adan said.
“The slain dragon rotted away within seconds, as if its evil were dissipating into the world.” Penda reached into the foldpocket of her maroon-and-black skirt and removed a tooth as large as a hatchet blade. “This is one of the few fragments that remained. Voo herself gave it to me.”
“But why would wreths hunt a dragon in the first place?” asked his war minister, running his fingers through stringy hair. “Why provoke it?”
Adan was surprised they didn’t all know the ancient mythology. “The wreths were charged by their god to slay the great dragon Ossus, so the world can be remade into a perfect form. This one was practice.”
Penda added with a frown, “The sandwreths seem most interested in destroying their rivals. They do not want the frostwreths saved when the world is changed.”
Adan’s chief armorer leaned forward on the table. “If Ossus is so horrific, shouldn’t they work together to kill their common enemy?”
“Cra, one would think,” Hale muttered.
“The human race is doomed, no matter what,” grumbled another vassal lord.
“Vengeance drives otherwise sensible people to do irrational things.” Adan clenched his fist as a flood of emotions filled his mind, anger and grief blotting out his thoughts. Mandan’s message had said their father was betrayed and murdered by Isharans, his body mutilated …
Adan remembered how he and Conndur had watched the stars from the observation deck of Convera Castle, wondering what the patterns might mean. His own name, Adan Starfall, came from a night when they had seen a meteor shower against a clear black sky.
“Queen Voo asks for an alliance with us,” Penda said. “She wants the armies of Suderra to help her fight the frostwreths. She says she wants to protect us.” She pressed her full lips together. Both skas twitched and clicked, sensing her emotional outpouring. “We now know she is lying.”
She took the blue ska from her perch and touched the mothertear diamond in the collar. In a blur above the table, disturbing projected images showed a prison camp with hundreds of human slaves working in the desert heat, their clothes tattered, their bodies gaunt.
“During the dragon hunt, my adopted sister Glik came looking for us out in the desert. She stumbled upon this camp and was captured. Her ska recorded these images as she flew away.”
The glowing picture showed the skinny girl trying to flee down rock-walled canyons. Copper-skinned wreth warriors rode her down on two-legged lizard mounts. Glik was dragged away to the camp while her ska escaped.
“Cra,” Hale muttered, though he had seen the images before.
“We can’t ally ourselves with those monsters!” said one of the Suderran generals.
“We do not have the strength to defy them either,” Adan said. “Queen Voo could send her warriors against Bannriya and enslave us by force.” He had seen what the wreths could do, the capricious disregard for life or pain. They had weapons, magic, strength. They thought humans were beneath their notice, which could work to Adan’s advantage. “We need to be careful, and smart.”
Penda drew another circle around her heart, and her expression became sly. “Voo is not aware that we know.” She stroked Ari’s blue plumage. “We don’t trust her, but we can play along until the time is right—to stab her in the back.”
5
GLIK usually considered herself fortunate. She hadn’t chosen to be an orphan, but what she did with her circumstances was up to her. She had the freedom to travel the land by herself, relishing the independence. She did not feel alone. Whenever she wanted to, she returned to Utauk camps for companionship and supplies before heading out again. It was a rugged life, and she had endured hunger and storms, frigid temperatures and baking heat, and countless other hardships, but that sort of life was her choice. Because of her wits and the lessons she learned daily in her explorations, her survival skills were unmatched.
And those skills would help her escape from the sandwreth labor camp. She was determined to find a way out.
The high canyon walls served as prison barricades, so Glik studied every cleft, every pebble. She would need the information to escape from this grim, harsh camp in the desert. She was used to being free to travel at will. She felt suffocated. Glik had always gone where she wanted instead of where she should.