Moritz snorts. “Believe in your phantom witches and bedtime tales all you want, but that simply won’t do. Your capitol has fallen. Your people displaced. Hell, Altair, you’ve almost died attacking him head on. We can’t do this any longer. Something needs to change. We need more help.”
“Help?” I laugh mirthlessly. “Right now, every queen and king of the continent is watching ever so closely to see what the results would be. If they wanted to help, they would have.”
Moritz leans forward, his nails digging into the velvet chair. “Then make them,” he snaps. “Convince them like you convinced me, you moron.”
My lips pull back into a snarl as anger flares through me. “Careful Moritz,” I say softly. “I’m on the losing side of the greatest war the realms have ever seen, I have little patience.”
“I don’t care.” He sits back. “I joined you because I know when the Bloodbane and Sadal are done with Alnembra, they’ll turn to the surrounding lands next. Including mine. This has shown me that not even I can stop him. Now, everyone knows this. We have three choices: convince them to support us, let them watch us fall, or give them a reason to join Sadal.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “You truly think they would do such a thing?”
“To protect their own skins?” Moritz scowls. “Yes.”
I stand, pacing in front of the fireplace. There are some rulers that I can see joining Sadal immediately after Alnembra falls. Others will be more reluctant. But in the end, it is about survival. And Moritz, Haru, and I, can no longer do it ourselves.
“I think Santaya may be our best ally at this point,” I say, turning to eye Moritz.
I see his nose wrinkle unhappily, but he ducks behind his cowl again. “Perhaps.”
Santaya lies beyond the south-eastern border of Canes. A kingdom of sober grey rock that gives way to the red sands of the waste, it’s a harsh country with even harsher people. Queen Erzur is cold, calculating, and has had a long-running feud with Moritz on border lines. In any other circumstance, he would never agree to an alliance with her. But now, we may have no other choice.
“Santaya is close,” I continue, hope blooming in my chest. “A half-day’s flight for me. A day in this weather, perhaps. And you know Erzur’s sun soldiers are fierce.”
“Fierce enough to take on Sadal and win?” Moritz rolls his eyes.
“All the help we can get, remember?” I cock a brow.
Moritz sighs, and I know he won’t bicker any longer. I head to the window, strapping Verity’s mysterious dagger tightly to my waist so I don’t lose it in the shift. Moritz rises, bundling himself tightly in the cloak as I throw open the window. Despite the cold wind or the freezing rain in my face, I feel warmth blossoming in my chest. Twice now, Sadal has proven that we weren’t enough to defeat him. But perhaps, the combined strength of the Fae is. Santaya is the perfect place to start.
I throw myself out the window, diving towards the spray of water below. I shift, stretching my wings out in the rain. Wind billows beneath my sleek, black feathers and buoys me up to soaring height. The cold and wet is already seeping into my bones, but I do my best to ignore it. As I fly over the fort, I see men in the courtyards, busy around cooking pits, talking by the fire, or sparring in the muddied pits. It’s not a hearty scene of victory, but of survival hard won.
I turn away, towards the eastern border of Canes and then further south. I fly for hours, battling strong gusts of wind that threaten to send me tumbling back into Alnembra, and rain that freezes me muscles and bones. I’m lucky enough to dodge each lightning strike, but electricity crackles in the air all the way to Santaya, and by the time I reach the border, I’m fighting not to fall out of the sky.
Santaya’s capitol, Nalat, is in the center of the barren kingdom, surrounded on all sides by tall cliffs. I push past the air currents that slither between the cliffs and drop into the relatively peaceful valley. The rain doesn’t fall here, it rarely does except in some seasons. But the air is cold with the sun gone and only the moon to warm my wet body.
I fly over the city, ignoring the city guards that shout threateningly. My eyes are half-closed as Erzur’s palace comes into view. Covered in pure gold that was mined from her kingdom eons ago, it shines even in the moonlight. Spires thrust into the starlit sky, gems twinkling along the rooftops. Tall and narrow, with slim bridges connecting the many towers, I wonder briefly just how many stairs I’ll be climbing tonight.
I drop down in front of the sapphire gates of her palace, breathing heavily. I make the shift slowly this time, feeling the weight of my muscles like sandbags have been tied to my body. A shiver wracks my body and my muscles tighten as the cold grows even sharper. I shake out my drenched hair, watching sun soldiers approach.
Their dark skin is almost silver in the moonlight, and they stare suspiciously at me through gilded helmets. “King Altair, of Alnembra,” I say through gritted teeth. “Here to see Queen Erzur.”
They lead me into the palace, and it feels as if they slow their pace purposefully to torment me further. My muscles tremble as I trail them up the long flight of stairs into the Queen’s throne room. I half expected them to deposit me in a bed chamber, half wished they would, in fact. But it seems Erzur is awake.
She sits on a tall dais, taller than me, in a golden throne. Her ebony skin gleams in the candlelight, her slim arms draped over the rests of her throne. Her hair is
