Zaridan circled overhead before landing on a ledge along the mountain cliff.

“I won’t stop until it’s done,” I promised.

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Chapter 6KLARA

It was still dark on the wildlands when I stepped beyond the East Gate. Sarkin—or his horde of dragons—were nowhere in sight, and for a brief, dizzying, silly moment of relief, I thought maybe he’d changed his mind.

Dannik was beside me, stoic and stiff. He’d barely said a word as he walked me to the gate. It felt like a death march.

Last night, he’d come to my chambers. He’d begged me to leave Dothik—he’d even had a group of our father’s darukkars at the ready, to shuffle me across the wildlands and hide me among one of the outer hordes. He would speak with the Karag, he’d promised. He would make Sarkin Dirak’zar change his mind; he would offer another female in my place. He only needed time.

I’d denied my brother. It wasn’t only Sarkin’s threat, that his dragon had my scent now and they would find me anywhere—and likely destroy everything in their wake, including whoever sheltered me.

It was also Zaridan’s song. That pure moment last night and the sense that I was right where I was meant to be.

I had to do this even though I was terrified. Even though I didn’t know if my new life would be atrocious or kind at the hands of my new husband. What life awaited me with the Karag? What would I find across Drukkar’s Sea?

Like Vienne, the white-haired sorceress, my ancestor…I’d had dreams all my life. Visions, I assumed. I’d seen an alien place, one I’d never been able to find replicated in the archives. I’d seen the dragons. A forest of heartstones. And what of the stories my own mother had told me all her life? Her visions? Of things she couldn’t possible know?

It was all connected. I knew it. Finally I would have the answers I’d so desperately sought for over a decade.

Dannik had been right—our last heartstone was dying, fading with every passing day. Soon Arik’s sword would dull and tarnish, a great legacy beginning to rot with it.

What if I could find more heartstones across Drukkar’s Sea? Heartstones had saved us against the red fog. If we had none left, what would save us against the Karag if they came with their dragons? If they unleashed their ethrall on the capital, on the hordes, on the outposts? Nothing would stop them from conquering Dakkar when we didn’t have the power to fight back.

My father and his queen might not’ve wanted me. Alanis might’ve sneered every time I walked passed her in the palace. They might’ve deny my bloodlines…but Dannik was right. I had the blood of great Dakkari and humans alike running in my veins, and I had a duty to my people. This was my home. It was all I’d ever known.

So, when I stepped out onto the dark wildlands and didn’t see Sarkin or his dragons, I was both selfishly relieved and disappointed.

It was short lived, however. As the first rays of the sun began to lighten the sky to a soft purple, I saw a dark mass flying from Bekkar’s Shield—the mountain range to the west.

The group that was gathered beyond the East Gate was larger than I expected. Dannik and myself. My father and the queen. The high priestess of the temple, with her keen eyes that narrowed on me, as if loath to let me go. A few of my father’s council. And guards. Many, many guards.

There were archers along the walls, and I thought their presence was laughable.

“I know you’re angry with me,” I said to Dannik, far enough away from everyone else that I spoke freely. I had a trunk of clothing at my feet, everything I owned, and a leather satchel strapped to my back, a dagger nestled within its confines. “But I don’t want to say goodbye like this.”

Dannik let a breath loose. He stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the grouping of dragons that were drawing closer and closer in the rising sun. I wondered what they called a formation like that. Surely the Karag had a word for it.

“I will find a way to bring you home,” my brother vowed quietly. “Whatever it takes. The Vorakkar are riding in from the wildlands to meet with us. We are forming a plan to⁠—”

My brow furrowed, and I gave him a half smile, reaching forward to grip his shoulder. “Dannik. You saw what they can do. The best plan? It’s to understand them, to learn about them. It is not to attack blindly. To sail across the sea, searching for an uncharted continent that is home to powerful creatures who can wipe us out in a mere moment.”

“I told you that I would protect you. I promised it to your mother,” Dannik confessed softly.

My heart squeezed. “What? When?”

“Before she was sent away. She made me promise, Klara. I have broken that vow already.”

A stab of affection mingled with grief made me stand on the tips of my toes and press a kiss to his cheek. I embraced him.

Into his ear, I whispered, “Trust in me, brother. Zaridan gave me this scar. She gave it to me when I first dreamed about her, when I was just fifteen. And I have dreamed about her ever since.”

Dannik stiffened beneath me, even though I didn’t tell him about everything else I’d dreamed. The other dragon, specifically. The ones I’d seen even before Zaridan.

I pulled back, looking up into his eyes. I grabbed his arms, squeezing tight, though my voice was steady and unyielding. “I am afraid. But I know that this is my purpose. I have been preparing for it nearly my whole life. Let me go with them. Political marriages are made all the time, throughout our history—you know that. Father knows that better than anyone. Let me go as a daughter of Dakkar because maybe it will soften the Karag’s will against us. Maybe we can negotiate as allies and not as enemies. We cannot stand against them, against their dragons’ power. This is the only way. It might even be a mercy.”

Dannik stared down at me, turmoil swirling in his golden eyes.

“I always thought you would make a better ruler than me,” he finally said.

I heard the gust of the dragon wings before I felt the earth’s might tremble when one landed. The other nine remained in the air with their riders, circling overhead. When Dannik stepped to the side, I saw Zaridan, gleaming black and undeniably beautiful in her strength, illuminated by the rising sun.

My eyes caught on Sarkin’s, watched as he ran his palm down her wide neck. He swung his leg over, dismounting expertly with a long jump down in front of her left wing. He landed in a crouch and then rose.

I’ll ride a dragon this morning, came the sudden thought, so unfathomable that it didn’t quite feel real until this very moment.

My chin rose when he approached. Sarkin’s eyes narrowed on my brother, a curl of black hair drifting in front of his left eye when Zaridan gusted her wings. I heard Orak—one of my father’s council members—make a distressed sound. I got the impression Zaridan had done it on purpose.

I watched Sarkin assess the clearing, flickering from me to the group behind us, to the archers on the walls and the locked East Gate. Not that it mattered. He’d been in the market yesterday. He knew another way to get into the city. There were rumors of tunnels beneath Dothik, tunnels that King Arik had once used. Perhaps those?

I wondered how long the Karag had been among us. Since their very first dragons had been spotted? How long had they been gathering information on the Dakkari, waiting for the perfect moment to strike?

And why did that strike happen to begin with me?

“Sleep well, aralye?” he asked, his tone gruff and mocking, raising his brow.

“Perfectly,” I lied. For once, my dreams had been strangely quiet.

Those beautiful eyes dropped to the trunk at my feet. “Where do you think you’re going to put that?”