My eyes widened. “Is there a rush to do that so soon?”

I would be married tomorrow?

Sarkin shrugged. “And I ask you, why wait? I want this done. I have an oath myself to Elysom that I am eager to see through.”

I remembered him mentioning that to his aunt. Something about mysar commands, whatever that meant. Elysom, I knew, seemed to be the governing body of the Karag, and his aunt was on the council.

“My mind is made up, and it will not change,” he added, his voice lowering as our eyes held. “I have chosen you as my wife, Klara. Waiting will not change that.”

My heart gave a frantic skip, my lips parting. The shock of hearing those words…they pleased a primal part of me I’d never known I’d needed calmed to begin with.

But, with the exception of my mother and Dannik, I had never been chosen by anyone. Even my own blood. My half sisters, my father…they had all turned their backs on me at the urging of my stepmother, and I had felt their rejection and sting for years. In Dothik, I had never felt like enough. For any of them. I’d been a disappointment. A painful reminder.

So to hear Sarkin say that he had chosen me and that it would not change…those words filled a desperate, gaping ache in me, one I hadn’t realized was an incredible, lonely void.

“Lysi?” he questioned softly, tipping my chin up with his calloused index finger.

I blinked, reality returning in a rush. I’d been staring at his exposed neck, tracking small scars there, as I processed his words.

“Lysi,” I whispered.

He nodded, pleased, though my thoughts raced. Before last week, I had never given much thought to marriage. I had filled my days with the pursuit of research and knowledge, to try to better understand my dreams and my mother’s own stories. I had always had an obsession with the dragon riders from across Drukkar’s Sea, ever since I’d seen one fly over Dothik when I’d been only twelve.

In the span of a week, my life had altered and shifted so drastically that it was hardly believable.

“What is it?” Sarkin grunted, urging me into a walk once more.

“This time last week, I was…” I took in a deep breath. “I was walking home in Dothik after a day in the archives trying to understand this. This place. Your people. What it all meant. I’ve given over a decade of my life trying to make sense of this. And I’m beginning to realize that it might have been a waste. Because I don’t understand anything at all.”

I’m wholly unprepared for this, and that frightens me, I thought, but I left that thought unspoken.

“But you will,” Sarkin said. An easy answer to a complicated worry.

Tears ushered into my eyes, but I tried to blink them away quickly, lowering my head as we passed a group of onlookers. Sarkin nodded at them when they called out a greeting. After we passed, I looked up, noticing that we were heading toward the back of the horde, toward a structure that I knew must’ve been Sarkin’s home here, given the intricate carvings on the facade. It was small, but it was overlooking the entirety of the horde, perched on a small hill, the pathway leading up a gentle incline.

My muscles screamed in protest as I walked up. But when we reached the top, I couldn’t help but turn. The sun was setting over the forest, and my lips parted in disbelief. I saw what I hadn’t been able to see over the structures of the horde or the forest beyond.

We were high up. The Arsadia, it seemed, had dramatic changes in elevation. Now I saw the waterfall. I saw the thick white plume of water billow next to the east of the forest and not far from what Sarkin had called the hatchery. Water from the mountain was running down toward the horde, where it pooled into a wide, sparkling river before rushing down a steep drop, into the depths of the forest below. While the forest that surrounded the horde was at our elevation, I saw vast wilderness stretch out beyond us in deep valleys as far as I could see.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed. In the distance, I saw mountain ranges, wild Elthika making dark figures in the sky, miles and miles away. I knew we weren’t far from the coast, but I couldn’t see it from this vantage point.

And it would be my new home.

Footsteps clattered on the pathway, and when I turned my gaze forward, I saw an unfamiliar male waiting for Sarkin’s permission to approach. He was tall and broad, his arms crossed behind his back. Not a rider, though, because I saw the sway of his tail behind him. But a warrior perhaps? His build was certainly similar to one.

“Go inside and rest,” Sarkin ordered me. “There’s hot water for a bath. I’ll send someone with food and to look over your wounds. Then I want you to sleep afterward—no questions tonight. Do you understand?”

His tone set my back straightening. “I’m not a child.”

His lips curled slightly in a humorless smirk, one that made my belly flutter and dip, which was quite quizzical and maddening.

“Syndras will watch over this entrance, so don’t fear sleep tonight,” Sarkin replied, nodding at the Sarrothian, who inclined his head at me, though his eyes were narrowed, curious.

“Where will you be?”

“There is always much to be done when we return to the Arsadia,” Sarkin told me. “I likely won’t return tonight. I’ll collect you in the morning.”

And with that, he turned his back, passing Syndras briefly, his head bending low to say something I couldn’t hear.

He didn’t turn back once.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 15KLARA

It’s every bit as stark and cold as I thought it might be, I thought, sighing, gazing around Sarkin’s Arsadian residence with a critical eye as I soaked in the hot bath.

The home had a familiar layout as the one outside the citadel. A raised bed with no fur coverings in sight. A round table with bench seating, similar to the taverns in Dothik, but this one was made of a shimmering material that resembled dragon scales.

There was a tall black cabinet opposite the bed, and I knew, from my first inspection, it held clothing and nothing else.

The washing area was at the very back of the home and only separated by a sheer gossamer curtain, which seemed utterly useless. The washing tub was sunken into the ground and the most opulent thing in the home. It had running water, for one, no doubt due to the waterfall so close in proximity, but what amazed me was that the water rushed out hot from the metal pipes. Once I’d stepped into the bath, after the first initial sting of pain as hot water had met my chafed, inflamed skin, I’d sighed happily. I never wanted to leave the confines of the bath again.

I leaned my head back over the edge, sitting on the submerged ledge that ran along the inside, and closed my eyes. I must’ve dozed off because the next thing I knew, there was a loud creaking from the front metal door and a stranger’s voice filling the room.

I gave a little shriek of surprise when I saw an unknown female enter.

“What—what…who are you?” I stuttered, slinking down underneath the bath water, my heart thundering in surprise.

“I apologize,” the female said, though her tone was bright, no remorse heard. “I didn’t mean to startle you awake, though I am glad I did. It is incredibly dangerous to fall asleep during baths, or has no one ever told you that?”

I blinked, watching as she set down a tray of hot food, opening the various dishes’ lids with a flourish, as if expecting me to be impressed.

When she looked at me expectantly, I cleared my throat and said, “That looks…delicious,” though I couldn’t see it all from this angle.

“Come and eat,” she ordered, patting the bench chair as she pulled out something else from the black satchel looped over her shoulder. “I am your food delivery and your healer tonight. You can call me Ryena.”