“You really love him, don’t you?” Dannik asked, frowning as he studied me.

“Yes,” I said easily. “He made it easy. Dannik…I know how this must seem. But believe me, these terms are what’s best for the Dakkari. You have to make our father understand that. Do you really think that I would stand by and not try to help our people?”

“What you ask…it would bind the priestesses’ power. They will not stand idly by and allow that to happen,” Dannik said.

I’d brought up the terms to Sarkin, and he’d presented them. In exchange for the location of the thalara tree and half of the heartstones that were still rooted within the earth, my father would have to agree to strip the priestesses’ power in the North Lands. He would have to return back to the old customs, where the only people allowed to step foot within the temple were priestesses who chose to dedicate their lives to Kakkari, our goddess.

No longer would they have free rein to take anyone who showed signs of having heartstone magic. No longer would they try to create heartstones with experimental practices, killing innocent people in the process. It was an abomination, what they’d been allowed to do. Too long my father had ignored their growing, hungry power. If it wasn’t checked and bound now, I feared what would happen.

“It’s for the best,” I repeated. “Surely you know that.”

“I do. But their power stretches far, Klara. They have their influence in every horde, every outpost, every district in Dothik. It will not be easy to extinguish their reach entirely,” Dannik pointed out, sighing.

“This will be a start,” I said. Lowering my voice, I said, “And once you take the throne, I know that you will be a strong king, one whose mind is not swayed by greed and power.”

“And what if I don’t want it?” Dannik asked quietly, a strange tone in his voice that had me straightening.

“What?” I whispered, quick and sharp.

He smiled, but it didn’t quite meet his eyes. He stood while I frowned up at him, my heartbeat quickening in my chest.

I…I had never asked him if he even wanted the throne. I supposed I had always assumed because he was so well suited for it.

“Do you think that King Arik and Queen Kara intended the throne to always pass through bloodlines? Wasn’t that the knotted mess that they’d been trying to unravel in the first place?” Dannik asked. “Maybe it’s time for the people of Dothik to choose their king or queen. Maybe we should be more like the Karag in that regard. Or like the hordes of our wildlands that have withstood centuries of hardship and still have managed to flourish.”

I stood, taking his hands in mine. “If that’s what you want,” I replied, sincerely. “Perhaps we can help you make that change, but I don’t think it will be easy.”

“Nik,” he replied. No. “It won’t. Don’t listen to me. It feels like years have passed since you left. I’m merely…tired. And I don’t have the luxury of being tired.”

“Sarkin gets like that sometimes,” I told him. “When so many rely on you, the weight of it gets heavy.”

“How does he stand it?”

I laughed. “Maybe you need a wife. He says that I’ve helped him.”

“Maybe I do,” Dannik said, the corner of his lip quirking, though the rest of his expression remained serious. “Regardless, I do think the heartstones would help. Because when this one dies…” He gestured behind him. “I fear what will happen.”

“Then sway Father,” I said, squeezing his familiar palm. “That’s the only way forward. That’s the only way to a stronger Dakkar—one allied with the Karag. It would be a new age for us all.”

His eyes were bright. “It would,” he agreed.

I smiled. “And I, for one, would love to see that.”

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Chapter 44SARKIN

One week later…

Deep in a forest called the Ancient Groves, I stood by Klara’s side as we watched the Dakkari-steel chains fastened around the thalara’s wide trunk.

It was a beautiful tree—black with graceful, regal boughs and white, velvety leaves, highlighted with blue veins.

It was an old thalara tree. And it was different than all the ones I’d ever studied. This might’ve been the oldest I’d ever seen, and I could feel the raw power swirling from it, drawing in energy from its surrounding, feeding on it to grow the dying heartstones at its roots.

Across the clearing, the Dothikkar stood with Dannik. The old king and, potentially, the new one. There were a few of his council members. Gevanth and Harnek stood close by. Alaryk had remained as well, though he’d sent his commander back to Grym to relay to Elysom that what were now known as the Heartstone Accords had been struck with the Dakkari.

In these accords were our agreements.

Each nation would get half of the heartstone yield. Seventy percent of each yield would be replanted into careful groves of thalara orchards, just like the forests that used to grow in the Arsadia. A handful of experts would come from Karak to assist the Dakkari in their growing and care, ensuring that the trees would be healthy to sustain heartstone yields for centuries.

The remaining heartstones could be used as we saw fit. But the Dothikkar had finally agreed to curb the priestesses’ power in the North Lands, to stop trying to create heartstones, especially after we had told him such a thing was not possible. Did I believe it would happen?

I would like to. But I had seen greed for decades, even in Sarroth before I’d taken the throne from the previous king. I was more than a little jaded, especially when it came to the promises of strangers.

It was important to Klara, however, and for that reason alone, the Karag would be monitoring the Dakkari progress on that front, ensuring that the agreements were met.

And in exchange on the Karag’s part, for the heartstones were growing in Dakkari soil, we would allow a small population—warriors, mostly, though Klara had also requested scholars—to live among the Karag. They could enter rider instruction if they so wished, choose to take part in the illa’rosh if they passed training, and claim an Elthika of their own. We would let the Elthika decide on their riders, as it had always been.

The territories of Sarroth and Grym—on Alaryk’s agreement—would be the first territories to accept new citizens from Dakkar. With time, however, it might extend into Elysom, Elarin, and Kyloth.

If the Dakkari wanted to bond with an Elthika…they would have to earn the right.

Today marked the first day of our accords, and it would begin with uprooting the heartstones.

Klara took a deep breath. She whispered to me, “What if they’re not there?”

I almost chuckled. Was this what she worried about?

“What if I made a terrible mistake and we negotiated for nearly a week for nothing?”

My hand drifted to her hip. Truthfully, I couldn’t wait to get her back home to Sarroth. I couldn’t wait to have her in our bed, to show her the territory that was now hers, where we would spend over half the year when we weren’t at the mountain village in the Arsadia.

I couldn’t wait to have her all to myself, at least for a little while. I dreamed of mornings where we could spend lazy moments, taking our time to get out of our bed. Where we would just be with each other.

But duty came first. At least for now.

“They’ll be there,” I said, leaning down to murmur into her ear as we watched the chains being tightened by the guards.

In a small clearing close by, just large enough for her to land, Zaridan waited. The chains were attached to her harness, and she would be the one whose power and strength uprooted the tree.