She tilted her head back to look up at the sky. Night was falling, casting a vivid array of colors across the light blue like a painting. Deep purple faded into pink and orange as the sun slowly sank behind the city while they trekked deeper into its winding streets. She thought the buildings would never end. The roads were far less crowded here, with only a few people milling about, and the buildings grew more cramped, their outer walls darker and more weathered with age. Crawling plants snaked their way along the facades, almost like they were knitting the buildings together.
“This is the original city,” Jaario said, as if sensing the train of her thoughts. “Neilmaar has grown immensely over the past thirty years. It’s now a huge hub for traders and merchants.”
“This part of the city is breathtaking. It's so lush and well-preserved. How old are these buildings?”
“This city is hundreds of years old. These buildings have survived countless uprisings and wars over the centuries. It’s the only city with its original walls still standing since the War of the Four Kings.”
She almost laughed at him. “That’s just a story.”
“Is it?” he queried, looking back at her with a raised brow as they made their way toward an opening just ahead.
She was about to say if it was real, there would be more evidence of its existence in the realm, but she didn’t have the chance as her breath caught in her throat upon walking into another smaller town square. It was brimming with life, overflowing with flower gardens and people.
“Welcome to the Back Water market,” Jaario said. “The place for locals, and those who don’t have what you would call “acceptable wares,” to sell at the main market square.”
Kamira let her gaze wander, taking it all in. Flags were hung between roof tops, crossing far overhead. Many of them she didn't recognize, but she saw the Emperor's telltale red and black—the two-headed bronze falcon embellished in its center mingled among the rest. And to her surprise, there was a single green flag swinging in the breeze, the Emerald King’s sigil etched upon it. His influence was here. That flag was like a small symbol of what was coming.
Kamira looked away from it, eyes drifting to the fountain in the center of the square.
A statue of a woman was raised in the middle of it, depicting not only water, which was flowing from her mouth, but all of the elements being worked by her. It was subtle, but if you studied it closely, you could see the ode to each element. The torch lit aflame in her right hand, stone spirals depicting air circling around her body, and the stepping stones at her feet, carved to look like earth protruding up from the fountain itself. She smiled at its beauty, at its ode to sorcery.
But her smile quickly faded, replaced with a confused frown as her gaze caught on a figure standing just behind the fountain. She recognized those upturned honeyed eyes, and the bulbous red nose just above a set of thin pink lips. She shuttered, letting her stare travel down to his protruding belly, the evidence of too many nights spent drinking his fill.
“Tarkiin?” she whispered, looking back up to his face, startled to see him staring directly at her, but no, it couldn’t be. Flashes of red pooling like spilled wine around his head came into her vision, a gash oozing blood along his forehead. It wasn’t him, couldn’t be. He was dead, she was sure of it.
“Kamira?” A large hand clamped over her shoulder, making her jump and pulling her from her trance. Jaario was looking down at her with concern. “You look pale. Are you alright?”
“Yes,” she shuttered, glancing back at the fountain, but the man was gone. It was just her eyes playing tricks on her. “Let’s go.”
He nodded and grabbed her hand, pulling her through the crowd to a quaint side street lined with potted plants in full bloom. Their purple flowers exuded a strong fragrance that made her dizzy.
Jaario stopped abruptly just as they had gotten to the end of the street. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but was stopped short when she watched a hand clamp around Jaario’s mouth and the butt of a sword slam on to his head as he crumpled to the ground. Kamira spun, the beginning of a scream at the tip of her tongue just before a hard blow came down upon her own head and, for the second time that day, the world went black.
24
Kamira
Kamira’sheadpounded,hervision blurry, as she attempted to search her surroundings. She was in a dimly lit stone wall room with no windows or furnishings other than the candlelit sconces along its perimeter. Was this some kind of dungeon?
She rolled her shoulders back, moving her sore neck from side to side, shifting her weight uncomfortably in the chair she was sitting in.
Looking down at her lap, she noticed that her hands rested there, unbound. She quickly pushed herself off the wooden chair with a mind to search for a way out, but as soon as she stood up, dizziness and nausea overtook her. She bent over, spilling the contents of her stomach onto the packed dirt floor beneath her. The water and bile seeped into the ground eagerly and she grabbed the back of the chair, leaning heavily on it.
Kamira closed her eyes as the room spun around her. She supposed this was what happened when someone hit their head twice in the same day. At least, she thought it was the same day, but she really had no way of knowing in this dark, enclosed room. Her stomach roiled again, and she bit back against it, willing the room to still.
The longer she stood, taking in deep, calming breaths, the more the nausea subsided, and the room steadied itself just enough for her to pry open an eye and slowly let it wander across the walls. A wooden door on her left allowed light from the outside corridor to spill through the gap beneath it, but it was suddenly obscured by a shadow just before the door creaked open on iron hinges. A man swept into the room, black robes swirling behind him with each quick stride.
“Please sit,” the man said, turning his back to her as he closed the door behind him. “I’m here to question you on how you came to find this place.”
Kamira looked up to the man’s face and blinked. Skies, how hard had she hit her head? First, she thought she had seen Tarkiin in the square and now this.
“Adonis?” she whispered.
He frowned and cocked his head, studying her before recognition dawned and his eyes went wide. “Kamira!” he rushed to her. “What are you doing here?” he asked, pulling her into a tight embrace before pushing her away and placing a hand under her chin, tilting her head up so he could look at her more clearly. “What on earth happened to you?”
“It’s a long story.” She attempted a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes.
