Kai’s jaw tensed, teeth clenched with unspoken fury.
Alina stepped forward, her tone gentle. ‘Kai, they won’t harm her.’
But it was clear he did not believe her. She tried another angle.
‘We could take her to her chambers for today,’ she said softly. ‘But if we leave her injuries untreated… the leg might not heal as it should. There could be other wounds we cannot see. She might develop a fever. An infection. She could die.’
Something shone in his dark eyes. Fear, perhaps, or something perilously close to heartbreak. He looked down at the woman lying motionless in his arms, his gaze softening with such quiet reverence that Alina found herself stiffening.
That look should have roused envy. Instead, it fanned the embers of something far uglier. Fury. Fury that he could feel such tenderness for a witch. Fury at herself, for allowing that witch back into their lives. Fury for caring enough about him to grant the creature mercy she had not earned.
‘Fine,’ Kai said at last, his voice a blade dulled by resignation. ‘But if a single white hair is missing from her head, there will be no sea deep enough, no land wide enough, no skyhigh enough for any soul in this palace to hide. I will find them. And I will end them.’
Mareena did not so much as blink. The servants stepped forward, carefully lifting the witch from his grasp. All the while, the princess’s scarlet gaze remained fixed on the wyverian, unshaken, unafraid.
‘Neither you nor your threats frighten me, wyverian prince,’ she said, once Dawn was secured in the arms of Mareena’s servants. With the grace of a flame caught in wind, she turned on her heel and departed, leaving Kai standing in the silence, cradling only air, his eyes locked on the path where Mareena and the unconscious witch had vanished.
…
Alina had slipped away to take breakfast with Isla and Arena. Kai had stormed off, his departure marked by a trail of muttered curses and boiling frustration. But his troubles were no longer hers to shoulder. She had done more than enough. Granting the witch the chance to return had been a gift, not a promise.
In one of the many sun-drenched courtyards of the palace, they gathered around a low stone table adorned with an opulent display of exotic fruits, soft cheeses, and delicate cuts of meat. Towering trees loomed above, their foliage ablaze with colour, the air thick with the perfume of blossoms and the trill of songbirds hidden in the branches. Nearby, peculiar-looking felines—creatures with sleek fur and golden eyes—lounged lazily beside mosaic-tiled fountains, their tails flicking in the dappled light.
‘Camar daspasa,’ Arena chided, eyeing Isla with both concern and faint revulsion as the latter devoured her food with unrelenting enthusiasm. ‘Yaa da vas chaaka.’Eat slower. You’llchoke.
Isla merely snorted in reply, lifting her chin in stubborn defiance of the warning.
‘Asta has raca,’ she said with a grin, grabbing another slice of meat and a wedge of cheese. ‘Tra asta.’It’s delicious. Try this.She tore off a piece and offered it to Arena, who sighed and opened her mouth, allowing the taller of the two to feed her like an indulged child.
Alina observed the exchange in silence, lifting slivers of fruit to her lips more for the motion than the nourishment. She wasn’t truly hungry, but it was something to occupy her hands. Phoenixian tradition favoured eating with one’s hands, much like the customs of the desert tribes, which at least allowed them to feel a little less like outsiders in this strange, fire-kissed land.
‘Khana craar sha hassan braha,’ Isla said, her voice thick with disbelief as she swallowed the last of her food and stared down at her hands with a kind of quiet sorrow.I can’t believe she was a witch.
‘Yaa khana na?’ Arena’s brows lifted in surprise.You can’t?
‘Yaa khan na?’ Isla shot back, her frown creasing her forehead.You can?
‘Palida farahi da capas nada,’ Arena replied with a careless shrug. ‘Ama, vat waa haka ahara na?’Wyverians are capable of anything. But what do we do now?
Alina couldn’t help but smile faintly at the phrase the desert folk used for the wyverian people. In the Sandhii tongue, there was no word for “wyverian”, instead, they were known simply as pale foreigners. Apt, she supposed, and somewhat poetic in its own right.
‘Changa nada,’ Isla said with finality, diving back into her meal. ‘Waa lacharan Saren.’It changes nothing. We have tofight Saren.
‘Qa ayada,’ Alina said at last, her voice quiet but firm. Both girls turned to her, startled, their moon-white eyes widening.It might help.
‘Kam na?’ Arena asked, leaning in, her curiosity piqued.How?
‘Ran braha qa ayada vankar Saren,’ Alina answered, reaching for a pear, then thinking better of it and choosing an apple instead. Pears reminded her too much of home, and she was not ready to dwell on that.To have a witch might help defeat Saren.
‘Ama, ni wadara braha ayada na?’ Isla asked, doubt flickering across her face.But why would a witch help us?
Alina opened her mouth to respond, but the words never came. She sensed a presence approaching, a shift in the air around their little table. Turning slightly, she caught sight of Mareena gliding towards them, her footsteps soundless against the tiled floor. Only a few hours had passed since the princess had disappeared with Dawn and the servants, and yet her return felt charged with something unspoken, something just beneath the surface.
Mareena greeted the three girls with a graceful incline of her head, though her focus lingered solely on Alina. ‘We have finished with…’ She hesitated, the rest of her sentence trailing into silence, clearly unwilling to speak too openly of the witch in their midst. Alina understood at once and rose to her feet.
‘Would you care to…’ Mareena’s voice trailed again as her eyes drifted towards Arena and Isla, still seated at the table, chewing thoughtfully between mouthfuls of fruit and cheese. Whatever she needed to say, it was meant for Alina alone.
Catching the unspoken cue, Alina stepped quickly to the princess’s side and offered a small wave to the desert girls. ‘Bana camar,’ she said, a common blessing among the sand folk,wishing them a good meal.Eat well.
