Edmund studied me. I saw pity on his face, the same pity Bard had worn when he’d given me the old root to eat.
“Grigg told them it was me,” I guessed, my voice soft.
Edmund inclined his head.
“I’m sorry, Nelle,” he said. “They are waiting for you.”
Chapter Two
Jana had told me once that the best thing I could do for myself was to rely on no one. Not even her. That way, I would never be disappointed and if something went wrong, I would only have myself to blame.
She hadn’t been my mother, but she’d been the only person like a mother I’d ever known and in my own way, I’d loved her. And I thought of her and her old words as I walked to the crowd of gathering villagers near the entrance, Edmund’s heavy footsteps behind me.
Numb.
There I was, very likely walking to my own execution and all I felt was numb. In the back of my mind, I wondered if that was normal…if people often felt numb right before they died.
Then again, was I truly normal? I’d always been called strange. Not only by Kier. By many.
Despite the early hour, word must’ve already traveled about the Dakkari’s arrival. Villagers had gathered, though they were a healthy distance away from the horde that spilled into our walls.
As if I could make them disappear if I didn’t acknowledge their presence, I didn’t look at the Dakkari, though I sensed them. Their silent, but heavy presence that seemed to suck all the sound from the village, except for Edmund’s footsteps behind me and the crunch of his boots over the village roads I’d walked countless times before.
And this is to be my last time, I thought.
Grigg approached, but I didn’t look at him either. Instead, I shifted my gaze to the crowd of villagers, searching for familiar faces. Berta was there, but Bard was not. Kier leaned back against a pillar near the kitchens, arms crossed over his wide chest, watching me, one of his friends, Sam, at his side. Marie, an old friend of Jana’s, pressed her lips into a grim line when I met her gaze. She’d always been tolerant of me but I didn’t like the fact that she was there.
“Nelle,” Grigg said quietly. “You know I had no choice.”
I looked at Grigg then, meeting his brown eyes that lookedalmostapologetic. Jana had been right. I couldn’t even be disappointed that he’d sold me out becauseIhad broken the laws of the Dakkari.
“I know.”
He looked surprised that was all I said. There was a lot more Icouldsay, but I simply didn’t want to waste the breath. I didn’t want to spend my final moments talking to Grigg of all people.
Then again, there was no one at all I would talk to. Except Jana, if she was still alive. If her hair hadn’t turned grey and if she hadn’t died in her bed of fever as I’d desperately tried to press cold cloths to her pale skin.
Maybe this is better, I thought quietly.Maybe this is a blessing.No more hunger, no more fear, no more worry, no more loneliness.
I stepped away, approaching the presence of the Dakkari horde, Edmund’s footsteps no longer behind me.
Clutching that numbness tight around me like a blanket, I finally looked up, giving into my morbid curiosity. My footsteps didn’t falter as I took in the scene before me, though a sliver of fear finally pierced my heart.
Over fifty Dakkari horde warriors lined the entrance to our village. Beyond the gate, I spied the creatures they rode across the plains of Dakkar, with their black scales and large talons, gold swirls painted over their wide flanks. The warriors looked like primitive beings from old legends, scarred and strong and unyielding.
Then I sawhim. The one who I knew I would answer to. The one who I knew would order my execution.
A horde king of Dakkar.
He sat on the back of his black beast, the only one not outside the walls of the village. It stamped its clawed talons into the earth, restless in the silence, billowing up dust, though its master remained as still as the mountains in the distance.
Towering over his horde warriors, towering overme, there was no denying the unbridled power that rolled off his body in waves.
His chest was bare, his skin golden from the sun. Lines, swirls, and words in a language I could not understand decorated his flesh in deep golden ink, shimmering in the early light. I traced the line of one, which started at his shoulder blade, ran down the length of his sculpted chest, and disappeared into the loose tanned hide he wore, which covered his genitals.
A long, dark tail jutted behind him. When the black-scaled creature turned slightly, I saw the base of it was decorated in three gold clasps, similar to the cuffs he wore around his wide wrists.
Then, I finally met the horde king’s eyes.
