She’s not afraid of me, I realized, watching her carefully as she roused. I’d pushed her too hard this night and her exhaustion was evident.
“What happened?” she whispered, her voice soft and slow and languid.
“You dropped the barrier,” I told her, though I didn’t know how. I’d felt the strength of it. Strength no one should be able to endure. “But then you passed out from the force of it.”
Her eyes closed. She swallowed. For a moment, I thought she’d dropped back into sleep. And I thought that I should leave. Before I was tempted to stay with her all night.
“Did you feel it?” she asked.
I knew what she spoke of.
“Lysi,” I said, seeing no point in lying to her.
“Did it frighten you too?”
My heart twisted at the question and I frowned, rubbing the spot on my chest where it lay.
When I didn’t answer her immediately, a breathy sigh left her lips. “I suppose a horde king doesn’t feel fear.”
In the basin, the fire flickered.
“I feel fear every day,” I told her, my voice gruff. She blinked up at me, her legs shifting underneath the furs. “Fear for my horde. Just because I am aVorakkardoes not make me immune to it. It just means I need to handle it differently than others.”
“And show them that you have none,” she guessed softly. After a long moment, I inclined my head. “You care for your horde.”
“The horde comes first. Everything I do is in service to them,” I said, willing her to understand.
She swallowed. “Why?”
I exhaled a sharp breath, thinking back toDothik. Thinking back to when I began selections for my horde, shortly after the Trials. Thinking back to that first year on the wild lands.
“Because they had faith in me when I did not have faith in myself,” I rasped. The words surprised me. Words I had never voiced to a single soul. I was not allowed to be weak. I was not allowed to have doubts. My father had ingrained that in me since I was old enough to wield the sword he’d made me. “I work to repay them.”
Mina’s green eyes seemed otherworldly as they regarded me. She was still tired. I could see that as plainly as I could see she was surprised by my admission.
“Why are you telling me this?” she whispered.
Intelligent creature, I thought, pleased.
“Because soon, they will be your horde too,” I murmured, our eyes locked together. “And you need to be strong for them. And if you are strong for them, you will have their loyalties forever.Kor anir ji vorak. The way of the horde,” I translated.
Mina heard something in my voice that made her struggle to sit up. She swayed a bit, even half lying down, and she pressed two of her fingertips to her temple.
“Why would I need their loyalties? I am a prisoner here.Yourprisoner,” she whispered.
“Nik. I didn’t bring you here to be my prisoner,sarkia,” I said. Once, I had spat that word out like a curse. Now, it softened on my tongue, as gentle as a caress.
She went quiet but her eyes burned into me.
“That word,” she whispered, though I had the impression she was speaking to herself. Her eyes widened. Her spine straightened. “Thatword.”
“Sarkia?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. Her eyes lifted, stricken. “Morakkari.”
Ah.
“I remember now,” she said, her eyes flitting back and forth with panic. “Why it was familiar. But tell me I’mwrong. Tell me you don’t mean it. That youcan’tmean it.”
