“We haven’t formally met. I am Lord Heron,” he said with a stiff bow, “one of the emperor’s oldest advisers.”
His expression was deliberately even, so it was hard to tell what his intentions were, but I doubted he was trying to make friends. “Pleased to meet you, and I’m sure you already know my name, but allow me to introduce my bonded sister, Shazeera,” I said, and she bobbed her head at Lord Heron.
He looked at us both how you might regard manure on the bottom of your shoe. “I’ll refrain from introducing myself to a horse.”
“Then I have no use for you,” I said, turning away from him dismissively, while a red rage flushed my cheeks. “I don’t know how you became adviser to the emperor since you obviously know nothing.”
“I know that somehow the riders have convinced the emperor that you have an undefeatable power,” he said in a low voice. “But no one is invincible.”
I turned back toward him. He didn’t have a sneer on his face, and his tone was even, but I knew a threat when I heard one. Even though the hair on the back of my neck stood on end, I couldn’t let him see my true reaction.
“Are you sure of that, Lord Heron?” I asked with a careful smile.
His expression darkened like a cloud suddenly blocking the face of the sun. “Our emperor is known to be eccentric, but even so, none of us will accept this.” He leaned closer and lowered his voice so that he could fully unleash the venom of his tone. “We won’t accept a filthy-blooded horse girl to be our empress.”
Shazeera let out an affronted whinny, ears pinned back against her head.How dare he speak to you that way!
I smirked at Lord Heron, taking advantage of the fact that my face could make the normal range of expressions. “I don’t needyour or anyone else’s approval. I signed the treaty to save my people, and no pathetic attempt at intimidation can dissuade me from that goal.”
Did he think I wanted to be here in this cold place? To chain myself to the emperor in marriage? Energy crackled over my skin as anger took hold.
Lord Heron opened his mouth to say something else equally provoking, but suddenly, Commander Talon stood beside him. There was a tightness around his jaw that made me wonder if he’d heard what Lord Heron had said. I hadn’t even seen him return to the throne room.
Lord Heron’s eyes widened just enough that I thought he might be wondering the same. “Commander Talon,” he said with a little bow of his head.
“Be careful, Lord Heron,” Commander Talon said. “Like it or not, First Daughter Zara will be your empress…with the power to strip anyone of their noble title, no matter how old their family line.”
This got his attention. I was rewarded by seeing his face pale at Commander Talon’s threat.
“May the wind carry you far, Future Empress Zara,” he said with a bow before moving stiffly away to the other side of the throne room.
Commander Talon turned back to me. “The nobles may attempt to intimidate you with their words, but as you can see, they are easily reminded of their place.”
“I can stand up for myself, but I haven’t forgotten I’m an outsider here. It will be hard for them, I think,” I said as I put my hand on Shazeera’s neck.
But Shazeera was no longer listening. I could tell by the way her ears were pricked toward a far corner of the room that her attention had been captured elsewhere.
“What is it?” I asked.
I sense something strange,she said.
As if it felt us looking, something shifted just behind the thrones. Though I couldn’t make out the details, what I saw was enough to freeze me in place. A shadowy figure lurked, half man and half beast. A malevolent miasma surrounded him, like smoke wafting from a fire.
Shazeera, whose senses were much stronger than mine, snorted violently and half reared.What is that thing?
Through our connection, I saw the creature through Shazeera’s eyes. The humanlike form it had taken was nothing like its true self. It radiated darkness and wasn’t just standinginthe shadows butwasthe shadows. It peered back at us with hungry red eyes.
Shazeera let out a scream that caused the eagle on the dais to raise his wings and shriek in answer. Powerful talons scraped across the marble, the sound so loud and piercing it made me cover my ears. Something snapped in that moment in Shazeera’s mind. The fact that a giant eagle, mere feet from her, had made such a threatening noise, along with whatever demonic creature cloaked itself in shadow, was too much. She reared and plunged, tossing her head as she pranced. Everything in her demanded that she run. Fear had pushed her over the edge, and now her natural instincts were taking over.
Her mind was nothing but a red wall of terror.
Shazeera, you have to get control of yourself!
And though I tried many times to calm her, she ignored my pleas. I reached out for her, my hand brushing her neck futilely as she reared.
I was jerked back, away from her flinty hooves, and Commander Talon pulled me into his body.
“She won’t hurt me,” I told him, trying to pull away and go to her, but he held me fast.
