“I’d rather not test it,” he said, his arm tightening around me.
People had to jump out of her way to keep from being trampled. Guards marched forward to corral her away from the nobles. Panic spread through my veins like ice water when I saw one guard race out of the room only to return with chains.
Shazeera, please,I begged.
“My Lord Emperor, you must remove this creature from the throne room!” Lord Heron shouted to be heard above the screams of the people, my frantic horse, and the occasional shrieks of the eagle.
Emperor Altair signaled his guards, and they came at her with chains.
“No!” I shouted, pulling free from Talon and jumping between Shazeera and the guards. There was no wind here in this open space, but I called for it anyway. It came, buffeting around Shazeera and me powerfully, a force strong enough to form a barrier around us. I turned to face Shazeera and threw my arms around her neck. Finally, she shuddered to a halt, trembling all over and breathing hard.
She was still too terrified to answer me, but I could sense her still—I hadn’t released anywhere near the power I did when I fought the Eagle Riders. Perhaps this was why our bond hadn’t been affected this time. In fact, the wind I had called hadn’t even chased away Shazeera’s fear. The only reason she had stopped was that her body was so exhausted she could barely stand.
A pregnant silence filled the room as nobles watched us with horrified expressions.
Lord Heron looked at us with naked disgust before quicklyclimbing the dais to the emperor. After a quick bow, he spoke to Emperor Altair in low tones.
Talon came close to my side. “I’ll do what I can for you,” he murmured, “but this is bad.”
“First Daughter Zara has broken the treaty by using the wind power against us,” Lord Heron announced.
“I didn’t use it against you! I was only trying to calm my horse. The eagle frightened her…and that creature—” I felt Talon subtly take hold of my wrist and squeeze what felt like a warning. That was when I realized that the shadow being had disappeared. If not for the way Shazeera had reacted, I would have thought I had hallucinated it in a fog of exhaustion and stress.
“Lord Emperor,” Talon said, “I have been on the receiving end of First Daughter’s power, as you know, and I can assure you this was nothing but a cool breeze in comparison. She meant no harm.”
The emperor was quiet for a moment, as though considering Talon’s words, but Lord Heron spoke to him again. I strained to hear, my hands curled into fists, but they were too far away. Altair looked like he didn’t know whom to listen to—he kept glancing from Talon to Lord Heron.
“First Daughter Zara should have restricted access to her horse until we can be sure we can trust her,” Lord Heron said. He glared at me from close to the emperor’s throne. “Your horse will only be safe if you keep that power under control.”
I swayed on my feet at his words. How had this gone so horribly so quickly? I had never wanted to turn back time so badly.
“Please,” I said, my hand tangled in Shazeera’s mane, “you have my word I’ll never use that power again.” Emperor Altair looked unmoved, so I cast my gaze around to anyone who would defend me. Only Talon appeared remotely sympathetic.
“Lord Emperor,” Talon said again, “the Children of Earth are bonded to their horses the same as we riders are to our eagles. It will hurt the future empress to be separated from her horse.”
Lord Heron stepped forward with a sneer. “Then she should have thought of that before she let it go wild in the throne room and threatened us with a strange power.”
After a moment, Emperor Altair gestured toward Shazeera. “Guards, take her to the upper pastures.”
Every muscle in my body burned with the desperate need to take Shazeera and flee, and I broke out in a cold sweat as I fought down the rising panic. “Then I’ll go with her. I’ll sleep outside. I’m sure it’ll be more comfortable.”
All around me, there were gasps and expressions of contempt. I caught the loudly whispered barbs that the nobles were too cowardly to say to my face.
So ungrateful.
Disgraceful.
Barbaric animal.
Emperor Altair looked like he’d rather just shrug and let me go on my way, but then Lord Heron spoke. “Your place is here, beside the emperor. It would be humiliating for our people for a future empress to sleep outside with the livestock.”
A fiery anger burned through me. “Shazeera is my bonded sister. That is deeply insulting.”
Lord Heron merely stared back at me with his cold eyes.
Another woman, dressed in a belted floor-length dress of dove gray, said loudly enough for us all to hear, “Well, there’s always the lower pasture.”
I didn’t need to be familiar with the palace to know that whatever the lower pasture meant wasn’t good, especially when Lord Heron smirked.
