“I have a more pressing assignment for you,” Altair said, leaning forward and resting his hands on his desk. “I want you to guard the future empress.”
I was afraid he’d ask this of me. Despite what we’d gone through together during our childhood with his father always comparing the two of us, Altair took comfort in having me around. I was familiar, I suppose. A remnant of a time when Altair hadn’t been emperor. “Guard her from…?”
“It’s more that I want you to keep an eye on her. After she so readily called that wind power in the middle of my throne room, I’m not sure she can be trusted.”
“She wanted to gain control of her horse.”
“Yes, well, now we will use her horse to controlher.You will need to report any future instances of her using that power. I can’t have her using it against us here.”
“I don’t think she will—they seemed ready to give anything for peace,” I said. “This concern doesn’t seem like one of your own. Itseems like something Lord Heron would worry about.” I glanced around the room to be sure he wasn’t slinking around in the dark corners somewhere. “Where is he anyway?”
“Last I saw him, he was leading Zara to her rooms,” he said dismissively.
“What?” I said sharply. “How am I supposed to guard her if you let that snake be alone with her?”
“He was my father’s most loyal adviser.”
I didn’t respond to that since there were too many problems with trusting that man, namely, that he always put his own interests first, and they very rarely benefited the rest of the empire.
“You should also know that the Children of Earth informed me that there are more with the power to control the wind, and if anything should happen to the First Daughter in violation of the treaty, they will retaliate against us.”
He looked taken aback by that, but he didn’t question it further, thankfully. “Lord Heron merely escorted her to her room.”
I wanted to immediately go to her, but Altair was in a talkative mood. Better to question him about Ozul while I could.
“And what does he think of that creature you’ve allied with? Do you even need its help now that the war is over?”
“Lord Heron thinks the same as I do. Ozul is key to helping me expand this empire beyond our continent.”
I stared at him as his words slowly penetrated. Expanding the empire meant more fighting, more war. Just when I thought it was all over. “Forgive me, Majesty, but haven’t you said before that our resources would soon be depleted by the war with the Children of Earth? Wouldn’t continued expansion drain them further?”
He looked disgusted with me for asking. “Ozul has promised to lend me his power to conquer other lands.”
“Then Ozul must be incredibly strong if it can make up for a lack of resources for an entire army,” I said with a pointed look. “I think it’s time you told me how you even came across such a sorcerer. Neo and I were away fighting this endless war, and when we returned, you had already allied yourself with Ozul.”
He looked introspective for a moment before finally responding. “I’d heard whispers of a powerful sorcerer deep within the mountains, so I sent men to see if the rumors held any merit. They saw signs—scrying bowls and animal bones—so I went myself and persuaded him to ally with us. Ozul agreed.”
I doubted it was that easy. I knew Altair hid the full truth from me. “Yes, buthowdid you persuade it?”
“I can be persuasive when I want to be,” Altair answered flippantly, and I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Whatever the price of an alliance, it’s too high,” I said, worried for not only my cousin’s soul, but for everyone here. We could all be in danger.
Every instinct in my body said we should throw that thing out of the palace and back into whatever dark depths it crawled from.
“We both know that thing is known by a different name,” I said, wondering if I pushed Altair hard enough, would he admit what he was still keeping from me?
Altair just glared at me, but I stared calmly back. It could call itself whatever it wanted, but I knew it for what it was. The Devourer. It was why we lived in the mountains but never ventured too far into their depths; why we stayed safe in the skies and never below. It was a creature from the Old World, one that hadseemed to follow us here. As far as I knew from the stories passed down, there was no other like it in the world.
“He has only ever said to call him Ozul,” Altair said.
“And where does Ozul stay when it’s not terrifying horses in the throne room?”
Altair’s gaze shifted to his father’s portrait for just a moment. “The west wing.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Your father’s chambers?” I didn’t like the sound of that—this creature holed up in the former emperor’s rooms.
Altair seemed to retreat into himself, and I knew I didn’t have much longer before he refused to speak about this at all.
