Behind him, dozens of Kaldfolk followed. Most of them splattered with blood.
No!Everything inside me rebelled at the reality that was unfolding before me, and I bucked wildly against the Kald, trying to throw myself out of the saddle.
He clicked his tongue in annoyance, arm tightening around my waist, and used his other hand to yank on the chain attached to the shackles I hadn’t even realized bound my wrists. They clanked loudly as he forced me down in my seat. His hot breath seared the side of my neck. “You get one warning. You really want to use it up now?”
Bile burned my throat, but I stilled. “Where—where are we?”
“Don’t worry about that.”
White light shone up ahead. The exit. I drew a deep breath to dredge up whatever courage I might have and peered around the Kald again. Behind the militia of Kaldfolk was the entrance to the tunnel, and I could just make out the domed roof of Khada Palace.
“What did I just say?” the Kald growled.
“Sorry,” I whispered, and turned back around. I’d never been out of Khada Palace, not since I was a child, but I’d gazed at these mountains enough times to know exactly where I was.
The Frozen Sands.
Somehow, inexplicably, we wereinthe mountains. The mountains King Zaid had pushed the Kaldfolk behind seventeen years ago, the mountains that were meant to be impassable without alerting the Ashoran scouts.
This was how they’d done it. They’d dug a tunnel straight through the base of them. Then they swam down the Lotus River and right into the castle. Tore their way through anyone who got in their path until they found the Gods-Chosen.
Except that wasn’t who I was. And if they discovered that… I remembered the sound of guards choking as their throats were torn out, and nearly wet myself again.
We neared the tunnel’s exit, and thick, dark clouds over sharp peaks came into view.
Kaldfold.
Holy gods.
“Rules are pretty simple here, Majesty,” the Kald said, his arms a cage around me as he held the reins. “Do as I say, and we’ll all be friends.”
“Wh-what do you want with me?”
“You sure you want me to answer that?”
My mind raced with thousands of tortures they could be planning. Mutilation, drowning, stoning. I remembered a story Nadia told me once, of when King Zaid marched into Kaldfold. Wide-eyed, rabid monsters, stuck between human and bear, feasting on their own kin, both carnally and physically. King Zaid rode through the mindless rutting in the streets, the cold-blooded violence, the hunger for human flesh.
Was that what they had planned for me? Would I—
“Relax,” the Kald drawled. “Your fear smells like shit, and we’ve still got three days’ travel ahead of us.”
“Then maybe you should tell her,” snapped a female Kald who pulled up alongside us.
“A little suspense will keep us all entertained.” I could hear the grin in his voice.
The Kaldfolk behind him chuckled, even as the woman sighed.
When we emerged from the tunnel and I chanced a look back at the Frozen Sands, my stomach dropped. The mountains were enormous summits of ivory sand, as hard as ice, with none of the give of snow. They would take days, if not weeks, to trek. A straight path right through their center was not only less visible, but so much faster.
The Kaldfolk could have been crossing this bridge into our land for years, using it to pick off Ashorans or steal from the Lotus River. They had been right under our noses all this time, watching us. Just the thought made my skin crawl.
I glanced down at my legs hanging on either side of the horse. They hadn’t been bound. If I could get free from this Kald, I could run back to—
“Try it and see what happens,” he said like he could read my mind, a touch of excitement in his voice. Hoping I would run, perhaps. Just so he could chase.
My blood ran cold, and I shuddered hard enough to rattle my shackles.
“Enough, Keir,” that female Kald said.
