Emperor’s Throne: Desert Cursed Series, Book 6

by Mayer, Shannon

  I shrugged. “Possible. But this is a blindside that Ishtar would never see coming. That Ollianna would never see coming. We use the Emperor, and he thinks he’s using us, using me.”

  Maks rolled his head back so he was looking up into the bright blue sky. “The memories I have say it is possible that you could be right. It’s a bold move, a risky move. We still don’t know if the flail will kill him. Which will make it awfully hard to have a partner.”

  I reached back and touched the handle of the flail. “The flail is more than a weapon now.” It shivered in my hand and down the length of my back in response. “The weapon holds an aspect of Marsum in it.”

  What are you trying to do?

  “I’m suggesting that Marsum, whatever is left of him in this weapon, might try to hold the Emperor off long enough that he would rid himself of a weapon that is useless, then . . .”

  I can try, but I cannot control it.

  I’d take that chance.

  Lila chuckled. “Then you would pick it up again?”

  I pointed a finger at her. “Bingo.”

  Maks rubbed his hands over his face. “I don’t know. I feel like we’re missing something.”

  “It’s not a guarantee,” I let go of the handle, “but . . . it’s a chance. And maybe that’s all we’ve got now.”

  He sighed. “Okay, so what’s the plan to get there?”

  I smiled. “We have Lila to carry us the rest of the way. That will speed things up.”

  “And once we’re there?” Maks asked.

  “Once we’re there, I’ll go in and give the Emperor the flail.” This was where I knew they would argue.

  “By yourself.” The flat tone of Maks’s voice said it all. I grimaced.

  “That’s the plan.”

  “No.” Lila and Maks spoke at the same time. Much as I’d expected. I held up my hands, palms out in mock surrender. Totally mock surrender.

  “Here’s the deal. We have four stones, four stones and one of them has the power of destruction in it,” I said softly. “We can’t let him get his hands on any of them. The flail, as strong as it is, isn’t the only power we are dealing with. What about the other two missing stones? We have to find those. We have to.”

  Lila groaned. “I see a long flight in our future.”

  I grinned at her. “But it will be to somewhere new. Somewhere beyond the wall.”

  Her eyes opened a little wider and her wings perked up. “True. Do you think the humans on the other side have ever seen a dragon?”

  “Not one like you,” I said with a grin, knowing her little ego would love blowing human minds.

  We spent the day planning how this would go. The hardest part was realizing that we had to leave the two horses behind. We needed to be able to fly fast to the Emperor, and fast away, and then to the deep jungle where horses would not be the best mode of transportation.

  Maks and I rode atop Lila as she scooped the horses up and carried them off to the edge of the desert, closer to food and water. The grass was more plentiful; I had no doubt that Balder would find a water source in no time. But that didn’t make it any easier to even think about leaving them behind.

  Because there was something else I needed to leave besides the horses. Something that everyone wanted but me.

  “I don’t want to leave them behind.” I turned my head so I could speak quietly to Maks over the rush of wind around us.

  “I know. But you’re right, the jungle is not the place for them. Remember the witches’ Swamp? We were lucky, and that wasn’t near as thick as what we’re headed into.” Maks kissed the side of my neck, a press of his lips that felt as though he were trying to impress on me his words.

  It had been my idea to leave the horses behind. There were all sorts of reasons to do it, mostly to keep them safe. Yet my heart . . . ah, my heart didn’t want to leave Balder behind.

  The time went by too quickly, and suddenly we were there at the edge of the desert where I thought the two boys would have the best chance of finding food, water, and some form of shelter.

  I found myself slowing as I stripped off Balder’s tack, taking my time. Because what if I couldn’t find him again? Here at the edge of the desert, he would find his way back toward the steppes of the mountains where he was born. I was sure of it. But a herdsman of the mountains or a trader would scoop him up in an instant. He was the best of the best, after all.

  Free of any gear, he stood there and looked at me with those big dark eyes, questioning me. His coat was glossy and for the first time I noticed how much he was graying, his coat getting lighter as he aged. Wouldn’t be long and he’d no longer be my gray gelding, but my white one. He wasn’t the young horse I’d found and fought for all those years ago, the young horse that had tested my every training technique until finally he’d decided I was acceptable as a rider.

  And this would be the first time I’d willingly left him behind on any of my journeys.

  “I know,” I whispered as I stroked his neck and up between his ears. “But you can’t come with us on this part. You just can’t.” He shook his head and pushed his nose against my belly. I wrapped my arms around his head and held him tightly. “Take care of Batman, and after we’re done with all this . . . Maks or I will find you. I promise. And I need you to watch out for that spot I stashed . . .” I whispered the words to him. “Keep it safe if you can.”

  He pulled his head back and then shoved me hard in the belly. “Okay, okay.” I reached for his muzzle and lifted his nose up for a kiss on the end of it. “I’ll come find you. I promise.”

  That seemed to satisfy him, but he didn’t leave, neither he nor Batman left, not even when Maks and I scrambled up on Lila’s back and she lifted into the air.

  Our gear was stashed between some rocks, and we’d left food and water for the horses. Enough for a day or two.

  I looked back as we flew away to see Balder racing down the short slope and bolting after us, Batman close on his heels. Following us.

  “Maks.”

  He turned to look at where I pointed and Lila slowed and did a quick turn. “Lila,” Maks said softly. “Chase them back.”

  “Crap,” she muttered even as she tucked her wings and dove toward the two horses. I expected them to run. I expected Balder to be smart.

  He rose up on his hind legs and whinnied, as if he’d fight Lila for me.

  She swept close enough that her wings brushed over top of him, but he didn’t back down. He whinnied again, shook his head and struck the ground with his front legs, one after the other.

  “What do we do?” Lila said.

  With any other horse, you’d leave them behind, and they’d be glad for the break, but not Balder. Not my boy.

  “Land,” I said. “I have to make him go.”

  Lila dropped to the ground and I slid off. Balder trotted up to me, his ears pinned to his head, as pissed as I’d ever seen him. “Balder. That’s enough!” I clapped my hands together and his ears popped forward. “I can’t do this if you don’t listen to me! You need to go, you need to hide and I will come for you, I promise. But I can’t go if I know you’re putting yourself in danger!”

  Gods, you’d think I was a fool for talking to him like he understood clearly.

  But with Balder, he’d always been different. He’d always been special. He looked from me to Maks, and then to Lila and shook his head. I reached for him and brushed a hand down the middle of his face. “I promise, Balder. I’m not leaving you forever, just for a little while. And I asked you . . . you have to keep it safe. You have to.”

  He shook his head vigorously, then let out a long, low blow of air, like a big sigh. A soft nicker and then he turned and trotted back the way he’d come, gathering up Batman as he went. There was a moment that he looked over his shoulder at me, and his eyes were as full of thoughts and emotions as any person’s.

  You’d better not be lying or I’ll kick your ass. That was the impression I got and it made me laugh.

 
“All right all right! But we’ll be back. I promise.”

  As soon as we’d finished this mess. Which meant Balder and Batman would be safe from Ollianna, the Emperor, and Ishtar.

  I climbed back up on Lila and Maks pulled me the rest of the way up. “He’s loyal to you. You can’t fault him that.”

  I nodded, my throat tight with the knowledge that I would probably never see my horse again. He was the best boy, and I had to leave him behind.

  As we flew away the second time, the horses didn’t follow us. Balder looked back a few times. I know because I did the same, but we kept moving in opposite directions.

  Lila flew in the direction I pointed as the flail tingled along my spine. Without it, I wasn’t sure how long it would have taken us to find the Emperor’s Throne.

  “You know,” Lila said as we banked through a big bunch of clouds full of moisture that caught in our hair and on our skin, “Ollianna has been quiet. You think she’s given up on chasing us down?”

  “Don’t say that out loud,” Maks said. “She might be listening.”

  “Or fate might be listening,” I said.

  “You mean Murphy’s Law?” Lila offered. “If something can go wrong, it will, and with great fanfare?”

  I shook my head. “Let’s hope not.”

  Around us the sky darkened, just a fraction of a degree, and the wind blowing into our faces picked up. Again, just a fraction, but we all felt it. And it was not natural.

  “Lila,” I said softly, “where did Trick go exactly?”

  She turned her head to look at me. “He was talking to another dragon, a female that said she loved him. He told her he loved her too. That he would be with her as soon as he’d dealt with us.”

  Not the kind of language one used if he actually gave a shit about Lila. Or any of us. “You think he saw you?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “Then I think when he shows up, we wait for him to show his true colors, and then we deal with him,” I said.

  A shiver rolled through her along with a wave of pain that came through the bond between us. Both Maks and I lowered a hand to her scaled side. “We’re here, Lila. You aren’t going to do this alone,” he said.

  “I know.” She shook her head. “I just wish I didn’t have to do it at all.”

  The whoosh of a body above us made me duck, and Maks grabbed me around the waist. Trick’s silver and white body flew through the air. He flipped over in a barrel roll and grinned at us, as if nothing was wrong. “Just wish you didn’t have to do what?”

  20

  I waved a hand at Trick as he and Lila flew side by side, furious that he’d hurt her, hating that he’d lied to us all. The thing was, we couldn’t let on that we knew he’d been a turncoat this whole time. “We have to go to the Emperor,” I said. “I hate that we have to do it, but we have no choice.”

  His jaw dropped open and I braced myself for a blast of lightning, but he just spluttered. “But you can’t go to him. If you go to him, he’ll kill you. He’ll kill all of you.”

  I noticed that he did not say “us.” Maks’s arm tightened around my middle, no doubt picking up on the same thing.

  Whatever game Trick was playing, it wasn’t with us. He’d never truly been with us.

  I just wished I knew whose side he was on. Much as I wanted to say it was Ollianna’s, I didn’t think that was the case, not at all. If he’d belonged to Ollianna, he would have dropped on us in the sky, raining lightning down from a distance.

  “You don’t have to come with us,” Lila said, and the strain in her voice was obvious, at least to me. “I don’t expect you to put yourself in any more danger than you already have. Whatever debt you think you owe us for saving your life is gone.”

  I watched his face closely, saw the quick frown there and gone in a flash. Lila was looking straight ahead, flying in the direction I gave her. I pressed against her side with my right leg and she drifted away from it. I pushed down on her back with my hand and she dropped through the clouds, listening to my silent cues. Which meant he couldn’t see me directing her.

  Maks kept his arm tightly around me, worry coming through loud and clear in the bonds that drew us together. There was no doubt in my mind we were playing a dangerous game with Trick.

  “Trick,” I called up to him, “how are the dragons faring without Corvalis? Did Ollianna catch any more of them?”

  He flew down to our side, his wingtips brushing Lila’s. She moved away from him without any direction on my part. He didn’t seem to notice. “They haven’t all been taken, but I think a few have gone missing. Without Corvalis or the gemstone to strengthen him, we are vulnerable to her commands.”

  “He is a monster,” Lila said, “or have you forgotten that so soon?”

  Trick gave a low growl. “He is our king, Lila. Your father.”

  “Two things I wish weren’t true,” she said.

  Trick coasted along, but didn’t say anything. What I caught was the slightest glance upward, the slightest flicker of his eyes. It was enough for me.

  I pressed hard against Lila’s back and she dropped, spiralling away from Trick. Maks gripped me hard and I dared a single look up, and part of me wished I hadn’t.

  High above us was the massive form of a black dragon I knew all too well. “Lila! Go hard, hard as you can!”

  She flattened out, the land between us very different than even just a few hours before. The smell of salt water rushed up my nose. The flail warmed and shivered at the same time along my spine and I directed Lila toward the ocean.

  Behind us came a massive roar followed by multiple bolts of lightning that Lila twisted and dodged as if she could feel them coming. Maks slipped, his hold loosening.

  And then he was gone. I twisted, saw how close we were to the water—and the ravaged chunk of ground that housed an entrance to the Emperor’s prison. I knew we could swim to it and I let go of my ride. “Lila, we’re good, go, go!”

  Go where I didn’t know.

  I shifted to four legs as I fell, landing in the water of the ocean. The ocean swallowed me whole as I sunk down and then fought to get to the surface. I clawed my way up, broke the surface and drew in a deep breath. The waves weren’t strong and I could see over them to the caracal that swam through the water with me.

  Side by side, we paddled hard for the shore that beckoned to us—a blasted island that was broken and torn as if it had been burned and shattered against rocks. I looked above our heads to see Lila dodging Trick and sending her own blasts his way, that sparkling acid that was so deadly.

  Above them, Corvalis waited.

  He waited for her to be hurt, to be killed by Trick.

  “Maks, we have to hurry!” I swam harder, putting all my efforts into getting to the shore. I didn’t have time to think about just what we were doing, how this was going to work, how exactly we were going to help Lila.

  Unless she was with us.

  Inside the Emperor’s Throne.

  “Lila, to me!” I yelled. “Small!”

  I reached the shore next to Maks and bolted across the little bit of sand and strewn rocks, heading straight up the inclining hill, feeling a pull on my feet that I didn’t understand, but went with. The slope was unnatural as though it had been placed there by someone, stacked up to make a sloppy pyramid. The sound of wings, the bellow of an enraged dragon, a bolt of lightning crashed down beside us throwing up stones and dirt, but I didn’t slow, we couldn’t. A split second later, Lila flew beside me and Maks, small once more.

  “You hurt?” I gasped out as I bounded from one rock to another.

  “Just pissed,” she growled. “What’s the plan?”

  “All three of us are going in,” I said. Which hadn’t been the plan, but there was no way the two dragons could get in, not if the flail was truly the only weapon that could break the Emperor’s prison.

  At the top of the slope was a doorway, only it was a doorway into the ground. I didn’t hesitate, but shifted to t
wo feet between strides, feeling the pull of the flail on my back, stronger now that we were so close to the Emperor.

  I reached down and grabbed the iron ring attached to the trapdoor. With a hard yank, I had it open, motioned for Lila and Maks to go, turned and one-finger saluted Trick and Corvalis, and dropped through the trapdoor.

  The last thing I heard was the slam of lightning on the door itself, but it didn’t give. I was not surprised about that. I mean, I’d been hoping that would be the case, but still, my plans didn’t always go as I thought they should.

  I landed in a crouch in the pitch black. Maks held up a hand, lit with a deep orange glow as he held a flame of magic in his palm. I looked around to see a torch set in the wall. “Use that maybe.”

  The lightning battered the trapdoor above and then came a heavier thud along with the deep metal screeching of claws on the trapdoor. “We’ve got to get deeper.”

  Lila flew up to land on my shoulder, her tail wrapping around my neck and her fingers digging into the edge of my ear. “I hate both of them.”

  “Yeah, I’m not real fond of them, either,” I said. I took down the torch from the wall and Maks lit it. The torch threw far more light than it should have, giving us a very good view of the room ahead of us. The space stretched out long and narrow without any adornments on either side. A perfect place for an ambush. I looked around and saw a few rocks on the floor. I scooped two of them up, handed off the torch to Maks and tossed the first rock down the long hallway.

  There was a shush of something opening, just the slightest of sounds, and then a whole bunch of arrows flew out of the left side, slamming into the right side of the wall.

  I looked at Maks. “Reminds me of Dragon’s Ground.”

  “Me too,” he grumbled.

  “We survived that,” I reminded him.

  Lila shook her head. “And ended up with the entirety of Corvalis’s battle dragons chasing you.”

  She made a good point.

  I threw the second rock, bouncing it off one wall so it ricocheted several times.