“Well, if you won’t talk to me, then I will talk to her.” Marid faced Kartek. “They say you are powerful.”
Kartek wasn’t sure how to respond, so she did as Dakarai and stayed silent.
“Well, are you?”
Kartek leveled her a glare, but before she could consider a smart retort, she began to choke. She gasped as she reached up to find one of the serpents had wrapped the end of its tail around her neck.
“Stop!” Dakarai shouted. “I’ll tell you what you want, just stop!”
The scaly tail released her throat, and Kartek fell forward, wheezing.
“I thought that might end your silence.” Marid dusted her hands as though she’d dirtied them. “Then tell me, Dakarai, why her?”
“My answer is the same as it always was.”
“Your answer wasn’t satisfactory.”
“How much simpler can I make it?” Dakarai shouted. “Take one look at the monstrosities holding us captive, and you might get an inkling of an idea!”
Marid scoffed. “It was never about them.”
“You’re right. It wasn’t. It was about the change that came over you when you decided to pursue power that should never have been yours! It was about the way you tried to control others around you.” His green eyes flashed. “The way you tried to control me.”
“I did it for us!” Marid fell to her knees before him and reached out to touch his face.
For some reason, this small action angered Kartek more than she would have expected.
“Your father saw you as nothing!” Marid said, her voice suddenly a whisper. “They treated you as nothing, trading you for a child that wasn’t their own! They stole your birthright! I only ensured that Gahiji could no longer steal your glory or your rightful place!”
“What rightful place?” Kartek asked, her voice shaking more than it should.
Before Dakarai could answer, Marid had turned and slapped Kartek in the face before moving back to him. “I gave you the world, but you chose to come crawling here to her!”
“How could you think I wanted Gahiji dead?” Dakarai cried out. “I loved him!”
“He was holding you back! They all were!”
“You were holding me back!”
Marid flinched as though she had been the one slapped.
That was when Kartek saw the war for what it was. The bloodshed had never been about land or fealty or even Kartek’s priceless jewel or abilities. It had been about Dakarai all along.
Kartek studied him once again, desperately trying to find some feature that she could place. He had obviously seen her often enough before. If the enchantress was to be trusted, this was Gahiji’s cousin. But what did that have to do with a birthright or stolen glory?
Dakarai’s acidic words interrupted her thoughts. “Birthright or none, the day you chose to embrace the darkness, I told you that every piece of your power would come at a cost.” His green eyes were rimmed red. “That cost was me. And you knew it. And you still chose the darkness!”
Whether the monsters allowed him to or whether Marid was too distraught to control them, Kartek couldn’t tell, but he finally rose from his knees and looked down upon the young woman with a sneer. “You asked why I chose her?” He spat on the ground at her feet. “Because she is everything you are not. Where you break, she mends. Where you suppress, she lifts up.” He leaned forward. “You seek glory. She seeks to heal.”
Marid stood, too. “You stand there and judge me all you want,” she said with a shaking voice. “But we did the same thing, you know. I wanted you. You wanted her.” She lifted her chin higher. “We both went for the objects of our desires.”
“Not until you killed my family.” Dakarai shook his head. “Not until you forced my hand. And don’t pretend you weren’t planning to punish her all along.”
“I did what I did to give you the place you deserve in this world,” Marid said, lowering her eyes to the ground. Her voice was hardly above a whisper. “You were always the good one. You saw those who were beneath you, and you never stooped to pride or pomposity even though they had all betrayed you. But it seems I was mistaken. You are every bit as ungrateful as Gahiji ever was.” She finally brought her large brown eyes up to meet his, tears sticking to her long lashes. “I just have one more question. Why did you come to her? Here?” She gestured at the walls surrounding them, her movements growing frantic and quick. “You knew I would follow you. Why not go somewhere I couldn’t find you?”
“Because I knew that no matter what happened to me, you would be jealous. And you would go after her no matter where I was.” Then, for the first time since being dragged into the room, Dakarai met Kartek’s gaze. His eyes were large and pleading. “I only wanted to keep you safe,” he whispered. “I never meant for things to come to this.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Kartek saw Marid raise the dagger.
Time stood still as Kartek shut her eyes and waited for the final blow. But when she begged the Maker to make her death quick, she felt no pain. Instead, a cry went up and a body landed on her lap. Opening her eyes, she looked down to find Dakarai stretched across her legs.
Marid was staring at him open-mouthed with a look of horror, and only then did Kartek realize the blade that was meant for her was buried deep in Dakarai’s chest.
14
A Different Man
“No!” Kartek screamed. She bent over him. A familiar pain filled her with an intensity she hadn’t felt since losing her parents. Why it was there, she couldn’t say. Only the stabbing knowledge that she needed to save him. That without him, her heart would rip in two.
Whoever Dakarai was, he hadn’t come to hurt her. She could see that now as plain as the man on the ground before her. He had come out of a sense of duty. He had spoken the truth all along, swearing that he meant her no harm. Somehow, he had fallen in love with her long before that. And somehow, without even knowing it, she had begun to do the same with him along the way.
Kartek sobbed as she pulled out the knife and pressed her hands over his chest. But the blood continued to gush, and though she could feel her power flicker in and out of her fingers, she could not heal him. He tried to raise a shaking hand to her face, but she pushed his arm back down and touched her fingers to his mouth. “Don’t,” she whispered. “Save your strength!” Then she remembered that Marid had taken her jewel.
“Please!” she called up to the enchantress as she pressed his hands over his chest. “Let me heal him!”
But Marid didn’t seem to even hear her. She only stood there, motionless, Kartek’s jewel nowhere in sight. Kartek considered attacking Marid in her stupor, but then realized that powers such as Marid’s could have sent her jewel anywhere. Perhaps even have destroyed it.
Kartek turned back to the wound, praying desperately for the power her mother had spoken of. But the pink haze that floated above her hands as she worked only flickered a few more times before dissipating completely. “No!” She clenched her jaw and tried again. “No, you can’t die! Not now, not when I need you!”
No matter how hard she pleaded, though, his eyes started glazing over and the sad smile he’d been trying to summon began to melt away. The thin pale cheeks she had despised days before were now the most beautiful features she had ever seen. If only they would move. Even a twitch would have given her hope.
She turned back to Marid, who still seemed rooted to the spot. “I need my jewel!” Kartek screamed, keeping one hand on the bleeding wound and stretching the other out toward the girl. “Give me the jewel so I can save him!” She tried to catch the enchantress’s eye. “I beg you,” she whispered.
Still, Marid wouldn’t be moved.
Kartek pressed down on his chest even harder, trying to hold in the blood. But as his face began to lose what little color it had, rebellion streaked through her heart like lightning to dry brush. The enchantress had claimed to love Dakarai, but, it seemed, had killed Gahiji while trying to prove that love. Kartek had sworn to love him wh
en they’d been wed, but had shown him none of that love since.
It was too late for Marid to undo what she had done. But now, as Dakarai’s breaths grew more shallow, Kartek had one last chance to make it right.
“I’m sorry,” he rasped, running a shaking hand down the side of her face.
“Don’t be.” And leaning down, she touched her lips to his.
This kiss was nothing like their first had been. She could feel the life draining from him beneath her bloodied, aching fingers, but there was an earnestness, a simplicity in his mouth and the way his fingers gently gripped her face that changed something within her. She shuddered and fought the sudden desperate desire to laugh and weep and sing as eyes still closed, his hands explored her cheeks, her eyes, her jaw. His thumbs wiped away the tears she hadn’t realized were falling.
The heat from his mouth pierced her, an arrow to the heart, where it radiated out to the rest of her body like the rays of the midday sun, branching out until her entire being hummed with the sensation. She could feel her fingertips warm. Light the color of a desert sunset glowed beneath them. Gasping, she jumped back as his body began to shimmer.
His pale skin began to deepen until it had warmed to a golden brown. The body that had seemed emaciated and worn began to fill out. Though he was still lean, wiry muscles covered his arms and legs. A chain mail shirt of the finest metal and trousers of the richest red now adorned him in the clothing of only the finest warriors. Weapons of every kind decorated his chest, arms, and belt. But only when a deep breath filled his lungs and he opened his green eyes did Kartek recognize the man she held in her arms.
“Unsu!”
It all made sense. How he had seen her from afar, close enough to know her but overshadowed enough by Gahiji to be invisible. How many hours had she spent in his company and hardly noticed him? And yet he had seen everything about her, things she hadn’t even known about herself.
“You . . . you broke my spell,” Marid breathed. Then her voice rose to a shout. “You weren’t supposed to love him!” As her voice grew, Marid’s monsters seemed to come to life again, awaking from the frozen stupor they’d stood in as the enchantress had stared at his broken, spent body moments before.
Kartek hit the ground, but Dakarai—Unsu pulled two weapons from his sash and held them up to the monsters, crossing their blades in a challenge as though to taunt them. Then he raised his face to the ceiling and let out a powerful cry.
It was a song, Kartek realized. One that raised bumps on her arms and made her skin prickle. Even before the first notes ended, however, she could hear them coming. Cries of warriors echoed the song. They could be heard in the halls, outside of the palace, even on its rooftop, drawing nearer with each second.
The monsters swarmed down on him as one, but as they did, Kartek turned to see her own men and those of the tribes descend upon the throne room like bees.
Marid screamed directions at her creatures, but the louder she shouted, the more she seemed to be losing control. Kartek looked back and forth between Unsu where he fought, his lean, graceful body moving in and out and under and around the creatures as though he were dancing, and Marid, where she stood shrieking at her creatures.
Her men might have a chance. If there were enough to keep coming.
But even as she began to hope, the creatures began to grow again in size and strength. Men started to fall all around her, and Kartek felt hope die as she stood there without her jewel, helpless to heal and helpless to fight.
Kartek did not like being helpless.
Whirling around, she grabbed ahold of Marid’s dagger. Marid didn’t let go, however, and Kartek found herself fighting for her own life as they struggled.
“You think you deserve him!” Marid spoke through her teeth. “You hardly knew he existed!”
“You’re right.” Kartek dug her heels into the slick stone floor. “A mistake I intend to remedy!” As she spoke, though, her right foot hit a slick spot on the tile and she tumbled backward.
Marid fell on top of her, this time pointing the dagger down at Kartek’s chest. “I don’t know how you found a way around the curse, but I am stronger than you!”
“You think you own him? Like a dog?”
“I know what’s best for him!”
A sharp pain hit her hands, and Kartek realized her grip had slipped and she was now clutching the blade. Where her fingers should have run red with blood, however, a soft pink glow surrounded them. Almost immediately, she felt her skin harden where the blade should have cut through.
For the first time, Marid began to look worried. She pressed harder, but that only fueled Kartek’s determination. This woman had killed Gahiji, murdered hundreds of warriors, cursed Unsu, and now she had dared to enter Hedjet’s sacred court as though she had any right to the throne or its people.
“Hedjet is my kingdom,” Kartek said, her muscles filling with a new kind of strength. She began to press the knife backward. “That is my throne.” The swirling pink grew even brighter so that it reflected in Marid’s bulging eyes. “This is my power.”
A movement to her left caught Kartek’s eye. She leaned forward and dared to smile. “And that is my husband.”
As Kartek spoke, Marid turned just in time to see the arrow. The enchantress’s mouth fell open, but she made no sound as her grip slackened and she slumped away from Kartek and onto the floor, taking her knife with her.
A victory cry went up all around, but Kartek let herself fall back onto the floor, panting. She didn’t have long to rest, though, for in a moment she’d been swept up into a pair of sturdy arms.
“Are you well?” he breathed into her hair. “Did she hurt you?”
She leaned her head on his shoulder. “I should hope I’m a bit harder to kill than that.” She paused, then dared to meet his eyes, and suddenly, she felt incredibly shy. “So . . . Unsu.”
He met her gaze unhappily. “Dakarai is my second name.” He paused. “It was the only one I was allowed to keep after my parents switched me with my cousin. I’m sorry for the deception.”
“No more apologies.” Kartek looked around at the battleground that had been her throne room. The creatures had all disappeared, but there was far too much carnage and too many injuries to give way to the rush of feelings that were trying to flood her mind and heart. “Let us get this mess cleaned up. Then I think I am entitled to supper and a very long explanation.”
She could feel him tense up beneath her. “Of course.” He cleared his throat and set her on her feet, stepping back and putting his hands behind his back. He dropped his gaze to the floor. “Where do you wish for me to meet you?”
She reached up and gently took his face in her hands. “In our room.”
He held her gaze for a long moment before the fear began to melt from his face and a small smile broke through. “Then I will be there.”
15
What If
Kartek wanted to return to her chambers and collapse on her sleeping mat and stay there for the rest of her days. Or at least a week. Though the daylight was only now beginning to wane, painting the desert in brilliant hues of pink, orange, and gold, she felt as though the day had lasted a lifetime. Instead of venturing inside the room and collapsing, however, she satisfied herself with leaning against the outer doorpost of her chambers and allowing her eyes to close. She reached up and fingered her jewel, glad to once again have its weight on her neck.
After this was over, she was really going to need to find a sturdier chain.
“Jahira,” Oni said, touching her shoulder. “You need to rest.”
“I will sleep soon enough.” Kartek took a deep breath and sat a little straighter. “Where is Alder Cantara?”
“I can fetch her. You just sit for a moment, please.”
Kartek nodded her assent and resettled herself more comfortably against her door, Ebo watching closely as she did. For once, his critical gaze was more than welcome. She had feared the worst after he’d been dragged away by the crea
ture, but aside from the first bite, which she’d quickly healed, he had only suffered a few minor cuts and bruises. She closed her eyes and quickly thanked the Maker for his survival once again. After losing Ahmos, she wasn’t sure how much more death she could take.
She briefly considered going inside her rooms again and waiting there. Despite her exhaustion, however, she was reluctant to do so. For going anywhere would require standing up, something she was not keen on doing for the next decade or so. To make matters worse, her stomach squirmed in odd ways whenever she thought of her final meeting of the day. The one where she would truly meet her husband for the first time.
“Jahira.”
Kartek looked up to find Alder Cantara bowing. She began to stand, but the older woman simply seated herself beside her. “Please forgive my liberty of speech, Jahira,” she said, “but you have done more than the work of three today.”
Kartek glanced at the familiar medallion the new head alder wore on her chest, and another wave of sadness squeezed her chest. She cleared her throat and tried to speak through it. “Has any word come from Commander Fadil?”
The motherly smile disappeared from Cantara’s lined face. “I’m afraid that while some of the warriors survived, he did not.”
Kartek began to stand. “I should go to them—”
But Cantara gently took her by the arm and pulled her back down.
And Kartek let her. Unlike Alder Bennu, who always acted as though she should be jahira instead of Kartek, Cantara’s words and actions always felt much more like those Kartek’s mother might have spoken or made.
“You cannot be in two places at once, Jahira,” she said gently. “Nuri has already gone with several caravans of supplies and local physicians to where the surviving men are waiting.” She nodded at the window. “You have worked hard today, but those injured here are great in number and will also need you tomorrow. Besides,” she gave Kartek a knowing look, “I believe you have an important meeting of another sort tonight.”
The Green-Eyed Prince: A Retelling of The Frog Prince (The Classical Kingdoms Collection Novellas Book 1) Page 11