by Willa Hart
“Oh yeah,” says the guard on my left, the one with two rotted teeth and the vision of killing Dreg children in his mind. “Her soft flesh will burst beneath the sting of the lash.”
I’ve little fear over the sting of the lash. No, my fear is about my Curse being found out, that would end in me being Slayed, and then Huali being Slayed as well. For in my death, they will discover that I do have the Curse, which means that any Dreg genetically linked to me must be killed as well in case they or their offspring also have it.
Now, I’m trapped in the Palace and I’m quite unsure if Prince Leo Roya is playing with me or trying to help me.
Help you, I hear him in my mind.
I shut the wooden door, closing Leo from my thoughts. One of the few tricks I actually know, because there isn’t much training for Dregs in Ninaku with regards to Mindslaying or how to contain The Curse so as not to be found out, killed, or kill someone else with the power. I press against the mind of the guard on my right.
“You hear that buzzing noise?” he asks, shaking his head.
“You gone daft?” asks the one with the rotten teeth.
“No, really.” He stops, and we both stop with him. He presses his hand to his ear and opens and closes his mouth. “It’s getting louder,” he says.
“I hear noth—” The rotten-toothed guard stops and presses his hand to his ears. “Oh, that!” His eyes widen. They both look around the empty hallway searching for the source of the noise. They’re turning round and round with both hands over their ears and opening and closing their mouths as though if they can only get their ears to pop, the sound will go away. It will not. In fact, it will grow louder, and it does but only these two oafs hear it, because I am—
Stop, I hear in my mind. Or at the very least, direct it only to the two guards as you’re making my mind ache.
I spin on my heels; there, coming at me fast down the hallway, is a man as giant as a bear. He does not break stride as he grips my waist and heaves me up and over his shoulder. He’s all strength and muscle—and he’s familiar too.
Got her, he thinks. Put them down for a bit would you, Taraz?
I look up to watch the guards behind us close their eyes, press their hands to their ears, and drop to the ground.
Prince Sarkany, with his thick, strong body and grip, holds me over his shoulder. Heat bursts through me with the memory of his hands giving me pleasure in my dreams last night; he’d grasped me and taken me with a ferocity and gentleness that could be matched by no other man.
You were in my dreams as well, my beautiful little Ninaku bird.
He pats my ass, and normally I’d slay a man for touching me, but I desire Sarkany’s touch.
His loud, infectious laugh inhabits my mind. I don’t slam the wooden door on Sarkany’s laughter and thoughts in my mind as I would normally do, because even while I’m fleeing two guards deep in the Roya Palace after being sentenced to whipping, I smile. Sarkany’s laughter and his strength and the irreverence and the fact that even while we’re fleeing for my life, Sarkany has the audacity to pat my ass, this very fearlessness laced with a wicked sense of humor causes me to smile.
Yes, Meela, you do want me as I want you. Dreams always have meaning for my flesh. Besides, you’ll find me to be the most fun Roya brother. Playful both in bed and out.
Heat flashes through my body. He carries me down the hall, then we turn right and meet an iron-barred entrance. Just on the other side of the bars stand Leo and Taraz.
“Taking your time, I see,” Leo says, crossing his arms over his chest. “You do realize that your attempt to save your sister’s life has put the three of us in a rather tenuous position.”
“Ah fuck off, Leo,” Sarkany says, and sets me gently on the ground. “We’ll take her back to Ninaku and return to the Palace.”
“As though no one will notice the Roya Tripsett just strolling into Ninaku with a Dreg? Just like that? Hmm?”
“Good point,” Taraz says. “Other ideas?”
“I can get myself home,” I say. Irritation floods through me. “I’m not completely incapable of taking care of myself.”
“Yes,” Leo says, “you did a fine job in Katya’s room, just a while ago.”
“I could’ve Slayed you both,” I say.
“Quiet bird,” Leo says, “don’t push your luck. While you might have Slayed my cousin, who by the way has a very weak mind, you would not have taken me—”
“And my block?” I ask, giving him a sweet smile. “You were able to overcome it? You’ve entered my mind?”
Leo pins his gaze to me.
“No, that would just be me,” Sarkany says, and smiles at his brother. “Sometimes saving the damsel will actually get you further than, you know, letting the guards take her away.”
“Strategy,” Leo said. “My decision was strategy. We would’ve raised an entire garrison had I eliminated Katya and the guards in Katya’s chambers. What? Shall we start a civil war right here and now?”
Leo’s face contorts with tumult. His eyes show concern and fear, and rightly so. The bright flash of light we both saw when he touched my elbow scared me as much as him.
“I can get myself home,” I say. “Now that I’m out of the Palace. Thank you.” I turn toward the Palace woods which I will cut through to Ninaku.
Not so fast my little bird, Sarkany thinks. He grasps my arm and I close my eyes. This time, the bright light is shaded with the color of the woods and the smell of rich earth, and the soft pelting bath of light rain in spring pulses through me.
What sweet hell? Sarkany thinks.
I know not, my Prince, I think.
Sarkany drops my arm and I take off into the forest, a Ninaku bird free of the Roya cage.
Chapter Nine
Taraz
“That is brilliant!” I yell. The Ninaku Dreg named Jix holds the controller in his hand and makes the prototype drone fly circles in the blue sky. We stand outside the Palace near the barns. Wide open spaces, aside from the one building, so there is no possibility of the drone landing in a tree. I’ve yet to see my brothers since the ball last night. We’re still in need of a Queen, and it’d be untrue to say we aren’t conflicted with the experience that first Leo had, and then Sarkany, when they touched Meela’s flesh.
Envy had flooded me when they told me of their visions and the emotion that filled each of them upon touching Meela. Our conversation, after Meela fled into the night, brought us to the realization that we’d all inhabited the same dream of bedding Meela just the night before the ball. It didn’t take much conversation to determine that our sexual dreams about Meela were shared because the dream contained the same details for all three of us.
I push a vision of Meela naked on our marital bed from my mind. Instead I focus all my attention on the superb mechanical invention Jix has created. “What else can the drone do?” I call to him.
Jix pulls the drone close to the side of the barn and presses a button.
Excitement and wonder pulse through me.
The brick wall fades away. “What magic is this?” I ask.
I walk to the barn wall and press my hand to a solid surface. “But…” I can see the horses in their stables and the horse-hand Dregs walking about. An older grey-haired Dreg holds a bridle and checks the bit. And Sarkany’s dog, Widget, prances about as a young stable Dreg throws a ball for Widget to fetch.
“No magic,” Jix says. “Just science. The drone merely dissolves the wall so that you can see beyond it, the wall is still there.”
Yes, the stones are hard and cool beneath my hand.
“Amazing,” I say.
I’m not only amazed at the drone, but at the Dreg, Jix, who has the mental capacity to invent such things from items collected at the Dead City. While I can read the thoughts of all the animals and Dregs on the other side of the wall, Jix, a Ninaku Dreg, has created a machine that allows him to see inside the wall. A compensation, really, for an inability.
“Absolutely brilliant
,” I say.
Since the death of Mother and Fathers, all Uncle tells us is of the stupidity of Dregs and how they can barely function. He speaks so differently of Dregs than Mother and Fathers did. Uncle’s rhetoric is tainted with a hatred of every living creature who is not born Eliterrati.
Jix lands the drone at my feet. I pick it up and examine the blades that allow it to fly, and the tiny panels that absorb sunlight to power the drone. I’m amazed at the knowledge and mechanical abilities that Jix has to invent such a creation.
“Could we make the panels bigger?” I ask. “I have a dozen uses for these.”
“We use them in Ninaku,” Jix says.
My gaze locks onto him.
“Did I…did I say something wrong?” The fear in his voice makes me tired.
I lean forward. “Technically, there is to be no technology in Ninaku of which the Palace is unaware,” I say.
“I know that, sire, but”—his brows crease—“I think the Palace is aware.”
I tilt my head. “Why do you say that?”
I press my mind into Jix’s without him knowing. I continue to examine the drone. Hmm…a vision of Wagu and a garrison and Dregs…smart Dregs being taken and tested and…then my Uncle—
“Technology that we create in Ninaku,” Jix says, interrupting my thought, “is often taken by the Palace. The Chief of the Mechanical Engineers Guild creates a report for Regent Roya the first of each month.”
“Do you have these reports?” I ask.
“I do. I file them for the Chief, it was my duty while I attempted to enter the Guild.”
“Get them for me, won’t you?” I ask. “You may use my Royal Seal to obtain them.”
“Yes, of course, sir,” Jix says.
“Taraz,” Sarkany yells from the distance. “Come on, now!” His mind reaches me, and I know that this request will not end in fun. I wave up the hill toward the Palace where Sarkany stands beside Leo. My poor brothers, they had much more to drink than I last night. I turn back to Jix.
“Make me panels that are about this big,” I hold up my hands, indicating a size of two feet by four feet. “Don’t tell anyone, good?”
Jix nods. “Yes, sir. In your lab?”
“Exactly,” I say. “Thank you.” I turn toward the Palace and hustle toward Sarkany and Leo. I’m not looking forward to Uncle’s questions that I know await the three of us inside.
Instead of the study, Uncle waits for us in the main hall. He’s dressed for travel in his black winter cloak and black leather marching boots. Wagu stands by Uncle’s side, holding Uncle’s riding hat. Lady Alana is not here today, so there’ll be no reason for Uncle to soften his demeanor with us.
“So, no Queen,” Uncle says. He makes no attempt to hide his disgust with our failure. “Plenty of birds to bed, but not one that you can make your mate?”
I say nothing, for I bedded no birds last evening. I leave such cocksmanship to Leo and Sarkany. My brothers get great pleasure in random sexual conquests regardless of their feelings for the “birds” they bed. Uncle paces in front of us, as he does each time we line up to listen to him lecture us on our failures. As of late, there have been many lectures.
“The time draws nigh,” Uncle says. “Do you understand that should you fail to find your Queen, it is required that you be banished to the Hinterlands? You know this, yes?”
I hate him, Sarkany thinks.
I freeze my thoughts and make no response. Wagu’s beady eyes laser onto Sarkany, while Uncle continues to rail on about the Hinterland and our inevitable banishment and how Katya takes no pleasure in the idea of becoming Queen and how we have only until the Winter Solstice of this year and on and on and on…
Goddess, could the man please shut up, Leo thinks.
Wagu’s gaze shifts from Sarkany to Leo. There is no possible way that Wagu hears their thoughts…is there? He is merely a lowly Dreg that Uncle has elevated to Valet. Wagu does not have The Gift; it’s never been—I stop thinking. I lock these thoughts safely behind a wooden door in my mind that has a steel vault around it. Because in this instant, as I think of Wagu, the penetration of my mind by a mind that I’ve always thought to be my Uncle’s flits around the edges of my thoughts. Like the arms of an octopus, the other mind teases and probes, peeking around the memories in my brain as a mouse might skirt around the edges of a room. But this mouse, now that I see it more clearly, has a trail that is more similar to the energy trail of Wagu—not Uncle.
I lock eyes on Wagu, that beady-eyed little man. He drops his gaze and the tiny little mouse skirting my thoughts is gone.
Could it be? Is it possible that Wagu has The Gift—or in his position as a Dreg, what would be called The Curse?
“I’m quite tired of playing these games with you three.” Uncle’s angry words pull me away from my thoughts and back to his lecture. “You wish to remain single and ignore your duty to me and to House Roya. But time passes, and should you fail to find your Queen, then you shall lose your chance to rule. The three of you will be banished to the Hinterland and Katya shall be forced to find her three Kings.” He stops in front of me and peers into my eyes. “You must find a Queen.”
I block my mind but reach out a tentative probe to Uncle’s. I’ve never before been so bold, as fear has always prevented me from entering Uncle’s thoughts. But today, I’m finished with being afraid. I’ve grown weary of his lectures and unkindness. He has lied to us about Dregs and their intelligence; what else has he lied about?
I cloak the tendril that I use to enter Uncle’s mind with his own thoughts of the Northern Palace. This is an old mind-trick, one of the first I learned as a young boy that we brothers practiced on each other for fun. Uncle has not learned this trick. I sink deep into his mind. His thoughts are open and unblocked. He hates the Northern Province; this I already know as he believes Northerners to be uncouth and uneducated and just a half-step above Dreg. I probe, and then I stumble upon what he wishes to do to not only the Dregs of the North but…but…the Eliterrati too?!
What the hell?
My nostrils flare. I drop my gaze to the floor for fear of what I’ve seen in Uncle’s mind: the horror, the atrocity, the pain he wishes to inflict on our people in the name of House Roya. I fear that what I’ve discovered will be seen upon my face. Uncle’s thoughts are…completely unacceptable. To quell Northern discord for the good of the Kingdom, but to Mindslay indiscriminately to do this…what Uncle has in his mind…this is wrong. It’s sick, it’s—
“Taraz, please answer me.” Uncle stands in front of me. I look into his dark eyes.
“What was the question?” I ask.
“You remember the prophesy that shall come to pass should House Roya fail to continue the Royal line?”
“That the one believed to be low shall be made high and make the many one. Yes, Uncle, we all three know it. The prophesy of the Unifier.”
“Then why”—Uncle moves closer to me, there is egg on his breath from his breakfast, and one grey nose hair is untrimmed in his left nostril—“do the three of you seek to destroy House Roya?” He turns away from me and focuses on Sarkany, although even Uncle isn’t so stupid is to get too close to The Bear. “Because the three of you seem damned determined to do just that. Destroy a house that has stood as the Royal House for nearly six centuries.” Uncle moves to Leo. “Please tell me why? Is it because you have no love for your Queen? Your mother who bore you?”
I slide my gaze to the left where Sarkany stands.
What an asshole, how could he even ask that? Sarkany thinks.
Cloak, I think, because Sarkany is so open with his feelings and beliefs that even when he is thinking he does not appropriately shield his thoughts, nor always use our Tripsett link.
What will he do, brother? Kill me? Sarkany thinks.
Do not tempt the Goddess, I think.
Perhaps you are no longer the only person you need to worry about, Bear, Leo thinks.
And it is that thought, the thought that any one
of us could put—I am afraid to even think her name—that we could put the Ninaku bird in jeopardy that nearly stops my breath in my lungs.
Uncle continues his lecture, “The three of you marrying is more important than love, do you understand? You do not have the luxury of waiting on love to declare your mate.” He says the word love as though it be a filthy word. “You need not love your Queen, you need only be married to her.”
“Mother married for love,” I say.
Uncle turns his wicked-angry eyes upon me. His look burns with rage. “Your mother was lucky, until she wasn’t,” he says, as though Mother loving our Fathers had something to do with their demise. “Fulfilling your obligation to the Royal House honors your mother’s memory.”
We do honor our mother—our Queen—by finding our Queen, but Mother would disagree with Uncle. She would loathe his words. She would say that we would be better in the Hinterlands not ruling the Kingdom than to try and rule without the love of our chosen mate. My iron-willed mother bore a giant soft spot for my fathers and her three boys. She doted on all of us and wanted nothing more than for us to be happy and well. It was the love that she had for all of us which allowed her to be the Queen that she was; to entertain the changes that were permeating the Kingdom. To focus on the rights of Dregs and all sentient beings.
“Us finding our Queen only honors our mother if we love the Queen we choose,” I say.
“Your mother, my sister, was not pragmatic. She was an overzealous optimist who couldn’t see the evil in front of her eyes. She believed that there is love and light and kindness and joy and beauty in all the beings in this world, and look what it got her. A perfect example is her Ninaku referendum—that Dregs should be considered equal to Eliterrati? It was that very belief in Dregs that got her and your fathers killed,” Uncle says. “You know the poison was indigenous to Ninaku.”
Grief rips through me and my brothers. We know how Mother and Fathers were killed, but we know not who did it.
“Dregs cannot be trusted,” Uncle continues. “They’re barely human. Your mother’s soft spot for Dregs is what got her killed.”