by Willa Hart
My eyes widen.
“Yes,” Sarkany says out loud, “that’s how you were discovered—by your sister.” Come with me. Sarkany’s mind-tendrils reach into my mind. I grasp him with mine, and together we probe deep into the guard. Have you done this before? he thinks.
You’re kidding, right? I’ve spent a lifetime hiding this power, you think I’ve gone on a mind walk with anyone else?
Sarkany smiles. Taraz and Leo shall be very jealous that I was your first.
Heat floods my face with Sarkany’s insinuation.
Together we enter the mind of the guard. Inside, Sarkany grasps the most recent memory of me and him and the forest and wraps around it. He pulls tight on this memory and squeezes, as I know to do, until the memory is no more.
We’re not finished, Sarkany thinks. Together we wind through the guard’s mind, to the back of his brain, and sink down low to where a bulb lies close to his spine, where his breathing center is located.
Here, Sarkany thinks, pressing a tiny little spot that looks nearly red. Here, you must press ever so gently while you fill your own thoughts with the memory you seek to erase.
Ah…this I did not know. This final bit that fully erases not only the memory, but the emotion attached.
Otherwise the memory will flood back when a similar emotion is triggered or someone else speaks of the events that took place. You must completely erase it in both places, but if you press too hard, they die.
I nod and squeeze the mental hand of Sarkany. Thank you, I think. Never before has anyone ever shown me anything about The Curse.
Now that you have the protection of the Royal House, you my sweet bird, must begin to call these powers The Gift.
No Dreg with The Curse, no matter who they are protected by, can be fully protected, I think. No one can guarantee my safety when it comes to The Curse and the Eliterrati.
Sarkany sighs. We release each other and return from the mind of the guard who now lies asleep on the ground.
“While that may be true, you have no choice. It’s the three of us, or Katya and my Uncle. We’re your best chance at survival.”
The edge of the Dark Forest is not so far. A short run across a meadow…
Not today, my little bird, not today, Sarkany thinks.
“I…I’m sorry.” I press my mind to Sarkany and push hard, throwing him out of my mind. It makes a flash so bright and brilliant that The Bear stumbles backward and falls.
I pull my body over the fence and drop to the ground. My feet hit the soft earth and I am up and running. If I can just get far enough away. Sarkany’s mind is not as strong as his brothers and—
Oh, that is what you believe?
I hear his laughter roar into my head.
I press a wall thicker than those that usually protect the castle around my mind. I draw a deep breath, and I run. Full out for the Dark Forest. Wind whips through my hair, and my Dreg workdress presses against my legs. My arms pump and my bag bumps against my hip.
You are beautiful when you fly, my little Ninaku bird, Sarkany thinks.
Then it’s as if his hand clamps my arm as his mind bursts into mine. There is an explosion of light, like a rainbow fracturing into a million differently colored diamonds. I fall and the soft earth catches my body. Then, Sarkany’s soft gentle laughter as my mind goes black.
Chapter Eleven
Meela
Rich black earth soft beneath my feet. Cool spring breeze whispers through my hair. Bright sunshine dances upon my arms. I spin in a field at the edge of the Dark Forest. Nature embraces me, pleasing all my senses. The Dark Forest beckons. On the edge of the tree line, there are two people. They are so far from me that I can’t make out their faces, but I know them—of this I’m certain. My heart longs to be with them, to see them, to share my life with them. I turn to go to them but—
Did you kill her?
Would she be breathing if I killed her?
What kind of vision did you stop her with?
The voices of the Roya Tripsett interrupts my dream. I’m pulled back from the Dark Forest and the two people I long to join, and instead hear three voices bickering.
She’s been asleep a very long time, Taraz thinks.
Go to hell, both of you, Sarkany thinks. I did not hurt her. I gave her the prettiest vision I know how to create.
That’s not saying much, thinks Leo.
My mind swims from the richness of the fields and the beckoning of the forest, back to this reality. I break the surface, and with a deep breath, my eyelids flutter open.
“There she is.” Sarkany stands beside my bed; the worry on his face subsides and is replaced by a smile. “Told you I didn’t kill her.” His gaze slides toward Taraz and Leo. The three of them surround my bed, Sarkany on my left, Leo at my right, and Taraz at the foot of the bed.
“Sometimes you’re not great at controlling the power,” Leo says.
“You keep to your own mind abilities and don’t worry about mine,” Sarkany grumbles. “I do just fine.”
We do just fine, he thinks.
I turn to Sarkany and wait for the thoughts of the other two Roya brothers to enter my mind. But there is…only silence.
Where are they? I think.
They cannot hear us here, Sarkany thinks, lifting an eyebrow. The Goddess has created a place for only you and I to be alone. To think our thoughts. To explore our…he tilts his head, closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath…feelings.
That’s the word that’s so difficult for you? Feelings?
“Wait,” Leo says. He steps closer to me and leans forward, looking into my eyes. “Are you two privately linked?”
Don’t tell him, Sarkany thinks. “Why do you ask, brother?”
“Because you know that a private link with another, without Taraz and me, is virtually impossible.”
“Certainly a wall can be placed,” Taraz says, looking between Sarkany and Leo, “but a truly private link can happen only if…” Taraz does not finish his sentence. The muscle in his jaw flinches and his gaze lands on Sarkany.
The three brothers stand silent around my bed, but their eyes flit from one to the other. I’m locked out of their thoughts. I know that they are communicating, their body language and facial expressions make this obvious to me, but they have managed to create a block that doesn’t allow me to hear the thoughts that they exchange with one another.
“How rude,” I finally say. I throw back the covers. I’m not sitting here while these three discuss me, right in front of me. My feet hit the cool wooden floor just beside my bed. I press myself to stand but—
“Hey, hey, hey…” Sarkany is beside me, and his thick muscular arm grasps my waist. The power of him, the scent of him…if I wasn’t about to drop to the floor from the weakness in my legs, I’d most certainly be overcome with desire for him. “You’re weak…it’s uh…” He glances toward Taraz. “Been a while since you walked.”
“A while? What’s a while? A day?”
Neither brother speaks. My heart beats faster.
“Two days?”
Nothing.
“A week?” Irritation combined with panic clutches me. “How long have I been…asleep?”
“Long enough,” Leo interrupts.
“Meela, what do you remember?” Taraz asks.
I squint my eyes, and my memories skim the surface of my mind. “The guard, the fence, running for the Dark Forest…” I look at Sarkany. “Your laugh,” I say.
Sarkany sets me gently onto the bed, but his hand grasps mine. His touch causes a flood of energy to course through my fingertips and up my arm. Energy and feelings. So many feelings… I am awash in…in…love. The warmth of love floods through me.
I’m not alone. I’m cherished. I belong. A sense of being part of a unit greater than just myself floods through my being. A smile breaks over Sarkany’s face, and I know that he feels this too. When I touch Sarkany’s hand, I’m not alone. I know to my core that we are…together.
Leo an
d Taraz stare at our hands. Sadness clutches my heart. They’re not experiencing this wave of completeness that I have when I touch Sarkany.
“Then I…” My voice is softer, more tender. “Then I remember a rainbow, a million rainbows that burst through my mind—almost like fireworks, but better, prettier if that’s possible,” I say.
“Told you it was a good vision,” Sarkany glances at Leo and Taraz.
It was a beautiful vision, I think privately to Sarkany. He squeezes my hand and the feelings of completeness intensify. Thank you for the vision. A trace of desire, of want, a heat pulses through us.
Then my memories flood me. Dribble, and the guards, and the laundry, and… Panic clutches my belly. “I…I need to go to the Dark Forest, I must…I must get to the Wolveskin…and Huali. Where is my sister? I—”
“You’re not going to the Dark Forest,” Leo says. “You’ll stay here where you’re safe.”
You don’t control me, I think, and start to stand again, but again I cannot force my legs to hold me.
“You can’t even stand, bird, how do you expect to protect yourself from the Wolveskin?” Leo asks.
Anger heats my chest. So cocky and patronizing. Leo stands with his arms over his chest telling me what I can and cannot do.
My little bird, he merely seeks to protect you, Sarkany thinks.
Ha! More like control me and make certain that I know who I am and where I belong.
“Leo is right,” Taraz says. “You must stay here until you are well. Stronger. Able to take care of yourself.”
Yes, Sarkany thinks. His hand squeezes mine again. For a while, my bird, until you are strong again.
I glance around the room. I’m in a giant four-poster bed big enough for at least six people. The wood is deep and dark, and the walls are painted a rich hunter green.
“Sarkany’s hunting shack,” Taraz says.
“This is a shack?”
“Everything is relative,” Leo says. He walks to the window that looks out onto the forest surrounding the shack. “He’s here often, but we rarely are.”
“You’re safe here,” Taraz says, but though his words say one thing, the crease in his brow tells a different story. His thoughts are not available to me. I send a tendril to each of the Roya Tripsett and am swiftly rebuked,.
“Not today, Ninaku bird,” Leo says. There is no smile on his face, no joking, only a wave of deep concentration and seriousness comes from Leo. “You need to stay here. It’s important that you regain your strength. I fear you’ll need it.”
“What’s going on?” I ask. Why are the Roya Brothers so serious? And so keen to keep me here?
“There’s much that happened since you fell upon the earth while trying to make your escape to the Dark Forest,” Leo says.
“And much of it, we believe, involves you…and us,” Taraz says, almost as though he’s fearful to say the last word.
But first you must bathe.
And then we will talk.
About your future and ours.
Chapter Twelve
Leo
I pace in the main room of Sarkany’s hunting lodge. A shack? Even I wouldn’t call this place a shack. Our entire Tripsett could walk into the fireplace and still stand. The floor-to-ceiling windows allow a view of the Dark Forest, and beyond it at the edge of the Kingdom are the Matrok mountains. A half dozen antler chandeliers, each bigger than a man, hang from the ceiling, lighting this room and the dining room. This is no shack—it’s like a mini-palace built for my brother who is like the bear of the woods.
“What do we tell her?” I ask.
Sarkany loads logs onto the fire, and Taraz stares out the window.
“What do we really know?” Taraz asks.
I scrub my fingers through my hair. “Absolutely fucking nothing,” I say.
“Not true.” Sarkany tosses a log onto the fire. He lifts the fire poker and rolls the log into position. “We know what we feel when we touch her. Happened again, just after she woke up.”
“We know that Uncle is keen on eradicating all Dregs,” Taraz says.
A shiver chases down my spine.
“We also know that Sarkany’s established a private link with her,” Taraz continues.
“You know what that means?” I ask my brother.
“I know what we’ve been taught to believe it means,” Sarkany says. “But I don’t know that this private link means that she’s actually my fated-mate…our fated-mate. I’ve not spent enough time with her. I don’t know if this is…” He pauses and his brows crease. “Is this lust, or is this a real connection?”
The answer to that simple question could determine not only the rest of our lives but whether there’s a Civil War,” Taraz says. “The idea that a Dreg could be Queen? That’s nothing short of revolutionary. Such a thing could rip the empire to shreds.”
I lower my voice. “Do you realize that you’ve created a private link with a Ninaku Dreg?” I say. “It’s treason. You could be flayed and hung.”
“You sound a bit too much like Uncle for my taste,” Sarkany says, and stands. “And I didn't create anything. This link simply happened.”
“Really? Well it would seem that someone needs to remember the laws of the Kingdom,” I say, stepping closer to Sarkany.
“You act like I did this intentionally,” Sarkany continues. “These are the laws that our Queen thought were unfair and wrong—”
“But are still the law,” I interrupt.
Sarkany continues, “Are you speaking of the very laws that Mother and Fathers wanted to change?”
“Changes that most likely got them killed,” I say.
We are now chest to chest and as I often do, I’ve forgotten just how physically imposing my middle brother is until I’m standing right in front him. He is called The Bear for a reason: with one swipe of his hand he could squash me like a bug. But I’m not about to let him know that his size makes me uncomfortable.
“We’re the Crown Princes of the Kingdom. We’re not above the law. In fact, one could argue we are held to a higher standard,” I say.
Sarkany’s chest puffs out with my words and his brow creases. He’s not known for appreciating nuance, my brother, The Bear.
“A standard that demands equal treatment of all within the Kingdom,” Sarkany says. “Just as Mother desired.”
I press my hand to my brow. “Brother, this is a much longer road. A very dangerous political road, one that is fraught with possible war. Do you understand?”
Sarkany’s gaze shoots toward the ceiling. “The link was not created intentionally. It was simply there when she awoke.”
My stomach hollows out with his words.
My mouth drops open. What? How could this be? According to what we’ve been taught, this type of private link may only be created by our fated mate. “Impossible,” I say. “You think that we’ve been fated to a Dreg?”
“Have you experienced this phenomenon before?” Taraz asks, interrupting our posturing. He turns from the window where he’s been gazing out, quietly listening to Sarkany and I argue. His gaze belies the curiosity of his scientific mind. “I mean, I’ve never experienced such a thing…but I don’t have”—he glances between the two of us —“your experience where women are concerned. Nor have I touched the girl, as you two have.”
I shrug. “She is but a Dreg,” I say. “How could this be possible? That we could have this connection to a Ninaku Dreg?” My eyebrows crease. The idea is too much to process. “The Goddess would never want our kind to mate with her kind. They’re not smart enough, not erudite, not—”
“I have a Dreg in House Roya who created a mechanical drone. His knowledge of mechanical engineering is much deeper than mine shall ever be,” Taraz says. “And if Dregs are so dull, then why is Uncle stealing Dreg inventions and hiding those inventions from the Kingdom?” Taraz lowers his voice and walks closer to us. “The visions I saw in Uncle’s mind included horrible things that he wanted to do to all Dregs, and to Eliterra
ti as well. The slaying wasn’t simply of Dregs with The Curse, but random Dregs, for no reason other than that they are Dregs and Uncle seeks to keep the bloodlines pure.”
“You remember what Mother believed?” Sarkany asks.
I raise my hand and nod. “I do, but Mother and Fathers…that was so long ago, before their assassination, before so many things… I don’t know how we could possibly trust each other again, not after Mother and Fathers’ death.” I turn to Taraz. “Uncle’s beliefs? The changes were a direct result of the assassination. The fact that we even interact with Dregs at all—even let them live—is a testament to how evolved we are as a group.”
“Evolved?” Sarkany practically spits out the word. “Brother, you sound more and more like our Uncle.”
“If you’d seen the visions I did in Uncle’s mind,” Taraz continues, “I don’t believe you’d have any faith in what Uncle seeks or why he seeks it. Power—” Taraz’s eyes widen and fear surfaces in his mind. “Unadulterated power is all that Uncle wants, and he’ll kill Dreg or Eliterrati to get it.”
“Surely you say too much and step too far,” I say. “Are you accusing our Uncle of considering a coup? Of assassinating us, the Crown Princes of House Roya? The rightful heirs to the Kingdom?
“Did you see the tiara that Katya wore today when she left?” Taraz asks.
My heartbeat picks up as adrenalin floods my veins. I shrug. “Katya often wears Mother’s jewels. She’s the only female Roya.” I glance from Sarkany to Taraz. “Our cousin does not seek the Crown.”
“But Uncle does,” Taraz says “And if he cannot control us, to get us to marry, then he will control Katya.”
“And three Kings?” I say. “If he can’t control his own nephews, you think Uncle can control the Three Kings that Katya will be required to mate? That’s a stretch for my mind to believe.”
“He will not need to find three Kings,” Taraz says.
A shiver slides down my spine. My brother looks quite sure of his statement.