Badru squeezed her hand one last time before moving away from her to issue orders. He walked through the camp with ease, like he belonged there, and everywhere he went people listened and acted, newcomer and Rider alike. Calm spread from him like ripples in a pool, and soon the camp fell into order once more, the panic that had tinged the air fading away.
“How does he do that?” K’lrsa asked Vedhe.
“Do what?”
“Command them like that. He’s new to the tribes. Why do they listen to him?”
“It’s only natural to listen to someone who speaks with certainty in a moment of panic. Most are good at following orders, but few can lead, especially at a time like this.”
K’lrsa nodded. It made sense. But still she was amazed by how easily Badru asserted control, and how calm he remained as he walked among the broken remnants of the camp.
“What did you do with the staff?” K’lrsa asked.
“I put it in the tent. But you should keep it with you. What if someone takes it?”
“Let them. I never want to touch it again.”
“But it’s yours. It was given to you by the gods. They expect you to use it.”
“You don’t understand, Vedhe. It calls to me. It wants me to drown the entire world. To cleanse it. Do you know how close I was to calling water from the north and killing us all?”
Vedhe touched the pouch at her waist, her eyes burning with fire.
“Does the sun orb call to you like that?”
“All the time.”
“How do you resist it?”
“I don’t.” The flames danced in her eyes. “I promise it that soon I’ll do as it wishes and rain fire on the world.”
K’lrsa shuddered. “You can’t do that, Vedhe.”
“Why not?”
“Because…Because it isn’t right. We need to defeat Aran. But then…These things need to go back where they came from. We aren’t strong enough to keep them. And what if they fall into the wrong hands? What would a man like Aran do with something like the orb?”
Vedhe laughed. “You’re worried about Aran?” She looked around at the destruction in the camp and then back to K’lrsa. “You should be worried about us.”
Vedhe stalked away before K’lrsa could respond, but she was right. Look what one of those weapons had done when it was used one time by someone who wasn’t evil, who’d just been trying to protect her people.
K’lrsa shivered imagining what it would be like when Vedhe used the orb.
Or worse, if they didn’t return the objects to the Hidden City and the world descended into a chaos of ever-more-powerful weapons handled by more and more humans who weren’t strong enough to control them. Forget how precarious the balance would be with so many weapons loose on the world; each weapon, every single one, would create an opportunity for something like this to happen.
For a single person to kill hundreds—or thousands—with no more than a thought.
She couldn’t let that happen. The weapons had to go back.
After they’d defeated Aran.
She just hoped they could last that long without destroying the world.
Chapter 61
That night, Badru, Vedhe, and K’lrsa sat around a campfire far removed from the rest of the camp. It wasn’t intentional, at least not on their part. But as the others had cleaned up the camp and replaced their tents, each had made the choice to move away from Badru’s tent.
Not because of him, obviously—they all adored him—but because of K’lrsa. And Vedhe.
Throughout the last bit of the day as K’lrsa and Vedhe had tried to help, the others had avoided them, shying away, finding excuses to be elsewhere or doing something else until finally K’lrsa had turned away in disgust and defeat.
As they ate dinner that night—a tasteless meal of grain past its prime and a few straggly bitter greens that were almost too bitter to be edible—they were silent, each lost in their own thoughts. K’lrsa had already filled Badru in on everything that had happened in the Hidden City, so they were all thinking of what needed to happen next.
Finally, Badru broke the silence. “We need to find M’lara first. Where do you think she is?”
“If she’s alive…” K’lrsa grimaced and set the remainder of her food on the ground. She wasn’t hungry enough to force it down. “I assume she’s on her way to Aran. Although, how she knows where to go…”
“The Trickster.” Vedhe added another stick to the fire, smiling as the flames danced higher.
K’lrsa shivered, wondering how much worse she’d be after she’d used the sun orb on Aran and his men. “You think he visited her in her dreams, too?”
“Why not?”
K’lrsa licked her lips, not wanting to state the petty thought that crossed her mind, but it had to be said. “She’s not a chosen of the gods like we are.”
“You think there can only be three? One for each god?”
“Yes. Don’t the horses prove that?”
Vedhe shrugged a shoulder and her lips twisted into a half-smile. “Perhaps M’lara is the chosen of the Moon Maiden, the Lady’s daughter.”
“But she already passed on. The others gods forced her to leave.”
Badru leaned forward, interrupting their conversation. “So we think she’s headed to Toreem? Okay. Then we go there and find her before we confront Aran.”
“Why? I mean, I want to find my sister as much as anyone, but shouldn’t defeating Aran be our priority? Especially now that he’s going to be even more powerful than before?”
“No. We need that necklace.”
K’lrsa shook her head. “It won’t make a difference, Badru. I’m telling you, compared to the power of the staff, or the sun orb, that necklace is nothing.”
“It may be nothing, but I need a weapon if I’m going to stand with you. Even one as weak as the necklace.”
“You can have the staff. I’m not touching it again.”
“But then you’ll need the necklace.”
K’lrsa touched the pouch at her waist. Should she tell them about the moon power?
“K’lrsa, you can’t face Aran without a weapon. We need the necklace.”
She ignored him. “Vedhe? You said the moon power can’t actually defeat the sun orb. What does it do?”
“What does that matter now? Aran’s gods won’t give him a power like that.”
K’lrsa bit her lip as she looked back and forth between them.
She was probably about to make a mistake, but she couldn’t trust herself to wield the staff a second time, so she needed to learn about the power she could wield. And her gut told her she had to trust them. If she didn’t, they’d fail.
She reached into the pouch and held out the small container of moon power.
“What is that?” Vedhe leaned closer, peering at it.
“The moon power.”
Vedhe sat back, staring at K’lrsa in alarm. “Where did you get it?”
“From the room at the center of the labyrinth. The Lady let me take both.”
Vedhe lurched to her feet and then slowly sat back down. “Why would you do that? Didn’t you…?” She shook her head in disbelief.
“The Lady told me I could do it. I only had the two choices—the staff and the moon power—and I couldn’t decide between them, so I asked if I could have them both, and she said yes.”
Vedhe stared at the small container, her mouth slightly open, her eyes wide with horror.
“What? What is it?”
“The balance…” Vedhe reached towards the container and then pulled her hand back as if burned. “I thought it was bad before, but this…Do you know what you’ve done?”
“I think so. After what you said when I kept the necklace, I have a pretty good idea.”
Vedhe shook her head. “No. This is so much worse.”
“Well, that’s why, when we’re done with Aran, we have to take all of the objects back to the Hidden City.”
“And do what with them?”
“Return them. That’s what the Trickster told me. He said the other gods are waiting to see what we do. If we keep them, the other gods will create weapons to match them. But if we return them, they won’t. They’re waiting on us right now.”
Vedhe continued to stare at the container, shaking her head slightly.
K’lrsa put it away. “So? What can it do? Because I can’t touch the staff again without drowning the world. Which means Badru will have to use it."
Vedhe turned her attention to Badru, studying him. “Is that wise?”
He snorted. “Is letting you handle the sun orb wise?”
“Stop. Both of you. We need to stand together against Aran. Unless there’s someone else you’d trust more to handle the orb and the staff? Because I can’t think of anyone.”
They both shook their heads, but they were eyeing one another warily.
“So? What does the moon power do if it doesn’t defeat the sun orb?”
“It neutralizes it.”
“Isn’t that defeating it?”
“No. It just protects you against its power. It doesn’t stop it from working. Or protect anyone else from its use.”
K’lrsa winced. “That doesn’t seem like much.”
“It is. If I tried to use the sun orb on you, I’d fail.”
“What if you used the sun orb to set the building I was in on fire?”
“It can’t protect you against something like that. But any power Aran has, if he tries to direct it at you, will fail.”
“Unless it’s like the staff, right? Because that calls water and it can’t protect me against water.” She sighed. “Hardly seems worth it.”
Badru shook his head. “No. Think about it. What kind of weapon is Aran likely to choose? Something offensive, something he can attack you with. He won’t want to call water or shake the earth. He’ll want to attack you directly. Which means it is valuable for this fight. More valuable than the staff.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“No, Badru.”
“What?”
“You can’t have it.”
“Why not?
“Because there’s no way I’m touching that staff again, which means that you need to be the one to use it, and that leaves me with the moon power.”
“And what about the necklace?”
“I told you. It won’t matter.” She sat back. “I’d love to find my sister, but, wherever she is, she’s on her own. We don’t have time to find her and we couldn’t use the necklace even if we did.”
Vedhe threw another stick in the fire. “It doesn’t matter. None of it does.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s too late. When you took the moon power and the staff, you destroyed the balance. Nothing we do can save it now.”
K’lrsa shook her head. “That’s not true. The Lady said nothing can destroy the balance. It always restores itself.”
Vedhe laughed softly. “Maybe it does eventually. But not every creature survives the process. The gods will, but we won’t.”
“But we’re only going to use them once and then return them.”
Vedhe stroked the pouch at her waist.
“Vedhe? You agree with me, right? We use them once to defeat Aran and destroy the Toreem Daliphate, and then we’re done. We take them back to the Hidden City.”
“Right. Why keep the only weapon we have to stand against evil? What was I thinking?” She stalked away into the darkness, her shoulders stiff with anger.
“Vedhe…” K’lrsa called after her, but she didn’t turn back to them and K’lrsa let her go.
Badru was studying the fire, his brow furrowed. What did he think? Did he agree with Vedhe? Would he be able to use the staff once and then let it go? Could he give up that kind of power once he had it?
She tried to imagine the upcoming battle—with Vedhe burning everything and Badru flooding everything and her there in the middle trying to stop them—and shuddered.
She wanted to take the objects back to the Hidden City now, before it was too late.
But she couldn’t.
Aran had to be defeated. No matter the cost.
Chapter 62
They left camp the next morning. No need to slink and scurry like they had when they’d fled Toreem. They had the power of the staff and sun orb and even if they didn’t use them, word of what they could do would spread before them like wildfire.
That was obvious when they rode out of the barren lands and into the camp of Aran’s soldiers just as the sun set. Men eyed them warily, some bandaged and still dirty from the mud that had washed them down when K’lrsa unleashed the staff’s power.
Badru rode Midnight into their midst as K’lrsa and Vedhe hung back. He spun Midnight in a circle so that he could make eye contact with every man willing to do so. They were sullen and angry, but none spoke out against him.
“Listen to me, soldiers of the Toreem Daliphate. My name is Badru Palero. I was Daliph of the Toreem Daliphate until Aran Palero, my grandfather, took my throne from me. He is a death walker who was brought back to life by infernal means after he was poisoned by the slave known as Lodie. I’m riding to Toreem to defeat him.”
K’lrsa bit her lip as she watched him, sitting tall and proud on Midnight as he addressed the soldiers. How had she allowed herself to believe that he’d walk away from this?
That he’d agree to live in a tent, with barely enough food to eat, and give up his power for her? He may have given his life to help her and her people, but to live out his days in the tribes? Why would he do that when he could be a Daliph instead?
The men mumbled to one another, but none spoke.
Badru circled Midnight once more, staring them down. His voice swelled with power and he sat up straighter. “Hear this. Any who strike at the tribes from this day forth, I will destroy. They are your allies. You need them to cross the desert. They give you access to the trade that has raised you above what you were.”
He met the eyes of the men once more. “Do you really want to go back to the way it was before? To squabbling amongst one another for scraps? To being the main source of slaves for the other Daliphana? No? Then leave the tribes alone.”
A man stepped forward. He had a multi-colored sash tied at his waist, marking him as one in favor with the Daliph and likely an officer. “If we don’t follow the Daliph’s orders, he’ll have us killed.”
Men nodded to one another.
“And if you do, I’ll have you killed.” Badru touched the staff where it was bundled to his saddle.
Vedhe nudged her horse forward and pulled the sun orb from the pouch at her waist. “You saw the power of the staff yesterday.” She held the orb above her head, her hand shaking as it pulsed with an angry red light. “But it’s not our only weapon. You might survive a flood, but will you survive fire?”
A man scoffed from the back of the crowd and Vedhe turned on him, eyes burning with flames. The orb spat fire as Vedhe struggled to control it.
“Enough. Vedhe, put that away.” K’lrsa rode Fallion between Vedhe and the man, not sure what she was actually going to do if Vedhe didn’t back down. She turned to the crowd. “We will defeat Aran. Be sure of it.”
Slowly, struggling to do so, Vedhe put the sun orb back in its pouch.
K’lrsa looked at the leader. Did he believe them?
He needed to. Because the tribes couldn’t stand against these men if they attacked again. And if they did attack, it wouldn’t matter that she’d defeated Aran if the tribes were decimated.
Before they’d left the Rider camp, Badru had issued the order to leave the entrance to the barren lands unprotected. There wasn’t enough food, the stream was dry, and they couldn’t stand against so many soldiers.
But by the time they’d left, no one had moved on. And they didn’t look like they would.
These soldiers needed to believe them. It was the only way to protect her people.
The moon appeared on the horizon and K�
��lrsa leaned forward, stroking Fallion’s neck. She whispered in his ear. “Transform for me, micora. Please. Show them your beautiful wings.”
Nothing happened for a long moment and then Fallion shivered, and the light of a thousand suns rippled under his coat as his beautiful wings stretched out from his back in glorious challenge.
He reared onto his back legs as K’lrsa let out the ki-ki-ki of the Rider’s call, drawing the attention of any who hadn’t noticed them yet.
As Fallion returned to all fours, Kriger and Midnight transformed as well—Kriger’s coat the misty silver of the Trickster’s fog and Midnight’s coat seeming to encompass the entire night sky.
The soldiers backed away, whispering and pointing, some in awe, some in fear.
All except the one who’d spoken before.
He stepped closer, reaching for Midnight. “May I?” he asked.
Badru nodded and the man reverently touched one of Midnight’s ebony wings. “I’d heard the rumors, but I didn’t believe them.”
“Well now you know the truth of it. And when I tell you that we’ll defeat Aran, I mean it. I’m not asking you to follow me. All I ask is that you don’t fight me.”
The man nodded once and stood back. “Very well. I’ll give you five days. If we haven’t heard of your victory by then, we’ll have to attack the tribes again.”
“Thank you.” Badru nodded once. He looked at the men in the camp, quietly judging them before he turned to K’lrsa and Vedhe. “Ready?”
“Ready,” they answered in unison.
Midnight launched into the air, Kriger and Fallion right behind him.
K’lrsa watched the soldiers’ camp until they were so far away the men looked like ants. She hoped they’d keep their word and wait, but there was nothing to be done about it now.
Either they would or they wouldn’t. Either she’d have a tribe to return to or they’d be gone.
She turned her attention forward, towards Toreem and Aran, hoping Badru was right and they really could defeat him.
Because if they couldn’t…
And he now had more power than before…
No one would be able to stop him.
Rider's Resolve (The Rider's Revenge Trilogy Book 3) Page 22