Reign the Earth

by A. C. Gaughen

  “Maybe I’ll try that,” he said, his voice low and heavy. He was still two steps away, but I felt him, everywhere, close to me, hovering just beyond my skin, calling my power up and making it shiver to be unleashed.

  “Ha-ha!” Calix shouted, and I jumped, turning as he closed the balcony door behind him. “Galen, are you hoarding my wife?” he said, striding up to me and putting his arms around me from behind. His hands fanned over my stomach, his lips touched my cheek, and I shut my eyes rather than look at Galen while Calix touched me.

  “Forgive me, brother.”

  “Most of the court is lined up to see us, wife. Galen, come in and take note of who isn’t there.”

  “I’ll stay out here,” I told them. “A few minutes longer.”

  Calix kissed my hand. “Are you all right?”

  I nodded. “I feel a little ill. The fresh air helps.”

  He kissed my mouth, nodding and relinquishing my hand. I watched them walk in together, and I turned away, looking for solace and finding only the endlessness of blue sea.

  The World Spun Upside Down

  I didn’t sleep well that night. I woke early, hiding the comb in my pocket, eager to go to the garden and practice my power. I bent every tooth of the comb forward and back, even focusing enough to lift the comb off my hand, but it wasn’t enough. In the garden, I moved the stone bench, I raked my power through the ground and tore up small rocks, large rocks, tiny flecks of minerals. It was never enough.

  I had everything I had been hoping for—a child, and a tenuous grasp on peace that was slowly becoming stronger. My husband would finally lay down his arms.

  My power still felt desperate, something wild that was artificially pinned down and aching to be freed, and it never felt more wild and desperate than when I was with Galen, when he looked at me and touched me and said the things that I spent hours turning over in my mind.

  I was so close to everything I wanted, and it felt like I would never possibly be happy. I walked the garden twice over, but I still couldn’t shake the feeling.

  Zeph and Theron both came with me to the Erudium that day, and when Adria and I walked outside the castle, I saw a carriage waiting for me.

  “We will walk,” I said, directing an imperious stare at Adria.

  “It wasn’t me,” she said quickly.

  “My lady, the news of your condition has spread throughout the city. The people are overjoyed for you, and I just want to ensure your safety. Crowds can be dangerous,” Zeph told me.

  I lifted my head. “Then you will protect me as you so ably do, but I will not take a carriage.”

  “My lady—” Zeph started.

  “Zeph,” I interrupted, stepping closer to him and speaking softly. “The carriage makes me ill,” I admitted. “And my stomach is uneasy already.”

  “Oh,” he said. He crossed his arms over his big chest. “Hm. How about a horse, then?”

  I nodded. “A horse I can manage.”

  “Theron!” he shouted. “Horses!”

  Both guards fussed over me as I mounted the horse, as if I would suddenly tumble from the creature’s back and shatter like an egg. I scowled at them both, and they mounted their own horses when they were satisfied I was safe. It was a wonder it didn’t take them tying me to the saddle.

  “Theron will go first,” Zeph told me. “And I’ll be behind you and Adria. You must keep going, no matter what, and keep pace with him. Yes?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  He nodded once. “Good. After you, my queen.”

  Theron started riding, and I followed him at a quick canter. The guards opened the gates, and my heart soared as I saw flowers lining the walkway, and then people at the bottom of the slope. At the sight of me they started cheering, and people started pressing in toward us. I didn’t even know where people were coming from, but it seemed they were multiplying.

  “Faster!” I heard Zeph say behind me, and Theron sped up. The people parted for us, and we sailed through. They blurred around me, hands waving and reaching out for me. I felt them touching me, and spurred my horse.

  The crowd thinned away from the castle, but it never dissolved completely. When we arrived at the Erudium, the children were all gathered on the front steps, and they cheered and clapped for me.

  People from the city flooded in behind us, and the young men sprang into action, running into a formation to block the others so I could come in. I dismounted, and the children rushed around me, pulling at me and hugging and touching me.

  “Back!” Zeph growled, sweeping an arm out to clear the children. They gasped and leaped out of the way. “Is this how the Erudium conducts itself ?”

  This seemed to mean something to the children, and they all went back to the steps, standing in formation to welcome me. “We have a very special day planned for you, Tri Queen,” the praecepta told me. She gestured me forward, and I drew my back up straight, going inside.

  When we left, we faced a smaller crowd, still calling to me, waving at me, praising and blessing me and my baby, but not so many that I was frightened. Zeph didn’t even insist we ride fast or in any formation, but he and Theron stayed by my side, watchful.

  Our route to the Tri Castles wound mostly along the coast, where the road was wide, and it seemed to be traveled more by merchants and wealthy women than the common people, but there was a small stretch where the road narrowed and went by the edge of the Maze, a tight warren of houses in the center of the city. We had just turned the corner where the road shrank, and we could hear shouts and yelling coming from an alley.

  “My queen, we should—” Zeph started.

  “Theron, would you see what’s going on?” I asked him. A scream rang out, and I paled. “Theron, please! Zeph can stay with me.”

  Zeph nodded his agreement, drawing his sword and circling his horse in front of me and Adria as Theron dismounted and entered the alley. I watched him for a moment, and when I blinked in the sun, I couldn’t see him anymore. Adria made a whimpering noise.

  The ground shivered, and I clasped my hands, for a moment thinking I had caused it. As soon as I realized it wasn’t me, I looked at Zeph.

  “Ride!” he roared at me.

  I jerked the reins to the side, and my horse jumped into action, only to rear and stop so short I nearly fell as black uniforms flooded to one side and a river of commoners came in from the other. I heard Adria scream and tried to wheel around to look for her, but an arm wrapped around my waist, and I screamed, too, as I was pulled from the saddle.

  “My queen!” Zeph shouted in my ear, and I stopped yelling. He dragged me back against a building, crowding me behind him and yanking Adria’s wrist. He tossed her behind me and turned, sword drawn, ready to defend me.

  But they weren’t there for me. The horses bolted, and I could see the fighting. The uniformed Trifectate soldiers were hammering the common men, and it was brutal and bloody.

  “What’s going on?” Adria yelled, crying on my back.

  “Stay down!” Zeph yelled.

  My stomach dropped. The wind kicked up, and the soldiers fought harder, cutting down the commoners and executing them in the streets. I watched one soldier not far from us slash a man’s throat. The man dropped as a river of blood poured out of his wound, and his eyes searched upward, looking for something. An answer, maybe.

  The soldier lunged and impaled a man on his sword, running him cleanly through until the red-stained blade came out the other side. He jerked it out again, but his victim wasn’t dead. The man lurched forward with a knife in his hand, and the soldier hacked at his arm. The heavy sword bit deeply and something cracked; the soldier had a hard time pulling his blade free.

  When he did, blood sprang up like the world had spun upside down, catching in the wind and bursting in a red spray.

  I didn’t realize I was crying until Adria put her arms around my shoulders, hugging me from behind, and when I felt a shudder, it wasn’t her.

  The soldier left the man to fall to his kne
es in his own blood and moved on to his next victim. This man had two knives, and he was fighting valiantly. He was fast, but his back was turned and he didn’t see the soldier coming.

  The man turned, and my heart stopped. No matter how little I had seen it in recent years, I would never fail to recognize my brother’s face.

  “Rian!” I screamed before I could help it. “Rian! Rian! Rian!”

  Zeph whipped around and covered my mouth.

  I didn’t even feel the threads this time—it was too fast, like a tide swamping me, and my love for my brother—my fear at seeing him threatened—took over. I curled my fist, and the dirt of the road sprang up, whipping around Rian to slam into the soldier. More and more dirt and rocks and mud welled up like a wave, and in seconds the soldier was flat on his back like he had been buried in the middle of the road.

  Rian stopped for one moment and met my eyes, and then he turned back and kept fighting.

  The rush of power left me, and the last thing I was aware of was hands, or arms, or something trying to hold me upright, and failing.

  Dragon of the Desert

  “My queen.”

  Waking felt the way a chick in a shell must; there was a world outside I was aware of, but I saw only darkness until I could pierce through.

  “My queen.” Zeph’s voice helped.

  I blinked, and the world was moving sideways. It took me a moment to realize he was carrying me, and we were moving, but the effect on my stomach was the same. “Please, put me down,” I begged him, and he obeyed.

  Falling to my knees, I vomited into grass on the side of the road. Adria caught my hair and twisted it away, and I saw her pale, tearstained face.

  We were close to the beginning of the Royal Causeway. I tried to stand, but my stomach wrenched again and I fell down, vomiting and shaking. When I was done, I leaned against her, and to my shock, she put her arms around me.

  “My queen—” Zeph said, not finishing his sentence.

  I nodded, using his hand to struggle to my feet. “Yes. Where’s Theron?”

  “He didn’t come back,” Zeph told me. My breath caught. “Yet, my queen. We must get you to the castle.”

  “Only if you go back to look for him the second we arrive,” I said.

  “I can’t leave you unattended, my lady.”

  “For Theron, you can,” I told him.

  “Let’s get you back, and we’ll discuss it. May I carry you?” he asked.

  Shaking my head, I walked, Adria to one side and Zeph to the other. I felt dizzy, though, and incredibly weak, and within a few steps Zeph picked me up anyway and started striding so fast Adria nearly had to run to keep up. For once, she didn’t complain.

  The closed gates opened for us and snapped shut behind us again. Adria stopped in the courtyard, but Zeph kept on going, walking fast to my chambers. He shouted for someone to fetch Kairos. “There are few men I trust to watch over you,” he said. “Your brother is certainly one.”

  With a sigh, I nodded, and in moments I was back in my room, laid upon my bed. A fleet of ishru came in, wetting cloths in cool water and wiping my face and neck and hands. Zeph turned away as they opened my robes to check if I was cut or bleeding.

  They covered me up, and moments later Kairos arrived, rushing to me. I heard Osmost shrieking outside. “Go,” Kairos told Zeph. “I know why you called me.”

  Zeph nodded sharply and left, and Kairos sat on the bed, taking my hand.

  The moment the door closed I gripped it. “Kai, Rian—Rian was there; you have to make sure he’s not hurt!”

  He shook his head. “No. Not now. I have to stay right here with you and watch over my niece since you’re clearly not thinking of her.”

  I put my free hand on my stomach, staring at the ceiling, trying to breathe evenly. “We were caught in some kind of skirmish, and Zeph pulled us to the side.” Kairos squeezed my hand, and it made my mouth tremble. “They killed so many people, Kai,” I whispered. “There was so much blood—and then Rian—Rian was just—and they were going to—”

  I couldn’t take a deep breath, couldn’t breathe properly at all, and Kairos pulled me up, sliding me closer and hugging me tight. He rubbed my back and held me, whispering to me. “Hush, sister. Hush, you can’t upset yourself like this. You have to calm down and protect that sweet girl in there,” he told me.

  Hiccuping and taking a stunted breath, I asked, “You think my child’s a girl?”

  He nodded against my head. “A tiny little princess.”

  “Is this a sense, or are you making this up?” I asked him.

  “A little of both,” he said, and I heard the smile in his voice.

  “I used my power,” I whispered to him. “I didn’t mean to. Someone was going to kill Rian, and it just … happened.”

  He pulled back a little, meeting my eyes, dark and serious. “Don’t ever tell anyone that, Shy.”

  “I know.”

  “No,” he said, shaking his head. “You don’t. Something isn’t right. Something awful is going to happen, and I can’t see it. But I feel like your husband will do it, and I feel like you will pay the price. And whatever it is, it’s … awful. Unimaginable.”

  Shivers of cold ran over me. “What kind of awful?”

  “I don’t know,” he said, his mouth tilting up. “ ‘Unimaginable’ means I can’t quite picture it.”

  I touched my head to his, wishing he could share the vision—or feeling, or sense, or whatever it was—with me. “We’ll be all right, Kai. We’re together. We’ll be fine.”

  He hugged me tight. “I hope so, Shy.”

  I drifted off after a while, gripping Kairos’s hand in mine, and I woke when he tried to pry it away. “I’m not going anywhere,” he snapped, but the words weren’t for me, and my heart sped up.

  Sitting up quickly, I felt dizzy but still stood from the bed. There were soldiers in the bedroom, and Calix was with them, and Zeph and Theron were nowhere to be seen.

  “Seize him, then,” Calix ordered the soldiers, and I grabbed Kai’s arm as the men in black uniforms came toward us.

  “Calix, no, what are you doing?” I screamed. They grabbed Kai, but they wouldn’t touch me, wouldn’t separate us.

  Calix stormed up to us and pried my hands off him until I cried out, pushing me back so I stumbled and fell.

  “Don’t touch her!” Kairos roared, throwing off one of his captors and punching another.

  They cracked a sword hilt over his head. “No!” I shrieked, struggling to my feet. “What are you doing?”

  I tried to run past Calix, but he raised his arm and cracked the back of his hand squarely across my face. The blow was blinding, so hard and fast that I was on the floor without remembering how I got there, pain bursting over and over in my face. Blood dripped onto the floor, and I wasn’t sure where it was from.

  Everything had stopped. The only thing I could hear was Calix, breathing hard, his face in a snarl as he looked down at me. Kairos had stopped fighting, but he had murder in his eyes, staring at my husband.

  “You disloyal desert bitch,” Calix spat. “You know what we found when we chased down the information we collected? Rian d’Dragyn. Little wonder you didn’t want me to act on it. You thought you could trick me?” he growled. He stared at me, cowering at his feet, and then turned to look at Kairos. “You and Kairos must have been in league with Rian this entire time. Going behind my back, feeding him information—you both will tell me everything you know of the Resistance. Take him and question him,” he ordered.

  “Make no mistake,” Kairos said, his voice a dark and deadly snarl. “I will repay every wrong you inflict on my sister. I am a Dragon of the desert, and nothing will slake my thirst for vengeance.”

  “I’m fine, Kairos,” I lied, shaking to say it. “I’m fine. Please just go with them.”

  Kairos didn’t even acknowledge my words, and they pushed him out of my chamber.

  Calix paced, and I shifted slowly to curl against the wall, still hu
ddled on the ground. “You saw him,” he accused. “You had to know he was here.”

  I shook my head. “You promised me,” I told him. “You promised me you wouldn’t hurt our people. You were executing them in the streets.”

  “I lied,” he said. “And I’m glad I did. Now we will see what else you’re deceiving me about,” he said, grabbing my chin and forcing me to look at him.

  I pulled away from him, shrinking in a tight ball, protecting my head with my knees.

  “Have you lost your mind?”

  Danae’s voice was clear, and I knew it was her, but I didn’t raise my head.

  “Her brother—” Calix started.

  “Did you hit her?” Danae asked, and the voice sounded closer. “You struck the mother of your child? Your wife?”

  “She betrayed me!” he roared, and I recoiled, curling tighter. “Rian is in the city—she had to have known about it! She’s been helping him all this time. For all I know she’s lying about the child too! To manipulate me!”

  “Three hells,” Danae snapped. “Rian d’Dragyn has been in the city since Father died. She had nothing to do with his being here, and it doesn’t sound like you have any proof that she’s helping him with anything. She isn’t lying, and she isn’t deceiving you.”

  There was a long pause. “I want Rian d’Dragyn dead.”

  I raised my head at this, but Calix wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at Danae. Issuing the order.

  “Then it will be done.” She looked at me. “But you let your temper get the better of you, Calix, and you could have killed your wife and child. And you’re wrong. I will kill him only when you find a way to make this right with your wife.”

  “Kai-Kairos,” I stammered, looking at her.

  Danae frowned. “Kairos? Is he all right?”

  “My men are questioning him. Which they will continue to do,” Calix snapped. “He may still know something.”

  “I will stop them, Shalia,” she told me.

  I nodded, and Calix turned toward me. I cringed.

  He sighed. “I was wrong,” he said. “Get up.”