“Unless your god is Chramnesind.”
“Who?”
Fang’s eyes crossed. “Ma. The Zealots.”
“Oh, yes. Yes. Of course.” The Empress let out what Aidan assumed was supposed to be a sad sigh. “Such a tragedy what’s been happening over in the Southlands with those horrid people. Although I am surprised that dear, sweet Rhiannon has bothered to involve herself with those she has always referred to as ‘two-legged cattle.’ You see, your queen has never truly understood the connection my people have with the humans of this land.”
“You mean because they worship you?”
The Empress smiled. “Yes.”
“What my mother means—”
“He knows what I mean, Fang. Don’t you, Aidan the Divine?”
“I do. But, of course, times have changed, haven’t they, Your Majesty?”
“Oh, they have. At least for the Southlanders. Not much change here. Not in . . . two thousand years or so? Sadly, Rhiannon can’t really say the same. It has been fascinating to watch, though.”
“I’m sure it has. Of course, change comes to all eventually,” Aidan replied, keeping his voice carefully modulated. “The question is, are you ready to face it when it does?”
“Unless you can control that change. Harness it for your own benefit. Some have quite a talent for that.”
Enjoying this dangerous discussion much more than he should, Aidan began to reply, but Fang quickly cut him off.
“I’m so worried about Keita,” she said, drawing her mother’s attention back to her.
“Yeah,” Kang suddenly said, chewing on a piece of fruit. “Makes you wonder if this has something to do with—”
Brutal glares from both mother and daughter ended the prince’s words abruptly. Grabbing another piece of fruit, he moved to a corner and kept his head down.
His reaction was telling.
Especially when the Empress looked at Aidan with a sad expression he knew was forced and said, “Poor Keita. Running off like that. All alone. Defenseless. You must feel horrible about her being unprotected, Mì-runach. Since it was your job to ensure her safety.”
Aidan was going to lie, to say how he feared for her and felt lost after failing his queen but . . .
“She’s not unprotected,” a new voice blurted out. “She’s got her cousin Brannie with her.”
Aidan looked at Caswyn and his friend immediately realized his mistake.
“I’m not supposed to talk, right?” Caswyn asked.
“Right.”
The Empress pushed herself out of her chair. “Cousin Brannie? Cousin? Do you mean Branwen the Awful of the Cadwaladr Clan? Daughter of Ghleanna the Decimator also of the Cadwaladr Clan? That Cousin Brannie?”
Aidan cleared his throat. “My lady—”
“You have let loose a Cadwaladr in my territory?”
“I . . . I wouldn’t worry. Brannie’s quite . . . uh . . . nice?”
“Oh, well, if she’s anything like her mother, I’m sure she’s a fucking delight!”
“Ma,” Fang said, shocked.
“Oh, shut up, Fang!”
The Empress began to pace around her lone wood chair. “A Cadwaladr, roaming our lands, and she thinks we tried to kill her cousin.”
“It wasn’t one of us,” Zhi noted, pausing to pointedly look at each of his siblings. “But Uncle Xing . . . ? That sounds more like him, don’t you think?”
“But why would Xing try to kill Keita?” the Empress asked. “What would be the purpose? As much as I adore her, she has no true effect on my throne.”
“You know how Keita is,” Fang said. “She can find out anything. Maybe she knows something we don’t. Maybe Xing didn’t want her to give us the information.”
The Empress stopped behind her chair, placed her hands on the back, and leaned in. “Well, Aidan the Divine? Is that true? Did Keita know something she needed to tell us?”
Aidan was caught off guard. He’d never imagined he’d have to talk to the Empress himself. He’d assumed that Keita would do the talking and they would all just stand behind her looking tough.
So what was he going to say? Was he going to tell the Empress her youngest son—her “baby”—was dead? Was he also going to tell her that Keita was going to poison them to ensure they didn’t strike back because Ren had died on Southland territory? Was he going to tell them any of that?
Absolutely not!
He shrugged and did what he used to do when his mother asked him questions he knew better than to answer—he lied.
“I don’t know anything, Your Highness.”
The Empress studied Aidan for several long—and terrifying—seconds before she smiled and said, “Of course, of course. Why would she tell any of you anything?”
She moved around her chair and walked toward them. “I’m sure all of you are exhausted after your hard travels. Perhaps a bit of rest and fresh food? Does that sound acceptable?”
“More than acceptable, Your Highness,” Aidan replied, relieved she seemed to be taking his statement as fact.
She stood in front of them now, her forefinger touching her bottom lip. “Now let’s see if I’ve got this right. You’re Aidan, you’re Uther and you’re . . . Caswyn?”
Caswyn nodded. “Yes, my lady.”
“Excellent.” She smiled, then, like a snake, struck, her hand reaching out and wrapping around Caswyn’s throat, eyes rolling back in her head, her body leaning in as she used her magicks to look into Caswyn’s mind so she could find the true story.
She didn’t bother with Aidan because she knew he’d fight to keep her out. But Caswyn, who wasn’t good at keeping his mouth shut in the first place . . .
Gasping, the Empress released Caswyn and stumbled back. Fang and Zhi caught her before she could hit the floor and placed her in her chair.
“Ma? What is it?”
“He’s been lying,” she whispered desperately. “He’s been lying. He’s been lying. He’s been lying.”
“Ma,” Fang begged. “Stop. What did you see?”
“Xing. He’s been lying. He doesn’t have my son.” With tears spilling down her face, the Empress announced, “My Ren . . . my Ren is dead.”
* * *
“You don’t know you’re right,” Brannie argued with her cousin.
“But I’m sure I’m not wrong.”
Brannie shook her head. “Wait . . . what?”
They followed Batu to his war tent. Generals and lower-level tribal leaders waited within, and the one he called Nergi the Knowing came a few seconds later. Batu updated them all on what Keita believed, but from what Brannie could tell, her cousin had no hard evidence. How could she move on any of this without hard evidence?
“Wait,” Brannie cut in when the tribal leaders, all male, began to debate what they should do next. “Before we make any move, we should think about what we’re doing. There’s no guarantee that any of this is correct.”
“Who is this big-shouldered woman,” one of the tribal leaders demanded, “that she believes she can speak among men?”
Brannie, with her head still pounding, her cousin smirking, and some human male attempting to look down on her despite the fact she towered over him, snarled, “I am Branwen the Awful. Captain of the First and Fifteenth Companies of the Dragon Queen’s Armies. Daughter of Ghleanna the Decimator and Bram the Merciful. And best friends forever with Iseabail the Dangerous. That’s who I am. And who the battle-fuck are you?”
Keita eased up behind Brannie and whispered in her ear, “Nicely handled, cousin. Now we can watch the poor fucks completely lose their shit when they realize there are two Southland dragons here.”
The tribal leader, after looking at all the others, finally asked, “You are Branwen the Awful? The Branwen the Awful?”
“I . . . I guess so.” Brannie only knew of one Branwen the Awful.
Suddenly each tribal leader and general dropped to one knee, one fist against the heart, head bowed.
“It is an honor,
Captain,” one of them said with great reverence.
Batu, who would bow to no one, put his hand on Branwen’s shoulder and finally smiled. “I knew I liked you for a reason.”
Disgusted, Keita threw up her hands. “You do know that she is no one?” When Brannie snarled at the insult, Keita added, “Other than the cousin I love.”
* * *
They all tried to stop her. Even Aidan, who knew better than to get involved. But the Empress was not to be stopped. She was not to be soothed. She was not to be calmed down.
“Ma, please,” Zhi begged. “We’re supposed to be negotiating with them. Let’s talk to Xing’s ambassadors first. Let’s find out the truth before you do anything rash.”
Without answering, the Empress stormed back into the palace’s main hall and across the giant room to the small group of Eastlanders who still waited for her.
Aidan understood who they were now. They represented Xing and were trying to negotiate for the Empress’s kingdom by using her favorite son. She had been making them wait as a tactic, to pretend she wouldn’t give up everything for Ren of the Chosen.
But Ren of the Chosen was dead. And the Empress’s tenuous hold on her royal rage had snapped with the loss of her offspring.
The Empress swung her arm away from her body and lifted her fist. A blade shot out from under the long-sleeved gold dress she wore, and she rammed the hidden weapon into the belly of the dragon who had tried to talk to Fang not so long ago.
Shocked, the dragon gaped at her. “But . . . Your Majesty . . . Lord Xing and his army—”
She yanked the blade out with such venom that his intestines splattered across her dress and the floor.
The other dragons tried to run, but she stabbed one in the spine, another in the chest, and cut off the last one’s head. She might not be a warrior but, like Rhiannon, the Empress had her skills.
Breathing heavily, she walked away from the delegation as their human bodies shifted back to dragons in death. It was strange seeing a giant catlike head with antlers roll across the main hall. Aidan didn’t really know how to interpret that.
“Ma,” Fang said on a loud sigh. “You shouldn’t have done this. Not until we talked to them.”
“And what about Xing’s army?” Kachka whispered to Aidan.
“Talk? About what?” the Empress demanded of her daughter, her pain so great, Aidan was sure the entire region could feel it. “They killed him! They killed my baby!”
What was there to say to that? Nothing. Until Caswyn’s head jerked up, his eyes focusing on the ceiling.
“What?” Aidan asked.
“Wait for it.” He held up one finger. “Wait for it . . . now!”
Aidan grabbed Kachka and Nina, pulled them in close, and charged to one side. Uther grabbed Zoya, because he was a very brave dragon. Zhi caught hold of his mother around the waist and dove out of the way with his siblings as the first giant lava ball came through the gold wall and exploded in the middle of the floor.
They were just picking themselves up when arrows poured through the hole the lava ball had left. Several landed in Aidan’s back but the chain mail kept them from piercing his spine.
He pushed Kachka and Nina away and shifted to his dragon form, shaking the arrows off.
“Mì-runach!” he bellowed. “With me!”
But before they could burst out of the palace and kill all in their way until they were cut down by their enemies to die with honor, Ju moved in front of them.
“Wait! We can use you and your friends, Southlander,” she told Aidan, “but not if you are all going to be idiots about it.”
Aidan didn’t think he was being an idiot about it until the Riders ran out the doors and right into the battle, Zoya screaming, “Who wants to be first to die before I meet my ancestors?”
Aidan shrugged. “Okay, you may have a point. . . .”
* * *
“I think Xing is going to strike now,” Keita said. And she sounded so confident that Brannie almost took her at her word, but she was her mother’s daughter. She still had to ask the question.
“Why do you think that?”
“Because the time is right. In fact, the time is perfect.”
Not really liking the sound of that at all because it was just so vague, Brannie sort of growled in the back of her throat. A reaction that Izzy would understand immediately. Sadly Keita didn’t understand much about Brannie and she didn’t seem too interested in finding out.
“Look, I think I was to be the first. A message to Xinyi to tell her how far they’d go.”
“But you weren’t the first, Keita. Ren was the first, which was stupid. They should have held him for ransom.” Brannie motioned to Batu. “Wouldn’t you have held the Empress’s son for ransom?”
“I would have held dragon over mother’s head, sending her pieces of him, until I got what I wanted and then I would kill him in front of her eyes, so I could see her suffering.” He shrugged. “That is how we do it.”
“That was a lovely story, Great Leader. Thank you.” Brannie turned back to her cousin, widening her eyes to suggest to her kin they might want to burn the tribal territories to the ground, but Keita was gazing past Brannie.
“Keita? Are you okay?”
“It was . . .” She took in a breath. “You were right, Brannie! You were right, we have to go!”
“Go? Go where?”
Keita turned to Batu with sudden urgency. “You need to go to the Empress’s palace. Now.”
“To do what? Fight for decadent imperialist dog?”
“Fight with the imperialist dog.”
“You must be mad.”
“Hardly. Trust me. You want free rein to raid the rich and plentiful cities outside the Empress’s domain? You’ll do this, Batu the Iron Hearted.”
“And what will you be doing while my people fight with imperialist Empress?”
Keita grinned. “Something completely insane.” She motioned to Brannie. “Come on, cousin! You’re with me.”
She lifted her skirts and ran out of the tent, expecting Brannie to follow right behind her.
Batu and the other tribal leaders watched her, waiting for Brannie to make her move.
“She’s my cousin,” Brannie said, by way of explanation. “And I promised me mum to take care of her. No matter what.”
“Your mother, Branwen the Awful, is very cruel to you,” Batu said sadly.
“Branwen!” Keita bellowed through the tent flap. “Move your fat ass!”
Brannie briefly closed her eyes and let out a long breath. Batu came over to her side and put his arm around her shoulders.
“Do not worry, mighty Branwen. Crazed female like her . . . she can only live so long. Then you will be free.”
* * *
Annwyl stopped walking and stared. The herd of demon animals stared back. And that’s when she knew.
“I’ve been walking in circles.” Her head dropped and she let out a shuddering breath. “I’m never getting out of here.”
Something sniffed her and Annwyl lifted her gaze to see the baby animal she’d petted earlier. He pressed his slimy—and quite honestly disgusting—snout against her. Like he was trying to comfort her. It was very sweet and, while the mother watched her attentively from a distance, Annwyl stroked her hand down his snout.
She kept doing it too, because it soothed her. It calmed the voices she’d been hearing in her head while she was wandering around here, seemingly unable to block them out. Petting her new friend seemed to help for a little while.
That was until she heard that voice. Right behind her and taunting, just as always. Because some things would never change.
“I heard you turned into a whore,” the voice said. “Just like your mother.”
Annwyl closed her eyes and pressed her fists against her temples. “No. I don’t hear you. I don’t hear you. I don’t hear you. You’re in my head. You’re in my head.”
The voice spoke again, laughing at her. “Stop being a d
umb little twat. Turn around and face me! Face us.”
Annwyl did turn around. Taking her time, keeping her eyes closed at first. Afraid of the game her cruel mind was playing on her.
Gritting her teeth, she opened her eyes and lifted her head. And there he stood.
Gray-green eyes. Light brown hair with blond streaks. And his throat open where it had been cut the day he’d died.
“No. Not you,” she begged her mind. “Anyone but you.”
The image of her father smiled. “I’ve been waiting a long time to see you again. Although I can’t say it’s just been me.” He gestured behind him to the hundreds of men Annwyl had cut down over the years. “We’ve all been waiting for you.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Short on time, Brannie and Keita didn’t bother with horses. They simply shifted to dragon and flew to Lord Xing’s palace.
Brannie took the lead, landing hard in the middle of the courtyard, swinging her halberd as soon as her claws touched the ground. She struck several guards and went for more, using her weapon to hack and slash her way through those protecting the palace.
Keita landed behind other guards and quickly, expertly, cut their throats before they even knew she was there.
Guards inside the palace attempted to close the door but Brannie rammed her shoulder against it, forcing them back.
“Mistress Yeow!” Keita greeted the She-dragon scrambling across the main hall in an attempt to get away. “I strongly suggest you take your offspring and leave this place. And pray to your gods that the Empress does not hold against you what your mate has done.”
“This is my home,” the She-dragon said, although Brannie could hear the fear in her voice. “I will not leave.”
“Then my cousin will hack you into pieces.”
No. She wouldn’t. But it was fine for Mistress Yeow to believe that if it made her leave.
“Do you want your offspring to witness that, Mistress? Do you want the same thing to happen to them?”
Horrified, Mistress Yeow ran up the large stairs toward the rooms of her offspring, Brannie assumed.
“Great,” Brannie snapped at her cousin. “Now you’re making me out to be a baby killer?”
“Oh, they’re hardly babies! Now, come on!”