The Last Namsara (Iskari #1)(71)

Piece by piece. Until he found Asha.

She looked at Torwin, silhouetted in the opening of the tent.

Until he found them both.

Just think of it, Asha, Torwin’s voice echoed through her mind. Freedom, adventure, the salty sea air on your face. . . .

It was a delusion. A fantasy. As long as her father held the throne, Torwin would be hunted. It wouldn’t matter how far away he got.

The thought hit her like an arrow to the chest.

Asha couldn’t run. She had to stay and fight.

“A caravan bringing weapons is due in three days,” Dax went on. “Once it arrives, there will be a wedding. And then we go to war.”

“I want to help,” she said.

Only Asha knew what her father was truly capable of. The way he’d lied to her, twisting her into a horrifying tool to do his bidding. The way he handed her over to Jarek, like she was worthless. Like what she wanted didn’t matter. Like her heart and soul didn’t matter.

Dax smiled at her. “I was hoping you’d say that.”

“What? No.” Torwin stepped farther into the tent, glaring at Dax. “You said if I brought her to you, you’d keep her safe.”

“This is her fight too.”

Torwin swung to face Asha, his eyes full of anguish. “You’ve only just escaped. You can’t march right back—”

“Who are you to say what I can and can’t do? You plotted a revolution with my own brother and told me nothing.”

Torwin’s jaw clenched, his hands curled into fists. “I plotted a slave rebellion. I plotted the freedom of my people. I want no part in this grasp at power.” His eyes slid to Dax for the briefest moment and his voice dropped to something softer. “Asha, you’re free. What if this fails? What if you fall into their hands again?”

Asha saw the fear in his eyes. He’d risked so much to save her tonight. And here she was, throwing it in his face by marching back to the city alongside her brother.

“Asha.” Torwin’s voice was strained, his eyes pleading. “You don’t have to do this.”

But she did. She wanted—no, needed—her father brought to his knees.

My father must pay for what he’s done to me.

Asha turned to face her brother. “Whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it.”

From behind her, Torwin said, very softly, “Then I guess this is good-bye.”

When she spun to face him, he was already gone.





Thirty-Five


Asha tracked Torwin through the camp and up into the blue-black darkness of the woods, where she promptly lost him. Why hadn’t she brought a torch? Her heart pounded. She needed to find him.

She would not let that be their good-bye.

When starlight filtered through the cedars, Asha followed it to where the trees ended, giving way to the precipice Shadow had landed on. Asha stared out over the realm before her. The jagged ridges of the Rift slowly collapsed into desert, and beyond it: stars forever.

Asha stood at the edge, shivering in the cold night air, searching the skies for a dust-red dragon and its rider. With the Rift sprawled out before her and the camp nestled in the valley at her back, Asha did the only thing she could think of: she spoke an old story into the wind. One meant for the dragon darker than a starless night.

She heard his wingbeats in the distance. Saw the silhouette of his form fly across the face of the moon. Asha hugged herself to stay warm, waiting.

Finally, Kozu landed in a spiral of dirt and leaves, tucking in his wings. Asha traced the scabbed wound in his side from the spear, remembering how he’d stumbled and hit the earth. Remembering how she’d been pitched from his back.

She was afraid to try again.

Kozu swung his head around to face her. They stared at each other, the Iskari and the First Dragon, until finally Asha took a deep breath.

Slowly, her fingers felt for the bump of his shoulder bone. After grabbing hold, she swung herself up onto his back, hiking her dress up to her thighs. His scales were warm and smooth beneath her palms. She breathed in his smell: all smoke and ash.

If she let herself think of what she was about to do, she might climb down. So she didn’t think. With her tongue against her teeth, Asha clicked the way Torwin had with Shadow.

Kozu leaped off the precipice and into the sky.

Asha’s stomach lurched as the wind rushed past her face and rocky ridges rose up to meet them. She gripped Kozu’s neck and held on tight until he leveled out.

This time, something locked into place deep inside her. Something that was always meant to be.

Asha sat up, looking out over craggy outcroppings, over meadows flecked with oleander. She felt Kozu not just beneath her, a dangerous creature moving from wind current to wind current, but in her mind too. Like a dark shadow. An ancient presence. Fixed and fierce and hers.

The wind smacked her bare legs and face. It whipped her hair and stung her eyes. When her teeth started to chatter, she pressed herself against Kozu to keep from freezing. But she didn’t turn him back; she needed to find Torwin.

She needed to persuade him to stay. To fight with them against her father.

As Kozu flew, Asha searched the sky. Shivering, she watched the smoky clouds pass overhead, depriving her of light from the stars. When the clouds fled, she scanned the peaks and ridges they flew past. But there was no sign of any other dragon.