The Queen's Consorts (29 page)

Sari wished she could curb it. She wasn’t sure how far
out into the tunnels the phenomenon
extended, and she feared it would lead their enemies to her. All three of them could feel the soldiers growing closer, surrounding them in all but one direction. The only thing saving them was Calder and Taryen’s knowledge of the tunnels.

“Not much farther.” Calder wrapped an arm around her. His sword was still clutched in his other hand, making it clear he felt the threat closing in too. “We’re nearly to the south exit. Taryen has the servant robes in the bags. We’ll put them on once we make it to the city. Be thinking where we should go from there.”

“The ocean.
We’ll take the vortexes to the closest seashore.”

Sari knew it was where they were supposed to be. Though she enjoyed the mountains for their lush beauty, her journeys just as often led her to the sea, and it always offered her security in a way few would understand when it could be such a dangerous element, one she experienced firsthand. On the day her virginity was supposed to be auctioned off, a tidal wave had struck, wiping out several towns with the force of its fury. The Order of the Seven Swords, being near the sea, had been almost completely destroyed. It was what had allowed her to run away, that mighty wrath of the gods. She’d always considered the ocean her friend in a way few other survivors of the cataclysm did.

Taryen grinned at her. “It’s a good plan. In my experience the sea is a very good place to call home.”

Sari gave him the first real smile of the day, clearly understanding his meaning. She turned to Calder, who had lowered his head as they walked. Even under the dim light, she could see the flush to his cheeks.

Her smile broadened. “Yes, he is.”

Calder snorted. “I think you two are blinded by love. The sea is often cruel and unforgiving.”

“Then lucky for us we’re on your good side.” Taryen laughed.

“Mountains are a far better choice. They’re solid.
Unmovable.
Dependable rather than rash and violent.”
Calder argued with a frown of good humor before his gaze ran over Taryen hotly. “Dark and forbidden is always sexy.”

“Also good qualities,” Sari mused with an impish grin. “Why can’t I have both?”

All three of them laughed, and it did a good job of breaking up the tension. The air cleared a little, the dense electric field evaporating to the point that they could breathe easier. For just that moment, Sari felt her age, young and in love with two handsome lifemates who had bonded to her. There hadn’t been a ceremony, but she didn’t need the fanfare. There was still plenty of romance to the memory of finally joining with them.

As they neared the exit, Sari entertained the thought of living out her days in hiding, happy and content with Calder and Taryen by her side. They could travel the world and bring the sun as they went. No one had to know it was them.

If only they wouldn’t be abandoning the world to Laysa by doing it.

Even if they did escape, it’d only be temporary. A final battle was inevitable. They all owed it to Auroria to fight for her and her people.

“Just around the corner,” Calder whispered. “We’re almost there. Gods, we may actually pull this off.”

“Yes, but I sense so many people on the other side.” Taryen looked to Sari. “How busy is the capital?”

Sari could feel it too, the mass of bodies against the walls of the Capital City. The energy there was supercharged. Tense.
Uneasy at best, highly volatile at worse, as if one wrong move would set off a chain of events that could lead to something deadly.

At the same time, they could hear the echoes of soldiers coming from the opposite direction. Sari guessed they had noticed all of Sari’s nervous energy. How could they not? She’d electrified the tunnels like one of the live wires running around the edges of the Sacred City, put there to bring the gift of artificial light. It had led them right to her just like she feared.

“Captain Katon! There’s light down that way.”

Sari’s breath caught, all three of them turning defensively toward the direction of the voice that echoed down the tunnel from the south.

“Kill the light,” Calder hissed.

Without thinking Sari threw the light wand. It flickered and died, but the sound of the crash of metal against stone was still bouncing down the tunnels.

“I think I heard something.”

“Run!”

Calder grabbed her hand and took off before she could agree. Taryen fell in place behind them, both working to push her fast and hard toward the exit. She was too weak to run, but she managed it somehow, feeling as if she was using her last bit of energy as she rounded the corner.

Just then, the now familiar cranking of an old, stone door opening pulled them up short. Sari found herself running into Calder’s back. Taryen pressed her tighter against him as he turned around, facing the enemies who were rushing at them from the south.

The dim light of a stormy day flooded into the tunnel as the hidden door opened farther to the city, as did the rush of sound. She could hear the urgency of the crowd, the shouts of soldiers.

“Step aside in the name of the great mother, Queen Laysa!”

“Move.
Move!”

“Push aside these peasants! Stomp on them if you have to.”

Sari screamed in fear when the soldiers stormed into the tunnel, already knowing they were facing an enemy. She didn’t need the powers of the planet to sense their evil intentions. The air around them vibrated with electric energy that was so powerful it was visible. Brilliant white, like lightning, it bounced around the tunnels, and she could feel Taryen and Calder stiffen as if waiting to be struck.

When the soldiers pushed their way into the tunnels, they pulled up
short,
their hair standing on end just from being on the fringes of the electrical storm Sari’s terror was creating.

Taryen and Calder trapped her more tightly between their muscled backs, keeping her hidden from the sea of soldiers that were coming at them from both sides. Their swords were drawn, but this wasn’t going to be a battle fought with steel.

“Fire at her!”

The soldiers stepped back rather than listen to the command, many turning around and pushing into the crowds that were barely being held at bay as the storm raged on the other side as violently as it did inside.

The whispers of their fear filled the tunnel, but Sari didn’t know if she was hearing them or just feeling their thoughts.

“It’s really her.”

“They’ve bonded.”

“It wasn’t Laysa who brought the sun as she claimed.”

“Look at their robes.”

“Fire at her!” a booming voice demanded. “I’ll personally report every single traitor to Queen Laysa! By gods, I’m your captain now!”

That wasn’t Macro yelling, and Sari didn’t miss that Laysa had already donned the title of queen. The shift of power had already happened while they’d played beneath the city. It all felt so wrong Sari could hardly breathe past the terror and fury.

“I’d rather face Laysa than the wrath of the gods.”

More soldiers turned away, but not all of them.

Blue met white when the bolter blasts were sent down the tunnel.

Sari had a hope the natural energy she created would deflect them, and for a brief moment she thought it had until she recognized the
ping
sound the blasts made before they were sent back at the soldiers was that of bolter energy being deflected off metal. Calder moved so swiftly she could hardly fathom it, deflecting any blast that got near them with his sword. It was an amazing talent, proving that before he was a beautiful body and a talented tongue, he’d trained since birth to defend the monarchy.

“Fire!
Fire!”
The new captain had a voice that seemed to echo for miles. “They’re traitors to the queen!”

His words were so passionate, Sari almost believed them. It was far easier to accept she was a fraud by claiming Taryen and Calder as her own rather than acknowledge she had been blatantly ignoring the obvious for almost nineteen cycles.

When she felt Taryen move, she knew the other soldiers in the tunnels had caught up with them. They’d heard the new captain’s commands and were firing from the other direction, the bolts likely traveling down the tunnels and bouncing around the corner before they’d even reached them.

All she could see was the red of Taryen and Calder’s robes moving. All she could hear was the buzz of power and the
ping
of bolt blasts ricocheting off Calder and Taryen’s swords. There was the roar of the crowd behind them, scared, frantic uneasy. The shrieks as soldiers dropped to the blasts bouncing back at them, but there were so many more soldiers to replace the ones who fell.

Eventually, they’d be hit. The battle was hopeless. They’d already lost.

In that moment, Sari felt the full burden of her exhaustion. It overwhelmed her in a mighty wave, and her knees buckled without her permission. No one could bear the weight of the world with only a few hours’ rest. She hadn’t even started to adjust to it. She hadn’t had near enough time. When the heaviness crushed down on her, she knew it’d been a miracle the three of them made it this far, because Calder and Taryen were exhausted too. She slid down between them, and in the next moment, Calder’s body jerked from the impact of a bolter blast. He shouted in shock and pain.

Then Taryen did too.

They fell together. One heart, one soul and Sari surrendered with the thought that at least they would pass through the veil to the heavens by each other’s sides.

She didn’t even feel herself hit the dirt.

By the time they brought Calder and Taryen in, Macro was so defeated he honestly couldn’t work up the ability to be disappointed. He’d seen the storms out the windows, when the sun gave way to clouds and eventually a whirlwind that was deadly in its fury. Even in his agony it’d been hard to miss. Never before had he seen such a violent display of rain, wind, and lightning.

He’d heard windows shatter and break in the distance.
The crack of roofs being torn open.
Yet this hellish room remained unscathed by the wrath. Like Laysa herself, it was hard and untouchable.

It was actually a miracle the two consorts were still alive. He’d assumed when the tempest suddenly died down to the dull roar of thunder and the haze of gray, it meant Auroria’s beautiful young queen had died, and the consorts along with her.

Now here Calder and Taryen
were,
unconscious and being tied down the same as Haven and Macro. They weren’t naked, and the soldiers doing Laysa’s bidding seemed to want to get their hands off the queen’s companions as quickly as possible.

They had two young Rayian females with them, and together they worked at molding the gold chains to the bands around the consorts’ wrists. They didn’t dare strip them now that they’d bonded to the queen. Calder and Taryen’s robes were brilliant red like any other military robes, but the sleeves and hems were clearly
royal
. It’d been a very long while since Macro had seen robes like that. The last time was at a dinner with his brother Jaton, his lifemate,
Darin
, and Sari’s mother, Queen Talsen.

Macro had been young, only sixteen seasons that final dinner. He’d spent many nights lying awake, wishing he had known it was going to be the last time he would see his brother alive. He should have pushed aside teenage shyness and hugged him after the meal, telling him he loved him in a way he would with any other member of his family when they parted ways, but he’d never been as close with Jaton as his other brothers. Tradition didn’t allow consorts to have typical family interactions. Their duties demanded they be fully dedicated to their queen from the moment they were gifted to her on the day after her birth. They weren’t allowed to know the name of their mother until they were bonded and fully of age. Before then it was feared they were too young and it could somehow split their loyalties because it was a natural male instinct to worship females. Their dedication to the one who birthed them was usually unwavering.

But Queen Talsen had been very kind, and she’d enjoyed spending time with their family once their identity had been disclosed to Jaton, especially since Darin’s mother had died before he’d been allowed to know her name.

Macro could still remember the excitement in their family when she had announced her pregnancy only five short cycles after bonding with Jaton and Darin. A new princess, one fathered by their own blood. Even before Sari was born with Jaton’s dark hair, Queen Talsen had identified whose seed had been planted. She said Jaton’s energy was very distinctive. She’d know it anywhere.

Macro had been one of the first to see the infant princess as the bells tolled and the cheer of the crowds outside the walls of the Sacred City reached their ears. The first time he had held her, knowing she was his flesh and blood, had been amazing. Their family was part of a dynasty forever, their stamp on history would stretch for
a millennia
or more, and he was incredibly proud of his brother for it.

It’d been such a remarkable time. One filled with hope and enthusiasm.

Then in one horrible night it had all ended. He’d lost a brother. Their planet lost their queen. Darin was left a shell of a man, completely alone. The only reason he hadn’t followed his queen and lifemate in death was his determination that the gods would want him to pass on the traditions to Taryen and Calder and protect them as best as he could along the way.

Now the horror was happening all over again—only worse.

Macro had wanted the elders to approve her pendant as an official royal seal rather than an imitation. The sister council could have challenged the claim otherwise, and Sari would’ve been in danger. He’d posted guards for her. He’d made sure she was assigned attendants who were trained by him personally to protect the queen if need be, and both were exceedingly loyal to the crown. It wouldn’t have been more than a week before her claim to the throne would have been official; until then she had Calder and Taryen, and if nature was to be believed, it wouldn’t take them long to help her find the sun and tap into her true powers. Macro knew she’d need all the help she could get to face down Laysa.