Price to Pay by M.A. Guglielmo

Author:M.A. Guglielmo [Guglielmo, M.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
Publisher: Tule Publishing Group, LLC
Published: 2021-03-11T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

It was all Zahara could do not to smack Anat upside the head. Steal Darius’s Karkadann? That was the most dangerous, foolhardy, and insane idea she had ever heard. Funny as hell, and immensely entertaining, of course, but so, so not responsible.

When had she become sensible and levelheaded? Harut was far too much of a good influence upon her.

She opened her mouth to ask about the details of Anat’s harebrained scheme, but the dev princess was already collapsing into giggles.

“I can’t believe you fell for that.” Anat did her best to stop laughing, then broke down again. “I mean, it’s so ridiculous. Even if the Karkadann or Darius didn’t kill you, how would you get it here? Ride it? Only a few peri men can tame a Karkadann, and only the mares, of course. I was totally kidding.”

Now Zahara felt insulted and annoyed. That ugly unicorn the Sword Bearer was so fond of hadn’t dare come near her after she transformed, and Darius’s precious sword of emeralds hadn’t given her as much as a scratch. She could totally steal his Karkadann if she felt like it.

“I’m not going to ask again.” Zahara stood up, flouting any sort of propriety expected from a guest. “I want to talk to Orotalt about the feather, and you want something, I can tell. What is it?”

Anat bit her lower lip and avoided Zahara’s glare, clearly not pleased her elaborate game had come to an end so quickly. “I want to see my mother. That’s it.”

That was an odd request. If Anat’s mother was a human thrall, giving birth to the dev lord’s child would have elevated her to a powerful position in Reza Gul’s household. Why would Anat need help seeing her? Unless… Reza had fathered a child with a woman who wasn’t bound to him as a thrall, and remained in the human world, out of his reach. That would explain why Anat had grown up there, and perhaps why Reza Gul hadn’t known about his youngest child until a few years ago.

Zahara waved a hand at the rock band posters and other detritus of a human teenager’s life strewn around Anat’s bedroom. “Your mother lives in the world of man and you want me to take you there?”

“She came to the Mountains of Qaf to see me.” Anat’s tone became less taunting and more desperate. “But I can’t go to her, because she and my father don’t get along. I need to get out of the castle to meet her, and that crazy carpet of yours has peri magic even my father doesn’t understand. Use it to get me out.”

This was certainly less fun and more complicated than kidnapping a Karkadann. That only involved provoking a war with the Sword Bearer and all of the peri. This ran the risk of violating a guest contract with the lord of the dev. Zahara couldn’t do anything to harm anyone in his household. On the other hand, indulging Reza’s daughter in a little disobedience couldn’t be all that bad.

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