Queen of Shifting Sands by Kaitlyn Carter Brown

Author:Kaitlyn Carter Brown [Brown, Kaitlyn Carter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Whimsical Illustration & Publishing

Chapter 31

Lystra

Lystra glanced over her shoulder. Starlight danced overhead and the blue light of the torches burned bright in the courtyard. From here, the gathering of soldiers, bakers, servants, and king looked like a mural. A beautiful moment awash in color and waiting to be cast in stone. Those who watched might marvel and wonder what sort of story brought such an unusual gathering together.

One of the soldiers had procured an oud and began to play. Fin, the young boy, brought a drum. The music was hardly refined but held a passion that one could feel. A song of life beneath a sky full of stars.

She’d kept a watch on the time. If she were to address the kingdom at dawn, she wanted her rest.

Besides, if she left early, she wouldn’t watch the magic end.

They would go on, talking, laughing, singing, and that was how she would remember it.

Before she turned to depart, Elerek glanced her way. Their eyes met, and he smiled. She’d learned to see the distinction between his and Cormek’s smile. Elerek’s smile went deeper, holding a cost, and she knew a battle had been won to gift it. She returned the smile, pleased that he had deemed her worthy of it.

Even as the shadows of the palace consumed her, she could hear the echoes of laughter. Sorrow pierced her heart. Every one of those beautiful souls was going to drown from the curse.

Like Azraa, standing in the temple courtyard with transparent skin, her bones exposed. A body shifting into water to be spilled upon the desert. Her final cries for help echoed still in Lystra’s ears.

She paused in the corridor, her hand braced against a pillar. The palace took on a different air at night. Everywhere she looked, she saw ghosts of the bright and the bold, remembering the dances and galas thrown by Cormek. Her beloved, gone in an instant. Now, the laughter of the cursed would join the ghosts. Grief overtook her heart, like an invading army, and she hadn’t the battlements to defend it. Blinking back bitter tears, a strangled sob escaped her throat.

A moment passed. And then another. Moments that felt like sinking into darkness, smothered and oppressed until her heart fought for each frantic beat.

And then, Lystra drew herself up, breathed in deep, and kept walking. I have to keep walking.

She understood what Elerek meant to do. He drew back the lattice, letting her see into his world—to share a meal with the people he loved. People who didn’t deserve death, who were worthy of value, of understanding.

Their fight went deeper than the struggle for Instanolde, for survival. More than a strategic battle with the Jarkins or a political one with the dynamics of their kingdom.

No, they fought for life itself.

“Please?” A whisper moved through the murky hall.

Lystra paused. The hair on her neck prickled.

“Why? Why does it matter?”

“I can help.”

“It’s not really helping. I no longer care whether I live or drown.”

The curse. Lystra turned, hurrying toward the source of the exchange, her steps light in her satin slippers.

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