A lump of emotion formed at the back of my throat. King Zakai was nothing like I’d anticipated, and the contradiction of depravity I’d seen in the mountains to the emotion of the ruler of Gemond made no sense.

“Thank you,” he whispered, lifting his head. “You cannot know what this means to us, what it will mean to our people.”

Dyter dipped his head. “Actually, I do. Most of Verald was on the brink of starving for the last twenty years. I’ve starved more often than I’d like in my lifetime.”

The king swallowed hard, blinking several times. “Yes, of course. Everyone in this realm is hungry.”

“Not Verald,” I said. “And with this, not your people.” Dyter shot me a look I couldn’t fail to interpret as I told you so. I was prepared to grudgingly admit he’d been partially right about the Gemond king. The guy was crying over Phaetyn blood, so whatever monster he was, he wasn’t completely oblivious or calloused to the struggles of his people.

He closed the lid as though the case held his heart, and his expression became reflective. He leaned back in his chair. “You have two Drae.”

Well, that made me feel like a possession.

“We do,” Dyter said with an amused glance at me.

“I’m actually a bit Phaetyn,” I said, resuming eating.

The king started, and I enjoyed his shocked reaction in silence.

“You’re a land healer?” he asked. “How?”

I shrugged and swallowed. “Emperor’s experiments. Anyway, yes our side has two Drae, and Tyrrik is normally really strong. And he can breathe fire.”

“We also have thirty-seven Druman who are sworn to King Caltevyn and the people of Verald. Recently, we passed through the Zivost Forest, and the new leaders have assured us of aid when the time comes to fight.”

That was stretching the truth, but more important was the way the king’s face had dimmed at the mention of the Zivost Forest.

“New rulers, you say?” he asked.

I nodded. “Things were hectic when we left, but Princess Kamini is expected to rule.” I decided to take a risk by adding, “She formed a rebellion against Queen Alani and King Kaelan.”

“Good,” the king spat, his face turning fierce. They were the first bitter words to leave his mouth since our arrival.

“You’ve had dealings with Alani?”

“Me, my father, and even my grandfather. We’ve begged them for aid, and occasionally we’ll see evidence of their work in the mountains, but they refused to come to Gemond. Did they let you in because you’re Phaetyn? That’s why they agreed to an alliance?”

I frowned as his stomach rumbled again. Why wasn’t he eating? “Initially, yes. I’d hoped to learn more about my Phaetyn side, but we caught them in the middle of a civil war. I squashed Queen Alani and killed the King.”

The king’s eyes rounded. “They’re dead?”

The word kill had left a sour taste in my mouth, so I just nodded again.

“Good,” the king blurted, pounding his bony fist on top of the stone table. “They were cruel and selfish. This Princess Kamini . . . She will do better?”

Dyter sighed. “The Phaetyn are in a weakened position. Their barrier against the emperor depended on ancestral powers, and the barrier was broken at Queen Alani’s death. Kamini will not be able to put it up again.”

“They are vulnerable?” the king asked, aghast.

Kudos to the guy, he didn’t even seem like he wanted to go corral the Phaetyn to keep his people alive.

“They are for now, but —” Dyter started.

“But the Phaetyn will find a way as they have in the past.” I cut Dyter off with a warning look. This king wasn’t what I’d expected, but I wasn’t willing to impart any more information to him, especially not about Kamini’s sister, at least not until I knew him better. The Phaetyn girl would be the Phaetyn’s last hope.

The king glanced between Dyter and me as his stomach rumbled again.

“Why aren’t you eating?” I asked with a huff, throwing manners to the wind. “If you don’t hurry, Dyter and I will finish the lot.”

The king smiled. “I’ll eat whatever is left.”

I watched him, listening to his stomach gurgle yet again. “But you’re hungry. I can hear it.”

“Yes,” he admitted, spreading his fingers on the table edge.

“Then eat,” I exploded.

Dyter frowned at me. “Ryn.”

“No, no,” Zakai said. “I’m not offended. My behavior is peculiar, I know.”

“You’re not eating until we’re done eating,” I said slowly, digesting his words. “Tell me why.”

“Ryn, manners,” Dyter said in a low voice.

“She is both Phaetyn and Drae, Ambassador Dyter,” the king said. “Only a fool would not answer her questions.” He leaned forward and met my gaze. “You seem to be good people, and you’ve given my people a hope they have long been bereft of,” King Zakai rested a hand on the closed case, “I do not eat because my people do not eat. I take what is necessary to survive and to rule. The rest goes to my subjects, that they may live another day until I find a solution.”

I looked at the remnants of my meal. “But you just let us eat all of that food.” I’d eaten more than I’d needed. I’d been so certain the display meant food was ample here. Since we’d arrived, there had been a steady stream of food. “We’ve been eating since we arrived,” I said in horror. “Why did you give us so much food?”

“You are guests,” the king said. “You’ve traveled far, and you’ve had hardships. Even a fool human, such as myself, could see you were hungry and in need of nourishment.”

But we’d been eating on the way. None of us were truly starving. I was upset I’d eaten so much now, and a glance at Dyter’s stricken face told me he felt the same. We were on a strict diet for the rest of our visit, and I’d put my powers to use where I could during our stay.

The king paused. “When I saw you fly down the mountainside opposite us, I felt something akin to what I felt upon opening this case.” The king studied me and said, “Did you know, your scales are the color of our royal family? My father’s name was Lapyz after the stone. Lapis lazuli is known to bring both protection and peace. Seeing a Drae that color felt like a sign.”

Considering I’d seen the resemblance between his eyes and my scales, I knew what he meant about a sign, but I’d never known about the properties of the stone.

“My people have suffered for a long time, and times have gotten worse,” the king said, his shining blue gaze on the table. “For the last dozen years, the Gemondians over the age of fifty have left the walled kingdom to survive as best they can in the mountains.”

A horrible memory resurfaced. “They go willingly?”

The king sighed. “Of course, they would stay if they could, but they go so their children and grandchildren have a chance to survive. My great-grandfather left at age fifty, my grandfather and father both left at fifty, and in two years, I will also leave, and my son, Zardin will ascend the throne. Though, now things may be different. Maybe we can abolish that custom altogether.”

“Maybe your exiled elderly will stop eating each other then,” I said, watching him.

Because I watched him closely, I did not miss any of the horror that rocked him.

“W-what?” he asked, staring at me.

Dyter was shaking his head, but if I was queen of somewhere, I’d want to know how my people were suffering. “Your elderly women form small communities. Tyrrik and I flew over an encampment in the mountains outside of Verald. They ate one of the women.”

“They . . .” The king swayed on his seat, his slack face turning green. “They . . .”

“Your elderly are eating each other to stay alive,” I said again. Now that I knew Zakai wasn’t the monster I’d thought, a part of me sympathized with his shock, but I hardened myself, thinking of the way his people were living outside this kingdom.

For a moment, it seemed he would lose the contents of his stomach, though I wasn’t sure if there was anything significant in there.

“I had no idea,” he said, brushing a hand across his eyes.

I reached across and took his hand; his thin skin was dry and pale. “I’m glad you had no idea,” I said. “Or I would’ve killed you for letting your people live that way.”

He looked up, and his torn soul was evident in his lapis lazuli eyes. “Perhaps I still deserve to die. Ignorance is no excuse. My people do not do such things . . . What kind of sickness or desperation drove them to do such a thing to each other?”

The king bowed his head as he muttered under his breath about his failure.

I closed my eyes, unable to resist a quick search of his body with my powers. Not that you could put on ‘emaciated,’ but I was interested to know how much he’d suffered on behalf of his people. I nearly gasped aloud as the tally of the damage to his body hit me. Several of his organs were failing, some just barely getting by, and there was permanent damage to all of them, including his heart. I sent through a subtle stream of my healing power, hoping it wasn’t too late.

When I let go of his hand, he stared at it with a furrowed brow rubbing his fingertips together.

I grabbed his plate and loaded meat and vegetables onto it, and then I shoved it back at him. “Eat.”

“No, I—”

I snarled at him, some of my Drae entering my words. “You’ll be dead in a week if you do not. Who will lead your people then?”

He blinked. “Y-you just told me my people are eating each other. I don’t have any appetite.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, well, you can suffer as you eat if you want, but that won’t make anything better.”

“Ryn!” Dyter gasped.

Scales erupted up my arms, and I snapped my growing fangs at the old man who didn’t look scared in the slightest at my display.

The king had more sense, slamming back into his chair. He swallowed hard, but when he noticed Dyter wasn’t fazed, Zakai relaxed enough to take a good look at my scales. He looked at the plate of food, and then the case, and eventually back at my vibrant blue scales.

“I knew you were our salvation as soon as I saw you,” he said with a curious smile. His gaze slid to Dyter. “Gemond is with Verald and the Phaetyn. We will fight Emperor Draedyn alongside you.”

The King of Gemond picked up his knife and fork and began to eat.

* * *

“You handled that quite well, my girl,” Dyter said as we walked back through the sapphire-encrusted halls to our rooms. “The king’s eyes brightened when you touched him. Did you heal him?”

“I tried,” I said, my eyes drifting to the gems glinting behind Dyter. “I'm not sure how well my Phaetyn juice works on humans; it seems to work better on Tyrrik.”

I had a difficult time keeping my attention fixed on the old man. The sconces’ light made the valuable stones twinkle, teasing me with their preciousness. I really needed a few minutes alone with one of these walls.

My hand went to the billowy folds of the dress I wore and the knife concealed therein. I’d managed to borrow one of the golden utensils from supper and was counting down the minutes until I could pry one of the cut stones out. The sapphires were especially nice, and I liked their deep-blue coloration. Too bad there was no such thing as a black diamond; it might be nice to have a stone that looked like Tyrrik's scales.

As my thoughts went to the Drae, I quickened my pace. I told myself I was just excited to share with him the information I’d learned. That, and I held a small basket with the meager leftovers for him from our meal. Guilt prodded me as I reflected on how much food I’d consumed compared to how much Tyrrik would get. He needed a few . . .

“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” I said, shoving the basket toward Dyter. “Tell Tyrrik this is a snack and I’ll bring him more in a little bit.”

Dyter furrowed his brow, and then a slow smile spread across his face. “Of course. And, while you’re in their gardens, if they have strawberries, will you help them along, too?”

I waved my hand at him as I scurried down the hall, and then I came across a guard on the level below.

“Excuse me,” I asked the guard. “Could you direct me to the nearest garden?”

The gold-plated Gemondian bowed. “Certainly, Mistress. I will take you to them. Please, follow me.”

I trailed after the guard up level after level, increasingly grateful for his guidance as I became lost in the mountain labyrinth.

He stopped at the top of a set of stairs several minutes later and gestured down the hall. “You will find the royal gardens down the end of this passage, Mistress.”

I bent over, panting hard, not failing to notice the guard hadn’t even broken a sweat. “Thank you,” I gasped. “For your help.”

“It is my pleasure, Mistress. Do you require anything else?”

A new set of lungs? “No, that will be all.”

The guard bowed and then disappeared down the stairs as, clutching my side, I walked down the passage.

The royal gardens were like a sad memory. I could see once the stone columns and ancient trees had been grand. Now, the light pouring through large circular holes in the mountainside only illuminated the gnarled trunks, yellowed leaves, and crumbling rocky ground.

King Zakai crouched next to an empty garden bed, explaining to the gardener how to diffuse the blood in the water.

“You won’t need that here,” I said, cracking my knuckles. I let a sheepish smile escape. I thought for a moment about asking for something in return, but my mum’s words echoed in my mind, “A good deed isn’t a good deed if they pay you for it.” I wanted this to be a good deed.

I knelt on the ground beside the king and rested my hands on the rocky soil of the dark garden. I could feel the struggle of the vegetation through the barren dirt. I took a deep breath and thought of the vibrancy of Zivost. My awareness spread throughout the entire royal garden, and I greeted the various plants with a mental caress, recognizing them without effort. I wanted this garden to be as luscious and full of life as the Zivost. Pushing my Phaetyn mojo into the ground, I told the pumpkins, potatoes, carrots, beans, berries, parsnips, and fruit trees to grow. Like a ripple in the water, a wave of power swelled beneath my hands for a while before it undulated outward. I sent another surge directed at the potatoes.

People could always use more potatoes in my experience.

I opened my eyes and pointed where the scraggly potato plants had been a few minutes ago. The foliage was now thick and green. “If you dig those up now, they won’t be too big,” I said to King Zakai and the gardener. “In the morning, they’ll be the size of pumpkins. Will you have your cook roast one or two now and bring them up to Lord Tyrrik, please? He missed supper, and—”

“It would be my pleasure,” King Zakai said, his voice breaking. He reached for a hand trowel and then shuffled over to the patch and hacked at the dirt.

In his rush to dig up a potato, he was going to gouge them. I scooted after him. “Here. When you dig them up, the trick is to go at it softly so you don’t tear the skin.”

I unearthed a potato, and when I followed the tuber to its edges, I found the little spuds were the size of a watermelon already. Yeah, those were definitely mine. Apparently, my mojo was a little stronger now.

I deposited the potato into the gardener’s outstretched hand and brushed off my own. Ignoring the king’s gaping mouth, I said, “I’m off. Please be sure to round up something hearty for Tyrrik to eat. Drae get very cranky when they’re hungry.”

The king recovered enough to chuckle weakly, but the soldier’s mouth remained open.

“I’ll be sure to send up some of the potato to him when it’s roasted. Please give my best to him and Lord Dyter. And thank you, Ryn.”

I brushed off his apology and stooped to pluck a carrot and a couple strawberries the size of apples from the ground, and then I left the walled-off garden.

I strode down several empty halls before I realized I was alone. Alone. With my knife. And a bajillion precious jewels. Conditions were perfect.