“You can still give it to me, sister. Give me the throne and I’ll return your precious Ren to you, alive and well.”

“You lie! He’s dead!”

“He isn’t. I have him. I will return him to you!”

“Liar!”

“We’ve seen the truth, Uncle,” one of the Empress’s offspring said, floating behind their mother. Kachka honestly couldn’t tell them apart . . . but she could only tell the Southland dragons apart by their scale color. And more than once, she’d confused her own iron-colored mate with his twin sister when they were both in their dragon form. When she’d played with his sister’s tail . . . by the horse gods, that had been awkward for a few days after. “We know our brother’s dead.”

“My perfect, amazing Ren!” the Empress cried out in pain.

Of course, it would have been a much more devastating moment if her children hadn’t rolled their eyes.

Frustrated, Lord Xing snapped, “All right, one more time, sister. He’s fine! He’s at my palace!”

“No,” the Empress insisted. “He was killed at some Zealot’s fort. He’s dead! My baby is dead!”

“We saw his head,” Kachka finally yelled up to both royals. “The Zealots walked right by our cage with it.”

Xing stared down at her. “You saw, barbarian, what my soldiers wanted you to see. Ren was taken but that head was not his. We wanted the Southlanders to believe he was dead, so they would send Keita. Her, I had every intention of killing so that you would know how serious I am.”

“You lie,” the Empress snarled. “You lie, brother, and I will never forgive you!”

“Don’t then. Don’t forgive me. It’ll make it easier to lay waste to all you hold dear. To bring it down around you and laugh while you burn. I tried to save you, sister, but now I see I cannot.”

“Comrade,” Zoya said from behind Kachka, “we may have problem.”

“You think you can defeat me?” the Empress asked Xing.

“I am no longer alone, sister. And I will not only rule here, I will rule the Southlands. I will rule everything.”

“Oh, brother,” the Empress sighed. “You truly will believe anything.”

Trying to keep her attention on the fight between siblings, Kachka still glanced behind Zoya to see what she was talking about.

“By the darkest horse gods.”

Zoya nodded. “There are many.”

And they were riding over the hills in the distance, their small but powerful horses confidently charging right into the battle.

“It’s Batu and all his horse riders,” Nina said, coming close.

Now speaking in their language, Kachka noted, “But they are not fighting with Xing’s legions . . . they’re killing them.”

* * *

As the siblings began to circle one another, Aidan and his brothers moved forward to assist the Empress. But Kang grabbed Aidan’s arm and held him back.