When she looked down at her feet, she saw the bones there. They spread in a field before her, picked dry by sand and beak. Thousands of skeletons, broken apart, littered the desert outside the walls of Goshar. Here were the bones of her own people, of Eteerian soldiers who had fought this city, who had perished in the heat far from home. Her father had fought two campaigns against Goshar, returning home with tales of triumph, of many enemies slain and towers felled, of the pride of Goshar crushed. Here lay those who had paid for his wars, and still the walls of that old enemy stood; despite Raem's boasts he had never breached these walls, only left fields of death before them. The skulls of her people stared at Issari as she walked by, entreating her, begging her to take them home.

My father could never enter these walls, she thought. But I must. Not with swords and spears but with my words. If I fail, the thousands behind me will join the dead, just more bones for the sun to bake and the crows to pick clean.

She looked behind her at her followers, once the proud people of Eteer, now ragged refugees covered in dust and dried blood. She returned her eyes to the gates of Goshar. She took a few steps closer, separating herself from the crowd, and raised her palm. The amulet upon it shone.

"Hear me, Goshar!" she cried out. "I am Issari Seran, rightful Queen of Eteer! I come to speak with your king."

For a long time nothing happened. The guards stared down from above, arrows nocked in their bows, silent and faceless, their helms blank masks. Issari wondered how many of those guards had lost brothers to her father's armies.

If they fire upon us now, and if they slay us, they would only save us from a slower death.

"Open your gates, Goshar!" Issari cried. "I do not come here as a soldier. I am not my father, for he has fallen from Taal's light and has relinquished his right to rule. I am a new queen. I come to speak of peace. Open your gates, City of Stone! I shall enter and speak to your lord, the Abina Sin-Naharosh."

For long moments, silence.

They won't let us in.

Issari expected to feel fear, despair, anguish. Instead she felt rage. Without pausing to think, she shifted into a dragon and soared. Her voice pealed across the land, the howl of a cornered beast.