Endure - Sara B. Larson Page 0,11

one of the most important ones — his head general — was gone.

Finally, he lowered his sword, and again, we all followed his lead.

I’d expected him to say something, and everyone else seemed to also as they looked up at their king. But he continued to stare forward, silent. The only sounds in the heat-drenched night were the occasional cry from a baby and the hiss and pop of the flames that consumed the wood of the pyres and the bodies of the slain. The choking smell burned my nose. I longed to escape, to leave the death and loss far behind me. But there was no true escape for any of us. I surveyed the people in front of me, the women in fine dresses standing next to soldiers in tattered uniforms, a few scattered children, their hands clutched in a father’s or mother’s. All of us, from the poorest soldier to the richest members of the royal court, had slept with war as our bedmate, with death as a constant threat, for most of our lives.

The women from the breeding house — Lenora’s friends, their cheeks wet with tears — huddled together, some cradling babies in their arms. Which of them had hoped to learn how to fight? If Lenora had been trained, would her body still be on that burning pyre? Or would she have been able to protect herself, as she’d wished? Whatever it was that Manu had created, it had unleashed our worst nightmares upon everyone trapped in it. What — or who — had she believed killed her?

Tears slipped over my own cheeks, and I swallowed hard to keep myself from breaking down entirely. It seemed as though the death, the pain, the fear and loss would never end.

“No more.” Damian finally spoke, but it was a mutter. A quiet, cold statement. His sword clanged as he roughly shoved it into the scabbard at his side, then he turned on his heel and strode back into the palace.

A murmur went through the crowd, a stunned, unhappy ripple of whispers.

I stood there shocked for a moment, until Eljin said, “You’d better go after him.”

I met his concerned gaze in the falling darkness and then spun on my heel and rushed after the king.

I caught up to Damian in the grand entrance, just beyond the massive palace doors, which had been repaired after the fight with Iker and his father, when they’d been burned down. He was rushing toward the stairs, his long strides eating up the ground. I reached him just as he stepped up onto the first stair and grabbed his arm, but he yanked it free and whirled on me, his expression fierce, his eyes lit with fiery anger.

I stumbled back, shocked. “What’s wrong?” I knew he was upset about General Ferraun’s death, but as he glared down at me, he looked furious, not sad.

“What’s wrong?” He shook his head and pressed his lips together, until they were little more than a thin line of anger.

Without another word, he spun and rushed away, taking the stairs two at a time. The doors behind us banged, and I glanced back to see Deron and a few other guards looking at me questioningly, but I shook my head.

“Make an announcement that the king is feeling unwell but will address his subjects tomorrow, when he’s had time to process the shock of the events of this day. Station the guard at the bottom of the stairwells leading to this wing, and don’t let anyone up. He needs some space,” I instructed, making Deron’s eyebrows lift.

“Who made you captain?” Asher groused.

“Maybe she thinks she can boss us around since she’s going to be a queen now,” Leon piped up from behind Deron.

“Enough,” Deron thundered. “You heard Alexa. Do as she said.”

Our eyes met across the expanse, and he nodded, his expression grim. Something was very, very wrong. Damian was a consummate actor. He never let his emotions show like this.

I turned and ran up the stairs after him.

When I hit the landing of the second floor, it was just in time to see him turn the corner into his rooms and to hear the echo of his door slamming shut.

“Damian!”

I ran down the hallway and tried the handle, only to find it locked. “Damian!” I pounded on the door, my throat tight with fear. When he didn’t answer, I pounded even harder. “Damian, please let me in! You’re scaring me!”

The door suddenly swung open, and I stumbled