Iron Crowned Page 0,44

you choose," Volusian told Kiyo.

I sighed. "Please. Just don't get on Dorian the whole time, okay? He wants this over. It was his idea to get your help. He's worried, believe me."

"That," said Kiyo gravely, "I can believe. I don't trust him. I don't believe his alliance with you is as straightforward as it seems. But I do believe he cares about you." The landscape suddenly shifted around us, becoming a rolling desert of white sand. It stretched out under a blazing sun, reflecting back at us in a way that was hard on the eyes.

"Ugh," I said, focusing down on the road. "What's this?"

"The Myrrh Land," said Kiyo. Even with my eyes averted, I knew he was smiling. "Figured you'd like this place. You should go make friends with its king. They've got some badass fighters."

"Big difference between this and the Sonora Desert," I said.

Although harsh and scalding, the desert I'd grown up with was full of life. This place was desolate and dead. Mercifully, we soon passed out of it into sweeping moors, covered in snow. I took my leather jacket out of my pack. I'd brought it knowing we might travel through lands that were in winter. It still wasn't much protection, and I realized I could have easily gotten one of my servants to whip up something more suitable. No doubt it would've been gentry-style, probably a cloak. Look human, Jasmine had said. Mostly I looked cold. Kiyo identified this place as the Birch Land.

We crossed into the Honeysuckle Land again, which was typical of the Otherworld. Other places repeated as well. When the road took us through a landscape that reminded me of northern Texas, Kiyo had nothing to say.

"What's this?" I asked.

"I don't know," he admitted.

"The Pecan Land," said Volusian.

"Sounds delicious," I teased. We'd had few stops and mostly eaten travel rations. "I could go for a pecan pie right now."

Kiyo didn't respond. He seemed lost in thought, his expression growing darker as we passed through more and more terrain he didn't know. He seemed to know the names, though, and didn't like them.

"You're taking us to the Unclaimed Lands," he said to Deanna. It was near the end of our day, the sky burning red.

"I don't know," she said simply. "I'm only going where I was shown."

"Volusian?" I asked.

"Of course we're going to the Unclaimed Lands," he said, sounding mildly annoyed by my stupidity. "We're nearly upon them. Where else would you expect a coveted object to be hidden?"

I glanced at Kiyo. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess these are kingdoms no one controls?"

"'Kingdoms' isn't even the right word," he said. "No one lives here."

"Why not?" I asked.

The scenery changed again. The texture of the ground was like recently dried mud, covered in a pattern of cracks that reminded me of one of my jigsaw puzzles. Odd holes were scattered here and there. This eerie landscape stretched far, far ahead, no end in sight. Not far from us - ten miles at most - the land rose sharply along the sides of the cracked road, forming high, rocky cliffs that curled in at their tops like jaws. Erratic gusts of wind blew through the tunnel they formed. The setting sun made everything blood-red.

"Guess," said Kiyo. "Because we're here."

I peered around, studying the depressing landscape. Its superficial appearance meant little, really. Any gentry seizing control of it could shape the land to his or her will, instantly beautifying it. Then, a strange feeling settled in me. I couldn't quite define it. It didn't make me ill or disoriented. It just didn't feel right. I squinted at the cliffs, taking in their striation. Through the red haze, I could see many of the loose rocks were a dull gray, streaked with orange. Oxidized metal.

"Iron," I realized. "We're surrounded in iron. We're not even in the crown's lair yet. We can't get to the lair without passing through iron."

"Can you feel it?" asked Kiyo.

"Yes ..." That was the odd feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"That's the gentry in you. Even with your human blood, you can't help but be affected. There's a lot of iron here."

"I don't feel weak," I said, astonished the iron would affect me at all. "Or sick or in pain." I'd seen gentry scream just from the smallest touch of iron. I summoned the magic within me, letting it reach out to the air and unseen moisture, though I didn't actively use it. "I don't think