Queen of Thieves

chapter 7

They landed in the stables.

In retrospect, Alice supposed it made sense; like most birds, Des probably had porous bones, so he couldn't carry her for more than a few minutes. But as they touched down outside the low building, nearly colliding with a bale of hay, Alice could only feel a single overwhelming sensation.

Fury.

Des moved to the nearest reddrall. "Can you hand me that?" he asked calmly, nodding towards a bridle on the wall. "Don't come too close, though."

"No," she said.

He blinked. "I—what?"

"No," she repeated, her voice rising. "I won't hand you the bridle, Des. I won't hand you anything at all, because we're going back to the palace immediately."

He stared at her. "Is it just me, or did you miss the part where people were trying to kill you just now?"

"Then you should have let me die!" Alice shrieked, the words exploding from inside of her. "You should have let them kill me. Do you think I'll be able to live with myself if Zayn — if Zelda —" She shook her head. "I'm supposed to look out for them. That's my one job; to protect them." She was aware that she sounded somewhat hysterical, and she took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. "Do you have siblings, Des?"
"No."

"Then you wouldn't understand." Her voice cracked, but she forged onwards, too invested now to be embarrassed. "I would do anything for them. Anything. And if you don't take me back there, I'll turn around and go myself."

For a long moment, Des merely looked at her. The early morning light crept through the slats of the barn, haloing his blond hair in dust motes. His fingers were startlingly white against the reddrall's blue pelt.

"Are you done now?" he asked calmly.

Alice stared at him. "Didn't you hear me? I won't—"

"You can't help them now," he said flatly, reaching for the bridle. "Don't you understand that, Alice? Eknobia has them. She's taken them to Balutu." He secured the bridle around the reddrall's face. "And the only reason they're still alive right now is because she doesn't have you."

Alice flinched. "This is my fault."

"You love them too much," Des said, yanking on the buckles of the bridle. "And love can always be used as a weapon." He dropped his hands. "I'm leaving for Agmirrah. Aqzia will be able to protect us there; the people listen to her. They won't tell the Poison Queen that we're there, if she asks them not to."

Alice glared at him. "And how do I know I can trust you?" 

For all she knew, Des could be behind this whole thing. She only came to Zirna because he had dragged her here, and she was only leaving the palace because he told her to. He could be delivering her to Eknobia right now.

For a moment, Des merely looked at her. Then he shrugged.

"You don't know if you can trust me," he said, unperturbed. "And you probably shouldn't. In fact, I make a rule of always doubting strangers, and I trust close friends even less." He wiped his dusty hands on his trousers. "But if you stay here, you'll likely die. The choice is yours."

She hesitated. The reddrall whistled gently like a tea kettle, and steam curled out of the creature's nostrils, gathering in the morning air. Des patted the creature's neck soothingly, and Alice swallowed as she took in the back of his hands. White scars crisscrossed over them like train tracks.

Alice wasn't an idiot; she knew she couldn't just track down Eknobia by herself. She could stay here, she supposed, but where would that leave her? Fotea was on Eknobia's side. And she didn't trust the other rulers, either.