Princess Shyra's life has only extended till planet Ziya and she doesn't know how to look beyond helping her people. As far as she's concerned, she's being trained to rule her entire life, and it's the only goal she's ever known.
Cue the handsome pr...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"This is all your fault," Arina grumbled as they trudged through Viseni. She seemed to do that a lot, Shyra noticed with a frown. Before she could reply with another biting remark, Fitoor interrupted them and pointed ahead.
"Is that the place we're looking for?" she asked, hefting the slim bag on her shoulder. Shyra squinted at the tangle of trees, but before she could form a coherent reply, Hira forged ahead with a firm nod. Shyra frowned at the way the empress took the lead without question, especially before they could confirm the location, but since Fitoor started after her, she coiled their map and followed them.
"We just need to convince their leader to talk to the Maya, right?" Shyra whispered. Hira nodded and pointed to the skies, where a number of vague black spots hovered on the blue expanse.
"See those black spots? Those are the people we're meant to find. They must be training right now. I'll find a way to let us have an audience with Naor and his garud."
"You mean we'll find a way to-"
An arrow whizzed past her and embedded itself in the tree behind her. Shyra muffled a scream and placed her hands over her mouth. A few inches more and it would have taken her life.
Hira turned towards the trees, where the arrow came from, and fisted her hands. "Hey, you! Whoever shot that arrow should know that-"
"Hush," Arina said, approaching the arrow and pulling it out. "This arrow has a message on the shaft. See?" she tugged at a string and unrolled the piece of paper wrapped around it.
Everyone huddled around her and read the message with increasingly wide eyes.
"They want us to surrender our weapons and go in there? No way. It's obviously a trap." Shyra fumed, tightening her hold on her sword. "How can we guarantee that they won't attack us?"
"Maybe they will, maybe they won't." Hira answered. "But we have no other option. This might be our only decent chance to request a meeting. If we refuse, we'll have to fight our way in."
Shyra saw the wisdom in her words and nodded, removing her weapons in a huge show of surrender and placing them on the ground. The others followed her lead and dropped their weapons as well.
The moment Fitoor laid her silver dagger on the bed of dried leaves, a huge portion of vines drew open like curtains, revealing a pathway big enough for them to walk through. Shyra grasped Fitoor's hand and walked through the pathway, with Hira and Arina following her.
The moment Shyra entered the Garud encampment, her jaw dropped open in awe. An impossibly huge settlement spread out before her, tumbling over rocky plains and meandering across bubbling streams. It was built to house the massive versions of eagles, with all the buildings designed to accommodate their regal structures.
The area was bustling with activity, too, with sambandhs and their garuds going about their day together, from young ones heading back from school to adults closing their businesses for the day. A few guards roamed in their midst, swinging their heavy lathis and maintaining order in the busy marketplace.
