Riders of the Realm #2 Read online

  Dedication

  FOR EVERY KID WHO WANTS TO FLY

  (AND FOR THE ONE WHO DOESN’T),

  WISHING YOU WINGS

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Sandwen Clans

  Kihlari

  Storm Herd

  Gorlan Hordes

  Maps

  1.The Return

  2.Winner

  3.Echofrost

  4.I’Lenna

  5.The Tunnels

  6.The Pairing

  7.Brauk

  8.The General

  9.Report

  10.The Bet

  11.Parlay

  12.The Soup

  13.Fight

  14.The Blanket

  15.The Descendants

  16.Untethered

  17.Tack

  18.The Crown Princess

  19.The Trading Post

  20.Negotiation

  21.Armor

  22.Granak

  23.Commander of Dragons

  24.Hero

  25.The Idea

  26.Dragon Drool

  27.Legends and Lies

  28.Battle Mage

  29.The Lake

  30.Drael

  31.Assassin

  32.The Team

  33.Scouting

  34.Highland Horde

  35.Silverback

  36.The Gorlan Prince

  37.Help

  38.Intruder

  39.Think

  40.Charmed

  41.To War

  42.Suspicion

  43.Battle

  44.Betrayal

  45.Queen of the Fifth

  46.Choices

  47.Magic

  48.Friends

  49.Mutiny

  50.Deathlifter

  51.Together

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Praise

  Books by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez

  Back Ads

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  Epigraph

  “Never dispute your own legend. Let it bloom.”

  —Brauk Stormrunner

  Sandwen Clans

  Humans

  BRIM CARVER—animal doctor of the Fifth Clan

  KOKO DALE—age fifteen; head groom of the Kihlari stable

  MUT FINN—age fifteen; leader of the Sandwen teens, kids too old for games but too young for war

  OSSI FINN—caretaker of Brauk Stormrunner. Sister to Mut Finn

  WILLA GREEN—Daakuran merchant, operates a tent at the trading post

  KASHIK HIGHTOWER—operates a food kiosk at the trading post. Mother to Tuni Hightower. Nickname: Kashi

  TUNI HIGHTOWER—Headwind of Dusk Patrol, member of the Fifth Clan Sky Guard. Kihlara mount: Rizah

  HARAK NIGHTSEER—Headwind of Day Patrol, member of the Fifth Clan Sky Guard. Kihlara mount: Ilan

  JUL RANGER—age fourteen; Meela Swift’s apprentice

  BRAUK STORMRUNNER—Rahkki’s brother, Headwind of Dawn Patrol, member of the Fifth Clan Sky Guard. Kihlara mount: Kol

  UNCLE DARTHAN STORMRUNNER—rice farmer of the Fifth Clan. Uncle to Brauk and Rahkki on their mother’s side

  RAHKKI STORMRUNNER—age twelve; Rider in the Sky Guard army. Kihlara mount: Sula

  REYELLA STORMRUNNER—past queen of the Fifth Clan, supplanted by Lilliam Whitehall; mother of Rahkki and Brauk Stormrunner. Kihlara mount: Drael

  MEELA SWIFT—provisional Headwind of Dawn Patrol. Kihlara mount: Jax

  GENERAL AKMID TSUN—commander of the Land Guard army

  PRINCESS I’LENNA WHITEHALL—age twelve; eldest daughter of Queen Lilliam and Crown Princess of the Fifth Clan. Kihlara mount: Firo

  PRINCESS JOR WHITEHALL—age five; youngest daughter of Queen Lilliam

  PRINCESS RAYNI WHITEHALL—age eight; middle daughter of Queen Lilliam

  QUEEN LILLIAM WHITEHALL—leader of the Fifth Clan, prior princess of the Second Clan. Also referred to as Queen of the Fifth. Kihlara mount: Mahrsan

  QUEEN TAVARA WHITEHALL—leader of the Second Clan, mother of Lilliam Whitehall

  TAMBOR WOODSON—age fifteen; Mut Finn’s best friend

  Places

  DAAKURAN EMPIRE—across the bay from the Sandwen Realm is the empire, a highly populated land of commerce, academics, and magic. Common language of the empire: Talu

  SANDWEN CLANS—seven clans of people founded by the Seven Sisters, each ruled by a monarch queen. Clan language: Sandwen

  Sandwen Clan Divinities

  GRANAK—“Father of Dragons,” guardian mascot of the Fifth Clan. Sixteen-foot-tall, thirty-three-foot-long drooling lizard called a spit dragon

  KAJI (sing.), KAJIES (pl.)—troublesome or playful spirits

  THE SEVEN SISTERS—the royal founders of the seven Sandwen clans

  SULA—“Mother of Serpents,” guardian mascot of the Second Clan. Forty-two-foot jungle python

  SUNCHASER—the moon

  Kihlari

  (KEE-lar-ee) (pl.), Kihlara (sing.)

  Translation: “Children of the Wind”

  Tame pegasi of the Sandwen Clans

  DRAEL—Queen Reyella’s Chosen stallion. Small bay with black-tipped dark-amber feathers, fluffy black mane and tail, white muzzle, four white socks

  ILAN—white stallion with black spots, black mane and tail, dark-silver wings edged in black

  KOL—shiny chestnut stallion with bright-yellow feathers, yellow-streaked red mane and tail, white blaze, two white hind socks

  MAHRSAN—Queen Lilliam’s Chosen stallion. Blood-bay with sapphire-blue feathers edged in white, black mane and tail, jagged white blaze, four white socks

  RIZAH—golden palomino pinto mare with dark-pink feathers edged in gold, white-and-gold mixed mane and tail

  JAX—gold dun stallion, dark-orange wings at the mantle changing to midnight-blue toward the ends, black mane and tail, white snip on muzzle

  Storm Herd

  Wild pegasi from Anok

  DEWBERRY—bay pinto mare with emerald feathers, black mane and tail, thin blaze on forehead, two white hind anklets

  ECHOFROST—sleek silver mare with a mix of dark- and light-purple feathers, white mane and tail, one white sock

  GRAYSTONE—white stallion with pale-yellow feathers each with a silver center, blue eyes, silver mane and tail

  HAZELWIND—buckskin stallion with jade feathers, black mane and tail, big white blaze, two white hind socks

  REDFIRE—tall copper chestnut stallion with dark-gold feathers, dark-red mane and tail, white star on forehead

  SHYSONG—blue roan mare with dusty-blue feathers edged in black, ice-blue eyes, black mane and tail, jagged blaze, two hind socks

  Gorlan Hordes

  Giant Folk

  Living in the mountains in three separate hordes—Highland Horde, Fire Horde, and Great Cave Horde. They stand from eleven to fourteen feet tall. All have red hair, pale skin, and a double set of tusks. Language: Gorlish, a form of sign language

  Maps

  1

  The Return

  ECHOFROST FOLDED HER WINGS AND PRANCED anxiously in the center of the horse arena. Steam curled off her sweat-soaked hide, a loose tether hung around her neck, and an unconscious boy lay at her hooves. She’d just landed from a flight, and Rahkki Stormrunner had slid off her back, jarred free by the hard touchdown. The silver mare arched her neck and braced herself as the Sandwen people stalked toward her.

  “Is he dead?” asked one Rider to another.

  “That mare’s too wild. She should be put down,” said another.

  Echofrost flicked her ears, listening but unable to understand their language. Beyo
nd the arena, a breeze whipped through the rain forest, causing the lush foliage to crash and sway.

  As the Sandwens crept closer, Echofrost tucked in her end feathers, trying to appear smaller, less threatening. This clan had captured her a moon ago and tried to tame her. Yesterday she’d kicked one of them, and today she’d returned from a botched escape attempt with a Sandwen boy who now appeared dead. She didn’t blame the Landwalkers for their mistrust. Her feathers rattled defiantly, and her jaw tightened. She had to remind herself that she’d chosen to return here. But for a good reason.

  Harak Nightseer, a Headwind in the Sky Guard army, swooped down from the clouds upon his stallion, Ilan, and landed in the arena. He leaped off his mount, flung back his yellow hair, and prodded Rahkki’s body with a branch-scarred boot. “Sula’s killed the boy, yeah, just like she killed his brother.” He threw a hot stare at Echofrost, whose Sandwen name was Sula.

  Tuni Hightower, who was also a Headwind, shoved through the crowd and shouldered Harak out of the way. “Stop spreading rumors,” she grumbled. “Brauk’s not dead and neither is Rahkki.”

  “Not yet,” the Rider spat back. “That mare is dangerous, yeah? She doesn’t belong in the Sky Guard.”

  “Rahkki won her, and he’ll train her,” Tuni replied.

  Harak snorted. “We’ll see about that.”

  The boy in question groaned and opened his eyes, spitting sand. His people and the visiting Sandwen clans loomed closer still, and Echofrost flinched away from them.

  “Give him space.” Tuni waved off the people, squatted, and pressed the back of her hand to Rahkki’s forehead. “Welcome back, Sunchaser,” she said quietly.

  “I won Sula?” Rahkki asked his friend.

  “You flew her farther than you needed to, but yes, you won the contest.” Tuni smiled, her brows pinched with worry.

  Echofrost pricked her ears, wondering what they were saying. Rahkki rubbed his head and winced when his blood-striped hands touched his scalp. He’d held on to Echofrost’s mane so tightly during their flight that her thick hairs had sliced into his palms, but still he’d fallen off her. She’d swooped down and caught him on her back; otherwise the boy would be dead.

  “What happened?” he asked, rising to his knees. “Where’s my tunic?”

  A man leaned over Rahkki, and Echofrost recognized him as the auctioneer for the Clan Gathering winged-horse sale. “I don’t know how you did it, but you completed the challenge,” the man said. “Sula is yours. Congratulations.”

  Rahkki peered up at the man, then at the sky, and Echofrost followed his gaze. Queen Lilliam, the leader of Rahkki’s clan, hovered above them on her stallion, Mahrsan. Her light robe hugged her pregnant belly, and her dark-blue eyes bored into Echofrost’s, bright with fury. The queen had believed Rahkki would fail to ride her and that he’d lose the contest. Echofrost felt grim satisfaction to have spoiled those plans.

  She inhaled a deep breath, still shocked that she’d returned to this place so soon after escaping. Echofrost and her friend Shysong had fled earlier today, but they had come back to the clan for a reason. A horde of giants had captured their waiting herd, and now they could not leave this continent and find a new home for Storm Herd until all the steeds were freed.

  And since two pegasi could not battle more than six hundred giants alone, Echofrost was now counting on the Sandwens to rescue her friends. Pegasi were sacred to them, and over a hundred had been captured. They would help—they had to! They were Storm Herd’s only chance.

  Fresh sorrow drenched her heart at the memory of Gorlan elephants dragging her best friend, Hazelwind, through the towering palms like an unruly dog. He’d bucked and strained against the rope around his throat, his neck flat, his jade-colored wings beating uselessly. She’d just forgiven him after a long and stupid fight that was all her fault, and now they were separated again.

  And Dewberry, the pregnant battle mare, had also been leashed like an animal. Dewberry’s belly had blossomed since arriving here, but the rest of her body had thinned from stress. Her unborn foal—the last living link to Echofrost’s twin brother, Bumblewind—was in grave danger.

  Echofrost nudged Rahkki with her muzzle. “Sula,” he whispered, a weak grin on his face.

  She pawed the sand, wondering what sort of Pair they would make in battle. They’d had their first flight together today, and it had terrified the cub, his fear of heights paralyzing him. She knew he didn’t want to be a Rider, no more than she wanted to be a Flier, and she nickered, bemused. Perhaps that made them the perfect Pair.

  Outside the horse arena, spectators began hollering at Rahkki. She recognized his name.

  Rahkki Stormrunner, I knew he could tame her!

  All he did was hang on! That mare’s still wild.

  Yeah? Then how’d he get her to fly back here?

  Is he even twelve? I thought the contestants had to be twelve.

  The yelling upset Echofrost, and she whinnied for her friend Shysong. The mare had been led away by her new owner, Princess I’Lenna. The girl had named the roan Firo and moved her to her bedroom, and Echofrost hated being separated from her. They’d fled their dangerous homeland a moon ago, hoping to settle Storm Herd on safer shores. But soon after arriving, the Fifth Clan Sky Guard had captured Shysong.

  Echofrost had allowed them to capture her too, thinking she’d infiltrate the clan and free her friend—but the Sandwens had chopped off her flight feathers. The horror of it stabbed her anew. A full moon had passed before the cut feathers had grown long enough for her to fly again, and during that time she’d lived side by side with Shysong in the Kihlari barn.

  Echofrost snorted. Her mission to live free in a new land had failed miserably. She shoved her muzzle toward Rahkki, feeling impatient.

  “What’s wrong?” he whispered, still collecting his bearings.

  Echofrost pawed harder, digging holes in the sand. She had flown Rahkki close enough to the giants for him to see that Storm Herd was captured. When was he going to tell his people?

  The silver pegasus lifted her head, studying the Sandwen village, the fortress, the Kihlari training yard—all of it surrounded by the chaotic jungle. No, she hadn’t failed, not yet. The Sandwens were as fierce as pegasi. They could fight the giants and free Storm Herd, and now she belonged to one of them. She swallowed her fears of being ridden, controlled, and tamed, and bent her head toward her future—the young boy at her hooves: Rahkki Stormrunner.

  2

  Winner

  RAHKKI REACHED FOR SULA’S REINS, CRINGING. The silver mare didn’t like to be controlled, but to his surprise, she let him take the dangling leathers into his palms.

  The crowd began to disperse, shaking their heads. The show was over, but Rahkki still felt disoriented. “I’Lenna?” he called, looking around. The princess had been with him on his wild flight through the jungle.

  “She’s okay, Rahkki,” Tuni answered. “Just a bit branch-torn, like you.”

  “But where is she?” he asked.

  “The queen sent her and Firo back to Fort Prowl as soon as the mares landed. Lilliam is not pleased. Where did you take her daughter?”

  “The wild mares took us!” he sputtered. “We had no control over them.” Rahkki remembered sliding off the mare and plummeting from the clouds, his cheeks flapping and the wind shoving down his throat.

  “Shh,” Tuni warned. “I wouldn’t shout that too loudly. You’re going to be a Rider in the Sky Guard now, a warrior. You don’t want people thinking you can’t pilot your Flier.”

  “But I can’t.” Rahkki brushed the dust off his worn leather trousers. “And I don’t want to be a Rider. Uncle needs me on the farm.” He groaned. “I wasn’t thinking when I entered the contest.” He eyed the silver mare he’d won, his gaze sweeping up her four strong legs to her muscled chest, long arched neck, and salt-white mane, and then coming to rest on her chiseled face. She flexed her wings, ruffling the deep-purple feathers that lightened toward her wingtips. “I just wanted
to save Sula from the queen. If no one could ride her, Lilliam was going to feed her to the dragon.”

  Tuni frowned and lowered her voice even more. “I know you care for this wildling,” she said. “But this isn’t a game, Rahkki. You won a Flier, not a pet. Sula was selected as a warrior, and you can’t change that. You have to join the Sky Guard. You have no choice.”

  “But Uncle Darthan?”

  “Ha!” Tuni laughed. “Your uncle bet the queen two full rounds—at odds of twenty to one—that you could fly that mare to the clouds and back, and you did it. He’s just fleeced the queen out of a fortune.”

  Rahkki gulped. Now he knew why Queen Lilliam had been staring at his mare with such putrid anger. “But I didn’t expect to win.”

  Tuni continued. “Doesn’t matter. Your uncle can afford proper workers now, Rahkki. He doesn’t need a halfhearted apprentice. Don’t worry about Darthan.”

  “But—”

  “It’s done. Accept it. The Pairing ceremony is tomorrow.”

  Rahkki dropped his gaze to the sand floor of the arena. He didn’t want to be a Rider. It wasn’t that he was afraid of the Gorlan hordes—the merciless giants that raided his clan—and it wasn’t that he was squeamish about war. It was the flying.

  Sula had been quick and nimble in the sky; rising and turning so fast that Rahkki’s gut had rolled like a marble on a rocking boat. Even now, the solid ground beneath him seemed to sway and whirl. Only his older brother, Brauk, knew the truth: Rahkki was afraid of heights.

  “Let’s get you into the shade,” Tuni said, encouraging Rahkki and Sula to exit the arena.

  “Wait!” Rahkki suddenly remembered why Sula had returned after first abandoning him in a huge tree nest—her wild herd had been captured by the Highland Horde. “I SAW GIANTS!” he shouted to his clanmates.

  Everyone turned toward him at the mention of the giants; soldiers spat on the ground. “Where?” Tuni asked, her jaw tight. “Are you sure?”

  Queen Lilliam also heard Rahkki’s cry. She kicked her steed around and glided back to him. “Did you say giants?”

  “Yes,” he answered, suddenly breathless. It all came back to him now. “They were heading to Mount Crim, and they had her wild herd—over a hundred of them—tethered to elephants.” He pointed at Sula. “Her friends are captured.”