Blacktail Deer Plateau lyrebird

"We of Susa are not known for our brevity," Xerxes murmured ruefully, though his verdant eyes sparkled with the joke. Dragons here are certainly blessed with said treasure, he humoured himself, before his attention returned to Koontz and her inquiry. "I have come on a whim," Xerxes answered carefully. "One of my sons will take the reins of Susa from me, but there is a longing in me to begin again, in a new place." He did not think that she would know who he was, for the valley of the hawks and Samarkand's brief, ill-fated reign there had been all but forgotten by the Persian male, pushed to the back of his mind through necessity.