by Rachel Aaron
Justin set his jaw stubbornly. Beautiful voice or not, he didn’t obey anyone but his mother. But just as he resolved to never move again, magic crashed into him like an iron rod to the back of the head.
He resisted on principle, but after his fight with Vann Jeger, he couldn’t even slow himself down as the magic forced him to lean over until he was staring straight down at his own reflection in the dark water. He froze after that, bracing for the attack he was sure was about to leap at him out of the water, but there was nothing. Just his own reflection staring back at him in the cave’s tasteful light, its lips curled in a cold, cruel smirk.
A smirk which Justin was dead certain was not on his own face.
He jumped back with a curse, or he tried to. Once again, the magic held him fast, forcing him to watch as the reflection’s cruel smile grew wider
“You’re slow for a dragon.”
Justin jerked again. The words had come from his lips in the water, but the voice was the smooth, beautiful sound from before. He was still wrapping his brain around that when the reflected Justin bent over, reaching through the water to grab the ledge at his—their—feet.
Now he did manage to jump, shoving against the magic with all his might as he jerked away from his reflection as it pulled itself out of the dark water to stand beside him on the little stone island. Water pooled around it, leaving a cold, slimy trail on the rock, but the reflection itself looked every bit as dry as the original as it undid the cuffs and muzzle that mirrored Justin’s own with a quick flex of its hands.
“You are bigger than I thought,” it said when it was free, tossing the reflected chains back into the water, where they vanished with a splash. “But smaller than I’d hoped.”
It smiled at Justin as it finished, clearly waiting for him to speak, but his mouth didn’t seem to work. When the silence had gone on too long, his reflection shook its head.
“Surely the dragon who could surprise my Hunter long enough to get a look at my secret garden is smarter than this?” it cooed, reaching down to pat Justin’s cheek with his own deathly cold hand. “You know my name, cockroach. Say it.”
Justin didn’t want to. He didn’t want to do anything that would make the creepy thing wearing his face happy, but the hated word was already on the tip of his tongue.
“Algonquin.”
The reflection smiled his own cocky grin back at him. It was a tiny detail in the larger scheme of creepy nonsense Justin had dealt with today, but the sight of his own mocking smile on something else’s face gave him the final kick he needed to snap out of his shock.
“Why am I here?” he demanded, pulling himself as straight as he could with the chains. “Why did you stop Vann Jeger from killing me? You hate dragons.”
“You give yourself too much credit,” Algonquin said, looking down on him with his own green eyes. “Hate implies investment, but your kind are merely pests to me, a troublesome nuisance I wish to exterminate. It’s nothing personal.”
Justin didn’t believe that for a second. “If that’s so, then why stop the ax? Why not kill me and be done with it?”
Algonquin smiled wider. “Again, you overestimate your own importance. I could kill you right now without lifting a finger. This cavern is normally underwater. All I’d have to do is let my lake back in and watch you drown.”
“So why don’t you?” Justin growled, lifting his chin. “I’m not afraid.”
“Because there’s no point,” the spirit said with a sigh. “Dragons are like roaches. For every one you kill, ten more scurry in the shadows. Vann Jeger enjoys the hunt, but I have a city to run.”
His reflection turned away, walking across the wet stone island with Justin’s own no-nonsense gait. “Normally, I would have been content to let my Hunter have you,” Algonquin went on. “Vann Jeger needs to kill things on a regular basis or he grows surly. Unfortunately for him, your presence today is part of a larger plan that, unlike your miserable life, is actually worth my time.”
“Plan?” Justin scoffed. “Impossible. I didn’t even decide to enter Reclamation Land until an hour ago.”
Algonquin chuckled. “Deluded creature. You are directly related to a seer, and yet you still believe your decisions are your own?”
She shook her head, waving the reflection of Justin’s hand over the water, which immediately parted to reveal a very expensive looking, and apparently waterproof, augmented reality projector. It was an industrial model, the kind Five Sense Theaters used to project three-dimensional images into the crowd, but just as Justin was wondering why Algonquin would have a projector in her prison, the spirit reached down to turn it on.
The machine came on with a hum, projecting a crystal clear, 3D image of an empty room into the air in front of them, almost like they were looking through a window. The whole thing happened so suddenly and unexpectedly, Justin didn’t even realize what he was looking at until a tall, beautiful, terrifying figure stepped into view, flanked by her shorter, but equally terrifying, shadow.
“Lady of the Lakes,” Bethesda said, motioning for Chelsie to stand beside her as she took in the sight of Justin, bound on the floor, and his doppelganger, smiling beside him like a cat who’d gotten into the canary coop. “I was wondering when you’d call.”
“Good,” Algonquin replied coolly. “If you were expecting my call, then we can get right to the point.” She reached down to grab the cage surrounding Justin’s face. “I have something that belongs to you,” she said, turning his head from side to side like he was an animal up for auction. “Would you like it back?”
“That depends,” the Heartstriker said, crossing her arms. “How much is it going to cost me? Justin’s value isn’t what it was.”
Justin knew she had to say that, this was a negotiation, but his mother’s words still hurt. Algonquin, however, seemed delighted by her apparent disinterest. “How nice it must be to have so many children that you can afford to be spendthrift with their lives!” she cackled, giving Bethesda a wide grin. “But don’t worry, the price on this one is rock bottom.”
“Then get on with it,” Bethesda snapped. “Some of us are busy.”
“Very well,” Algonquin said, releasing Justin’s head. “If you want your son back in one piece, all you have to do is say please.”
Justin jerked in alarm. That couldn’t be right. It couldn’t be that easy. His mother was clearly thinking the same thing, because her scowl deepened. “That’s it?”
“That’s it,” Algonquin echoed, smiling wider than ever. “One little word is all you have to say, and your whelp can scurry home only slightly worse for wear.”
She paused to let Bethesda answer. When she didn’t, the spirit shook her head. “I don’t think I need to mention that this generous offer will not be repeated,” she warned. “My Hunter gets very put out when I take his prey, even a little minnow such as this. He’s still all worked up over missing the Heartstriker who was breathing green fire all over my Pit last month. This one claims to be his target, but there’s no way a little whelp like him could possibly wield a Fang of the Heartstrikers.”
Justin held his breath, but his mother didn’t correct Algonquin. “Your Hunter is no concern of mine,” she said casually, looking down at her nails. “I only accepted this call to hear your deal. If you can’t give me a serious offer, then we have nothing more to discuss.”
“So you don’t care if Vann Jeger kills one of your knights tonight?” Algonquin said, arching an eyebrow. “He’s already got their human trapped in a curse.”
“Any knight of mine who’d risk his neck for a human deserves what he gets,” Bethesda snapped. “Are you going to bargain or not?”
“Not,” Algonquin said. “My offer is what it is. Personally, I don’t care about your baby’s life one way or the other. This is just an experiment to see if I can’t get the great Heartstriker to ask for something instead of demanding it.”
“Then you’re in for a long wait,” Bethesda growled, her face growing serious
at last. “I do not beg, spirit. Not for you, not for him,” she nodded at Justin, “not for anyone.”
Her words landed like blows on Justin’s shoulders, hammering him into the stone. He couldn’t actually believe what he was hearing until Algonquin broke it down for him.
“You’re just going to throw him away?” the spirit said, eyebrows shooting up. “That’s a little wasteful, don’t you think?”
“I don’t care what you think,” the Heartstriker said haughtily. “Justin is mine to use as I see fit.” Her voice grew condescending. “I know you can’t understand this, Algonquin, seeing how your kind can’t breed, but children exist to be useful to their parents. I learned ages ago that lowering myself to save one defeats the entire purpose of having them in the first place.”
“Is that so?” the spirit said, looking back at Justin. “Then you don’t mind if I use your son as fish food?”
“It’s none of my concern how you waste your time,” Bethesda said flippantly. “Now, unless you have something of actual value you want to discuss, this conversation is over. I have work to do.”
Algonquin shrugged and turned to Justin. “Would you like to say goodbye?”
He opened his mouth. To say what, he wasn’t sure. In the end, though, it didn’t matter. Bethesda had already hung up, cutting off the video feed with a click.
“I can’t claim that was unexpected,” Algonquin said, smiling down at him with a cold, cruel curve of his own lips. “Like all dragons, your mother has always been a selfish, wasteful creature. But I have to admit, I didn’t think she’d throw you over quite that easily.”
Justin wanted to yell that she was wrong. That this was all a ruse and his mother would never abandon him like that. But badly as he wanted to believe that, the empty air where his mother’s image had stood taunted him with the truth. It’d finally happened, a voice that sounded very much like Julius’s whispered. She’d finally thrown him away.
“Don’t look so down,” Algonquin said, reaching over to pat him on the head. “I’m not actually going to feed you to my fish. They deserve far better.”
“Then what are you going to do?” he croaked, doing his best to sound like he didn’t care.
“I’ve already done it,” the spirit replied. “I told you at the beginning, you’re just a cog. A small, insignificant detail in a much larger machine. I knew your mother would throw you away before I called, though I have to say I’m delighted she played her part so well. You see, you’re already sold, and it would be very awkward if Bethesda turned out to actually care.”
Justin bared his teeth. “What do you mean sold?”
Algonquin’s face—which is to say, his own face—turned mocking. Instead of answering, though, she waved his hand over the water yet again, pushing it back this time to reveal a stone walkway that ran from the island to a hidden door on the far side of the cave Justin hadn’t noticed in the gloom. He was wondering if she was going to march him down it when his nose caught the unmistakable smell of sea ice. He’d only smelled it once before, but like all threats to his family, he’d memorized it instantly. But with the evidence literally in his lungs, Justin still couldn’t believe what his nose was telling him until he saw the dragoness emerge from the gloom.
“You,” he snarled, baring his teeth.
“Who else?” Estella said, smiling a predator’s triumphant smirk as she strolled down the narrow stone walkway. “How are you even surprised? Have I not been the one pulling all the strings so far?”
Justin dismissed that with a sneer. “I don’t care if you hate our family, but how can you work for her?” He jerked his head toward Algonquin, who was watching the exchange with an amused expression. “You’re a seer, can’t you see she’s just playing us against each other? You’re betraying our whole race!”
“Don’t be so dramatic,” Estella said, stepping onto the island. “The Lady of the Lakes here would have my head on a pike in an instant if she could manage it. At the moment, though, we share a mutual enemy, which is as close to allies as our kind gets.”
“Don’t lump me in with you,” Algonquin said with a disdainful sniff. “But the white wyrm is correct on one issue at least. Eliminating Bethesda the Heartstriker is something I’ve desired for many years now. The Quetzalcoatl was at least wise enough to stay on his continent, but the broodmare’s brats are forever squeezing into my domain. That is an annoyance I would give much to end, including delaying my own gratification that would come from killing one of the three dragon seers for as long as it takes to hand you over.”
Estella nodded like the implied death threat was a great compliment. Justin, however, had had about enough of this. “You’ll never win,” he growled. “Heartstriker is better than you in every way. We will crush your plans to dust.”
“But there is no we anymore, is there?” Estella said sweetly. “Or did my ears deceive me when I heard Bethesda throw you away.”
Justin clamped his jaw shut, and Estella knelt beside him. “There, there,” she whispered, brushing the water from his bruised face. “I saw this would happen. I knew she would betray you. That’s why I came.”
He opened his mouth to tell her where she could shove the compassionate act, but Estella put a finger on his lips, casting Algonquin a pointed look before leaning in until her lips brushed his ear. “I know we’ve been enemies since before you were born,” she whispered, each word leaving little puffs of frost on his skin. “But you’re not in a position to be judgmental. The Lady wants to give you back to Vann Jeger. His anger is an inconvenience for her. The only reason she’s not dragging you back to him right now is because she knows I want you.”
“Why?” Justin growled. “Are you looking to die?”
That was supposed to be a threat, but Estella smiled like he’d told her a joke. “Do you know what I am?” she whispered. “You might be a whelp now, but I’ve looked into the future. I’ve seen what you become: a prodigy, a legend. Your mother was a fool to throw you away. I am not. I know what you are worth, Justin, and I want it for myself.”
He jerked away, eyes wide in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“I want you to join us,” Estella said, looking him up and down. “Times are changing, and the Daughters of the Three Sisters are no exception. We can no longer afford to ignore strength when it appears, and unlike your mother, we’re smart enough to know that.” Her fingers trailed down his shoulder to trace lightly over his bicep. “We would not throw you away. The fact that I’m willing to bargain for your life with the Lady of the Lakes proves how much we need you. I will set you free of this tomb where your foolish mother left you to be food for Algonquin’s fish, and all I ask in return is your sword at my side.”
Justin opened his mouth, the No already on his lips, but it never got out. Ideas were forming in his head. Dangerous ideas that quickly became dangerous plots. Just considering it was a huge risk, but Justin already knew he was going to take it. At the end of the day, there were ways dragons were supposed to die, and being chopped up and fed to fish was not one of them.
“If I came with you,” he said. “Would I get a sword?”
“The very best we have,” Estella promised.
Justin thought a moment longer, and then he nodded. “You have a deal.”
Estella smirked one last time and shot to her feet. “Svena!”
Justin looked up in surprise. He hadn’t even realized there was another dragon in the room until Estella yelled for her. When she stepped forward, though, he saw why. Svena looked terrible. Her scent was next to nothing, and she limped down the stone bridge like she’d been on the losing end of multiple fights. She hardly looked like the great and powerful White Witch everyone was always going on about, but Estella didn’t seem to notice her sister’s terrible condition. She just nodded at Justin. “Take our newest treasure home and let him have his pick of our mothers’ arsenal. Nothing is too good.”
Svena nodded silently and grabbed Justin’s shoulder. A cold wind ros
e at the same time, filling the cave with the scent of snow and the bite of dragon magic. Both grew stronger by the second, filling Algonquin’s grotto with arctic ice, which the spirit didn’t seem to like at all. Justin had just enough time to appreciate that before Svena’s magic bit down hard on his chest, yanking him to the other side of the world.
***
“Your sister looks very ill.”
Estella turned away from the falling snow to look again at Algonquin. As usual, the ever changing Lady of the Lakes had shifted while her attention was distracted. Now, instead of the idiot Heartstriker whelp’s face, the spirit wore Estella’s own, smiling coyly at her from the water’s edge. It was unnerving as always, but Estella had seen Algonquin’s tricks before, and she didn’t let them get to her now.
“My sister is my concern, not yours.”
Her reflection laughed. “You don’t seem very concerned,” she pointed out. “That’s unlike you, Northern Star. When we first met, your clan was your life.”
“My clan is still my life,” Estella snapped. “Nothing has changed.”
Algonquin’s eyebrows lifted in Estella’s own skeptical look, and the dragon turned away with a glower. A spirit could never understand the sacrifices required of a seer. Of course it hurt her to make Svena suffer, but it was the only way to destroy Heartstriker for good. Besides, her sister would recover eventually, which was more than Estella could say for Brohomir. Or herself, for that matter.
As always, that thought darkened her mood, and Estella hurried on to other things. “I believe our business here is complete,” she said stiffly. “I will take my leave.”
“Not quite yet.”
Algonquin’s words were still echoing when the water around them began to surge. That was probably meant to be frightening, but it was hard to scare a seer who already knew her own end, which was why Estella didn’t even flinch when the Leviathan’s black tentacles emerged from the water at Algonquin’s feet, rising up to encircle the little stone island in a wall of slick, black flesh.
