Brindle Dragon Omnibus 3

by Jada Fisher

  “Well, it’s better that than nothing, right?” Eist asked, glad that they weren’t talking about her any longer. “I can feel my vision coming back in full, so I’d be willing to put gold down that that would help us considerably.”

  “That will certainly have to wait,” Elspeth said, refilling her tankard with water from a pitcher.

  “What? Why?” Now that she was free from the confines of her prison, she wanted to get things done. There was no reason not to move now. Not when she had so much energy and venom simmering right below her skin.

  “One, because you need rest. Two, because it’s time to make up for all those steps that you lot skipped in your hurry to save the world…and possibly change all of time as we know it.”

  Eist winced a bit at that, looking to Dille. “You told her?”

  “I had to. I needed her to know everything so we could form the best plan to save you.”

  Eist sighed. “No, you were probably right for that.” Glancing back to Elspeth, she sat up as straight as she could. “What steps do we need to take exactly?”

  “For one thing, I want you to spend most of this day in that bed, resting.” Eist opened her mouth to object, but the woman kept right on going. “Again, that was not a request. That was a command. Secondly, we’re going to assemble the council and update them on everything. And I mean everything. If we’re up against one of our own who has been possessed, then it’s likely he knows all of our secrets. Everything that might give us an advantage. We’ll need to call in every single rider from every province, with a focus on green and silver dragons.

  “And then we plan. Together. Then and only then will we move forward. None of this grand hero running off into doom stuff that you and your mother both loved. I swear, if it weren’t for Pravik, she would have flung herself into the sun itself if she thought it would help things.”

  “Well, at least now we know where she gets it from,” Dille muttered under her breath. But not so under her breath that Eist couldn’t hear her.

  “That’s enough from you,” she countered. “Considering I’m just now hearing about you drinking poisonous potions to try to find me.”

  “They weren’t outright poisonous. Just, uh, not recommended for consumption.”

  “Uh-huh, I’m sure.”

  Before Dille could deny further, Athar was stepping in, carrying a tray in each hand that were just towering with food. Eist’s eyes widened at the sight of all of the different, tasty things, but there was just so much!

  “I realize that I may have shrunk a little,” Eist said, “but I don’t think I can eat all that.”

  Athar looked sheepishly at both of his trays and almost started to shrug, but he seemed to reconsider it, given the heaping helping of dishes he was balancing. “We can eat too,” he said quietly, and she had the feeling that he had only just thought of that.

  “Thank the Three,” Dille said, standing up and crossing to the giant man. “Because I am starving. Give me some of this.”

  But Athar lifted them high in the air above his head. “Eist gets first pick.”

  Dille snorted. “Of course she does. How sappy.”

  Eist felt the tiniest sliver of happiness course through her as Athar gently set the food beside her on the bed then sat on the floor. He was close enough for her to hand him things, but not so close as to crowd her. After so long being locked up, dreaming of all their faces, it was the sweetest, most vibrant relief to see him and all his little mannerisms again.

  Grabbing one of Braddock’s rolls, she tore into it, shoving a piece of roast boar in right after it. From there, it was easy to hand out things to all three of them, and then four when Ain finally returned.

  And it was as she ate in the company of her friends and leader that she felt a little bit of the shadow in her mind fade. There was still so much fear, so much anger and pain, but for the moment, it just let her be.

  6

  Calm Before the Storm

  Eist looked over the rowdy crowd assembled in the open training field of the academy. Except it didn’t look like much of a training field at the moment. Instead, it was full of large tents and decorations and fire pits that were relentlessly roasting different game while other dishes poured out from the kitchen.

  “This is stupid,” she groused over the lively music.

  It was different than the celebration she had been to in the palace for Yacrist’s name-day, less stiff and more rowdy, but it still rubbed her the wrong way.

  It’d been three days since her return to the academy, and she didn’t see anything that was worth celebrating. Yeah, they had found her and buried the Blight under a whole mountain of rubble, but he was going to come back. She knew that. It was as true as the sky being blue and the world being nearly devoid of magic.

  “Come on now,” Dille said, looping her arm through Eist’s. “They need to celebrate. You and Fior have become a bit of a symbol, you know.”

  That caught Eist’s attention. “Wait, what?”

  “Think about it. The palace collapsed in the city. People are scared. No one really knows what’s going on. But word has gone around about a young girl on her runt of a dragon and how she’s managed to hold off our enemy time and time again. You’re basically an underdog, and who doesn’t love an underdog?”

  “Eist is no dog,” Athar commented, coming up behind them. Eist didn’t startle as she once might have, her body warning her that someone very large was approaching her a few moments earlier. It was one of the many effects of being locked in complete solitude for nearly a month, it seemed. She was much more acutely aware of everything around her. People were too loud and stood too close. She was surprised that after so long craving reunion with any other human who wasn’t evil would leave her wanting to be alone when it was all said and done.

  “You know what I meant,” Dille said with a roll of her eyes. “Don’t be pedantic.”

  “He’s doesn’t know the meaning of the word,” Ain said, sauntering up to them with a turkey leg already in his hand. “And you guys are missing some of the best grub. I guess most of the riders are distracted by all the strength challenges over in the corner.”

  Eist arched her brow. “Oh, and you don’t feel the need to prove that you’re superior to all of them?”

  Ain scoffed outright. “All of them are breaking out into a sweat and getting covered in dirt while I’m eating choice feast-fare. I don’t think I need to prove who’s the superior thinker here.”

  “Fair enough,” Dille said, letting go of Eist to walk past him. “I’m going to get some quail eggs before they run out. They always run out.”

  “Wait, I want some too!” Ain cried and rushed after her.

  The two of them wandered off, leaving Eist standing there with Athar. Unlike everyone else, he didn’t press her for conversation. Didn’t push to see how she was. He just let her do whatever she wanted and stood on the peripherals to make sure she didn’t need help or hurt herself.

  In fact, she didn’t think that they’d shared a solid sentence since that time he had brought her food. Sometimes she got the feeling that looking at her made him sad, or angry. But then other times, his eyes would meet hers and there was just so much swirling there that she’d always have to look away.

  That wasn’t right. He deserved better.

  “I missed you,” she said finally, her voice sounding gravelly even to her. It turned out that after a month of hardly speaking, all of her screaming and explaining and everything else had certainly done a number on her throat.

  Athar stiffened, as if he hadn’t expected that, and he turned slightly so she could see his mouth when he talked. “I missed you.”

  Wow. There was so much in his tone that Eist was almost immediately overwhelmed. How could someone who spoke so little put so much into every word?

  His voice was warbling when he spoke again. “I would v-very much like to hug you,” he said, as blunt as anything. “C-can I hug you?”

  Eist nodded, unable to sp
eak. She felt like she was uncertain of so much lately, but she was absolutely sure that a hug from Athar could never hurt.

  It was like something snapped between them. In the blink of an eye, he closed the distance to her, pulling her into the gentlest hug she had ever experienced.

  It didn’t make sense that someone so hulking could be so feather light, but that was what it felt like as his arms surrounded her. He was warm, and solid, but he didn’t crush her to his form or even pull her. He just wrapped around her like a thick, woolen blanket, but with a beating heart.

  Eist reached up with her good arm, letting it rest on the curve of his shoulder, his massive frame far too large for her to be able to encircle with one limb. “I’m here now,” she said with a relieved sigh.

  Because she was. Although her mind still told her that it could end at any minute, although her nights were full of nightmares and visions of evil in the corners of her dorm, she was finally back home with her friends.

  It took her several moments to notice the strange, hiccupping jolts going through Athar’s body. It was only after she felt a few wet droplets down the side of her neck that she realized he was crying silently, his whole form shaking.

  “I th-thought we had lost you, Eist. I th-thought that he had killed you and I would never see you again.”

  “But he didn’t,” she soothed, her heart swelling in a way it hadn’t in weeks. “I’m here.”

  “I know, I know. And ev-verytime I see you, I can believe you’re here. But th-then I see your arm. And I see th-those m-marks. I see ev-veryth-th-thing, and I just want to hurt him. I… I want to kill him, Eist.”

  He stood, pulling away just slightly so she could look up at his face. He looked truly horrified by his own reaction. Eist’s mind replayed the way he had sounded during their trap, the way he’d gone into a frenzy when he had first seen her, battered and hardened and chained. The recollection made a shiver go through her. She didn’t think that she had ever heard anyone so pained.

  “It’s alright. I do too, Athar. I know he’s Yacrist, I know he’s our friend, but we have to stop him. Any way we can.”

  He nodded and ever-so-carefully pulled her to him again, rocking gently. She was tiny, compared to him, her head just coming to the underside of his barrel chest, and yet it felt right. “Every morning, I wake up certain that I’ve dreamed this all up and you’re still gone.”

  She could commiserate. “And every morning I wake up sure that I’ll be gone too.”

  He let out a light rumble at that. “We are a mess then.”

  “Yes, it would seem so. But…” She paused, licking her lips. “If we’re both having nightmares, we might as well have them together.”

  That seemed to surprise him. “Exc-cuse me?”

  “Dille has already pulled a cot from the dorms into Elspeth’s room. There’s plenty of room for one for you too.”

  “Are you sure you would be alright with th-that? I know you get overwhelmed easily. If you need your privacy—”

  Eist shook her head and pulled him down for the tiniest of kisses on his forehead. It wasn’t romantic, it wasn’t demanding or begging of anything. It was just love, between friends, or potential lovers, or whatever they were. “I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t mean it.”

  “Alright then.” He perked up at that. It was right about then that Eist realized they were drawing quite a few interested looks, and she untangled herself from him.

  “So, I heard something about delicious food?” she said, feeling her cheeks flush slightly pink.

  Athar tilted his head back and laughed at that. “Yes. Let’s go try to put all of that good weight back onto you.”

  “Good weight, huh? Are you sure your concern about that is entirely altruistic?”

  He gave her a flushed sort of look, but she didn’t miss the way he bit his lip. “You've been spending too much time with Ain.”

  “What, are you jealous?” she shot back, heading in the same direction that Dille and Ain had.

  “Definitely too much time around Ain,” he groused, following her.

  “Green is not your color!”

  For the first time since Yacrist had snatched her, Eist felt like herself. Or at least a bit like herself. There was so much ache and fear tied up in her chest, but it was beginning to ease.

  Maybe…maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have a bit of a celebration before they delved into the end of the world. What was wrong with food and drink and friends? She had spent so long fighting to get back to them, she might as well enjoy it before they all possibly died.

  But maybe…maybe she shouldn’t think about that last part so much.

  Eist felt like she had just settled into slumber when the world dropped out from under her and she was falling through everything again. Bile rose in her throat, a thousand and one panicked voices telling her that she had been captured, that she was going back to that cell, but then she landed just outside of her house again—exactly where she had talked with her parents.

  “Mother!” she called, looking around with hope bubbling in her chest. But there was no one there. She was completely alone again—

  Fior popped into being right beside her, startling a loud yelp out of her and scaring her nearly to death. He let out a sleepy sort of warble, and Eist threw her arms around him in a hug.

  “Thank the Three that you’re here,” she breathed, only belatedly realizing that she had full function in her arm. The splint wasn’t even there. Well, that certainly wasn’t right.

  “Father?” she called out, standing again and looking around.

  But her parents didn’t seem to be anywhere around. She took a few steps, wondering if she was missing something, but then Fior’s teeth clamped down on the back of her nightdress.

  “What is it?” she asked, turning so he would let go of her clothing.

  The not-so-little guy turned about, scuttling down the hill and toward the very small wood that was to the west of her home. Really, it was more like a very enthusiastic grove, but that didn’t matter at the moment.

  No, what did matter was the fact that there was a woman sitting there on a stump, playing a lyre and humming absently to herself.

  She was shining the brightest and most vibrant gold that Eist had ever seen, shimmering and glinting like the sun itself. A sword and shield laid at her feet, as if she had just finished a battle and had finally given herself rest.

  Eist didn’t need her to declare herself. She knew exactly who she was looking at.

  The All-Mother.

  She dropped to her knees, completely in shock, but Fior showed no such respect. He walked in a tight circle around the deity, nothing like how he interacted with Arwyllen. It was almost as if…she wasn’t a god to him. Like he didn’t know her at all.

  That was curious, but she had other things on her mind, so she tucked it away to consider later.

  “Rise, my child.”

  Eist got to her feet, wondering if this was only a dream and it had just been so long since she’d had one that she had forgotten what they were like. “Why are you—”

  “We do not have much time.”

  “You know, people like you always say that in these circumstances, but I don’t think time correlates one to one in…wherever we are.”

  “You talk too much and listen too little. There is not much time because time is ephemeral, slipping through our fingers with every moment.”

  “Our fingers? I’m pretty sure I’m not holding anything.”

  Eist didn’t know why she was being so saucy with the goddess of war, motherhood, and the harvest. The protector of children and all that was small. The goddess of the blade and the shield, of noble battle and death. Maybe it was Fior’s attitude leaking into her.

  Or maybe she was just tired of all these powerful, otherworldly entities invading her life. Was there a kernel of truth to the words the Blight wanted her to believe?

  She figured she might as well come right out as ask it.

  “Is wh
at Yacrist said true?” she asked, looking the goddess straight in the eyes. But as their gazes locked, a strange sort of shiver went through Eist. Something a lot like familiarity, but with a sense of innate wrongness to it. Like she was looking into some sort of mirror, but her reflection wasn’t what it was supposed to be.

  Maybe that was what looking at a god was supposed to be like. She didn’t know. In all of her journeys, in all of the strange things she had seen, she had never expected the mother of all to visit her in person. Or the woman to faintly remind her of her own mother.

  The shininess was definitely expected, though.

  “Yes, his words are mostly true.”

  “Mostly true?”

  “There are things that even one such as the great darkness doesn’t know. Part of the picture it cannot see. Although it likes to posture as if it is outside of time, or as if it knows all, it experiences the passing of days the same as any of your kind. It is just very, very old.”

  “Oh, uh. I suppose that’s good to know then. Not omniscient. But he’s right about you coming from another dimension and upsetting the balance here?”

  “He is right about the Truth of the Three. They fled from a world he devoured, one that they were tied to the life of. And when they came here, they thought they might find friendship with the spirits that lived in earth and stream, in sky and tree. But when they planted their seeds of faith, and their teachings, they found they couldn’t grow. Something was lacking, the energy, the worship that they needed to thrive.

  “And that was when they realized that they could not benefit from the worship and gift of love because, in your world, souls returned to the wellspring of life to be made anew, an endless cycle of birth and death and birth again. With such a complete circle, the Three would starve and whither, nothing to sustain them.”