“How many?” her voice sounded strange and nearly strangled to her own ears. “How many dead?”
At her question she saw one of the shipmates hunch over and bury his face into his hands, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs.
“Four,” Atherly said quietly.
The number hit like a stone. The logical part of her brain said that it could have been worse. Should have been worse. Dragons were known to take down entire armies. Entire cities. That their team of sixteen had taken it down on their own was a miracle. That they only had four losses was a blessing. Even so, it felt like that number hovered around her to taunt her. Add to the two from before, it just made another weight around her neck.
It did not take long to figure out who was missing. Who was not in the exhausted clump of people who were uncertain if they had truly made it out alive. The Wyverns: Ioannu and Kathleen were gone. And one of the shipmates: the brother of the one crying. Without meaning to she searched the field for them. One crushed beneath a collapsed building. The Captain torn in half. And both Wyverns were frozen in mid-attack, weapons raised, encased in their tomb of ice – likely having been caught in the dragon’s breath.
Everyone’s eyes were still on her. Everyone was still waiting for something from her. An order, a bit of inspirational speech that would make this less… just less. They were waiting for something and she was not sure she could give it. She was not a leader. She was not anything. She was just… Payton.
And now in less than a day they had lost six people. She had lost six people. She was responsible for them, they had trusted her. Now it was just six more people to add to the list of people she had failed. Six more people who had relied on her and she had failed them.
Six more ghosts to follow her.
Payton struggled to speak, her mouth feeling dry and her tongue thick. “We… I…”
Closing her eyes she tried to shut out the world. Shut out everything. Nothing but cold and blackness now. Somehow that was easier. When she dared to open her eyes again, Atherly was coming toward her with a concerned look.
“I need you to divide into teams once more.” Her voice was stronger now even if she did not feel it. “I will stay behind to… to deal with laying our friends to rest but the city has not been cleared. We need to know if there are other beasts about and we need to know before nightfall.”
It was obvious this was not what they had thought she would say. She wished she could give them comfort. Soothing words and platitudes that would make these moments easier but she had nothing for them. There could still be danger and the sun was getting closer to setting.
“Please…” she nearly whispered the word.
She expected rejection, objection. She expected that the people would rebel and hate her for what she had brought them into. That they would call her callous and heartless for needing to focus on the survival as a whole rather than the propriety of mourning those who had fallen. But she did not get any of it.
Instead, Isiah got to his feet and turned to the others. “A mage in each team. Sam and I will stay back with Payton. We’re an uneven party. Given Atherly’s fighting prowess I’d suggest the extra tag along in that group.”
Beyond Atherly’s objection to the offense on his abilities, they all split off into teams much like before – though the two remaining shipmates opted to stay behind and take inventory of their supplies. As the two groups set off in different directions into the city, Payton turned to the dead. She was relieved when her brothers automatically went about helping without any need for instructions – Samuel moving to thaw the bodies encased in ice with flame and Isiah hunting down the Captain’s missing parts.
The silence felt heavy and thick as the three of them began to lay the bodies out as respectfully as they could. It wasn’t right. They deserved a proper ceremony in the Temple of the Triad but they could not give them that. Even with the ice to preserve their bodies and slow the decay, the dead would rot long before they would ever return to Imeryn. The pyre and prayer were all they could offer. All they had done scant hours ago with Orn and Aimar, who died with the Echo attack, and all they could do now.
“It isn’t your fault.”
Payton nearly jumped at the sound of Samuel’s voice. He was still working at melting the ice around Kathleen while Isiah carried Ioannu to the row they had made in the snow. “What?”
“This. Their deaths. It isn’t your fault.”
“Sam.”
“I see that look on your face, the guilt. I’m not blind. And you’re being stupid,” he said firmly.
She glared at him. “You don’t understand.”
“You’re blaming yourself for their deaths. Is there more to understand than that?”
Payton’s mouth opened and closed and then did it again before she clenched her teeth. “Shut up.”
“You didn’t kill them. A dragon did. And Echoes did before that. Unless you somehow created and then controlled those monsters: not your fault.”
She didn’t respond.
The flame in Samuel’s hand disappeared and he turned to her. “Payton.”
“Stop it.”
“These people knew the risks when they agreed to come.”
She looked at him sharply, tears burning in her eyes. “They trusted that I’d keep them alive, that I knew what I was doing but I don’t. Creators, Sammy, I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know anything. And I got these people killed because of it. All for treasure. That’s why I wanted to keep you and Isiah as far away from this as possible. I couldn’t…”
Two arms circled her and pulled her into a hug. “You can’t control everything, Payton.”
“I can fucking try,” she mumbled into his chest.
Samuel snickered. “And since when does trying to wrap people into a box of safety ever work out well?”
“Are you talking about you and Isiah or the people I just got killed?”
“You didn’t get anyone killed.”
Payton let out a shaking breath and closed her eyes. “Some part of me knows that. Deep down, I know that but all I can see is that I brought them here.”
“And they made the choice.” Samuel pulled away and looked at her. “The world doesn’t fall on your shoulders, sister.”
“Just mother’s death and your lives and the responsibility of the success and survival of this mission and—”
He covered her mouth with his hand. “You’re being an idiot.”
She bit down to get him to release her but encountered nothing but mitten. Spitting at the taste of fur and blech, she reared back. “No fair.”
Samuel laughed before becoming serious again. “Don’t blame yourself for things outside of your control. You did everything you could. For Creators’ sake, you ran up the back of a fucking dragon, Payton. None of these deaths are on you.”
Payton swallowed hard and tried to give him a smile. She knew that she had failed, that what she offered was broken and weak. It didn’t seem to matter to Samuel though. He just squeezed her arm, offered her a kind smile of his own, and then turned back to melting the ice.
Chapter Fifty-Four
One benefit of a massive dragon taking roost in the city was that the rest of it was deserted. The only traces of other life were the piles of bones left behind from the dragon’s previous meals. It made the sweep of the city uneventful.
It was dusk when the pyre was set aflame and final words were said. As morbid as it was, they did not travel far from the dragon to make camp if only not to get lost in the city in the dark. The first night in the city was far more solemn than any of them could have imagined.
Payton was the first up the next morning, waking with the early light that crested over the mountains. Slipping away from camp she headed to the Vaults. The building was just as magnificent as it had been the day before and just as dangerous and crumbling. In the dawn of new light, it left a new unsettled feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“You appear worried.” The voice startle
d her out of her reverie. Jarrett had apparently followed her. She had not even noticed that he had been awake.
“The dragon did a number on the structure.” She nodded to the gaping hole and collapsed side building. It might have been using the collapsed caverns as a nest during storms.”
“A reasonable assumption.”
“Depending on what the dragon destroyed while down there, the entire place could fall down around us if we’re not careful.”
Jarrett was silent for some time, studying the building just as she was. “How long do you think?”
“To clear a path and reinforce it? A day. Maybe two.”
It took three days. Three days of exhausting hard labor. Of using the solid and fresh wood planks they had brought with them to reinforce the crumbling structure. On a whim that stemmed from Nyla and Atherly talking – Payton had to remind herself never to let those to hatch plans – they began pulling beams from other buildings to help. Payton pointing out that those beams were just as old and could easily crack and break apart like the rest of the current building was studiously ignored and their idea was implemented.
On the one hand it allowed them to be done quicker and gave them a plethora of never-ending supplies because the entire city was their stockpile. On the other hand, it took time to send a couple of people away from the current job to go find another piece of thick, frostbitten wood to join the smaller fresh planks they had just added. Nevertheless, they finished as best they could, following the dragon’s trail of destruction through the Vaults building and down the massive hole in the floor. Continuing down until it had led to the corridor of mazes where everything was stone and they had very clearly left the building.
“Do you think the dragon came from the mountains?” Caius asked curious, as they followed Isiah down the hole on the morning they finally set out to explore the deep vaults. Everyone was eager to set eyes on the first of their treasure.
“Maybe,” Payton said uncertainly, watching Nyla kneel in front of the first vault she came across – comparing it to her map three times before bouncing to her feet.
“What?!” Nyla’s shrill voice caused her to look. The redhead had gotten the door open after several minutes of fiddling but what was inside was not what was expected.
Nothing.
Well, technically not nothing. The right side of the wall was collapsing as though something had crashed through it. And apparently looted everything within the vault.
Payton took a few steps inside and peered through the hole. It went straight through the several feet thick wall and into the vault on the other side. And so on and so on. Creators, how far did it stretch down? And not a single glimmer of gold or gems or anything could be seen in the vaults. Just rubble and blackness.
“What’s going on?” Jolene said warily.
“The dragon,” Payton said numbly.
“What about it?” Caius snapped.
One universal fact that never faded from stories that dealt with dragons. One ridiculous thing that she had always want to dismiss as idiotic and yet, now, she could not. “Dragons always go after shiny things.”
There was a heartbeat of silence as the group absorbed what she said and then: “Aw man,” Nyla moaned. “The dragon stole our loot!”
“What do we do now?” Samuel asked, kicking a bit of the collapsed wall about.
“Not sure there is much else to do besides follow the holes and hope to find its lair.”
“Its lair?” Jarrett said in a tight voice.
“Maybe we’ll be lucky and it won’t have a mate. Or babies,” Payton said glibly.
“When have you ever been lucky?” Isiah accused.
Payton did not answer. She heard Nyla squeal and saw the redhead dive for the ground, picking up a very dirty piece of silver that Samuel had unearthed in his nudging of rubble. She waved it proudly about before slipping it into her pack declaring it would be hers forever. Shaking her head, Payton began to walk. Here goes nothing.
Between the map and the holes… they were hopelessly lost. Even though Payton had taken care to mark the walls so they could find their way back, she was positive they had no idea where they were. The only reason she was relatively certain they were headed in the right direction was the swath of destruction. They had continued to follow it out of the vaults and onto a path, then off of the path and into a tunnel, until it suddenly disappeared. The tunnel had widened and it was nothing but guessing now.
Payton stood at the mouth of two massive cave entrances with no idea which to take. There was nothing she could see that indicated the dragon frequented either. “Left or right?” she finally asked, turning to the others.
“How about we just follow the shiny brick road?” Nyla suggested.
Payton made a face but Nyla did not pay attention. She was scurrying past her and into the tunnel on the left. A few inches in she scooped up her prize. Another coin.
“They’ve been all along the path. Coins, a few gems. There was one very dented cup but I left that behind. Figure we can get it later,” Nyla explained happily.
“Alrighty then. Follow the shinies.” Payton felt ridiculous saying that.
The deeper they went, the more treasures they began to find strewn and scattered on the ground. More than once Payton could see the people behind her scooping up the gold, silver, and copper pieces and trying to slip them into their packs or pockets without being noticed. It was silly. It wasn’t as if they were getting cut out of the deal, taking from the treasure now would only weigh them down if they ran into something dangerous.
There was no warning that they were about to reach the end, no increase in the number of shiny things along the path, just a strange glinting at the end of the tunnel. She took two steps inside the cave and then just froze in shock.
“Holy mother of dragon hoarders,” Atherly said in surprise.
Treasure. Mountains of it. Piles, hills, it was stacked all around, glittering in the low light that was streaming through from… somewhere. It took her a moment to find that there was a hole in the rock a very long way up. It looked small from the distance but must have been large enough for the dragon to get in and out of. Gold, silver, copper, gems of all colors, things the dragon must have looted from the Vaults were piled high all around.
“Look at it all,” Samuel said in awe.
“I didn’t think so much gold could exist in the world, nevermind in one place,” Isiah breathed.
Payton just stared, dumbstruck by at it all. “I think we’re going to need a bigger boat.”
The laughter that followed her statement echoed in the chamber. Nyla was suddenly running forward, straight at a pile. She flung herself into it. The sound of coins falling and rolling down was almost musical.
“Oh, that sounds like fun. I’m going for a swim,” Atherly exclaimed gleefully. He dove after Nyla, flopping backward onto his own pile of gold and flailing his arms around as though he were making a snow angel. A gold angel?
The others in the group exchanged a look and then let out an excited burst of laughter before most of them charged. This was more than any of them could have ever imagined. Payton exchanged a look with Jarrett. They were the only two who had hung back. She flashed him a bright grin.
“If you can’t beat ‘em… join them,” she said before racing after her brothers. “I’m buying a city! No, a country! I’ll just buy Vaelorn!”
“Creators, you as Caliph? That’d be a nightmare!” Isiah replied laughing and flinging some gold her way.
“Oi! I could put you in the stocks for that. I’d be your ruler!”
“Yes, sister dear.”
“Buy yourself some manners, peasant.” She flung a few coins at him before darting off to explore her own pile of treasure.
The joy and laughter echoed in the cavern for what seemed like hours as they all explored what the dragon’s horde had to offer. It was like a dream. A glittering, gleaming dream that she was not sure she wanted to wake up from.
Spottin
g Jarrett across the room – still, the only one not participating in the gluttony of gold – Payton shifted in her spot, getting up. She climbed over the heaps of coins and cups and whatever else was hidden beneath it all, heading in his direction. Skidding down the pile closest to him, she giggled at the tinkling sound the coins made as they tumbled to the stone floor.
She plopped next to Jarrett, settling in. “How do I look?” she teased, striking a pose.
The dozen or more bracelets she had put on jangled on her wrists while she played with one of the three necklaces that were clipped over her coat. The sunlight that was lighting the cave gleamed off the jewels she had tangled in her hair and she could feel the tiara shift on her head when she tilted it.
“Adorned.” He answered simply but she could see his eyes shining with amusement.
Grinning, she laughed. “Good, that was what I was going for.”
“You succeeded.”
Payton winked at him before looking back at the others. She snorted when she saw Isiah sprawled in a giant pile of gold like it was a mattress. Samuel was tossing silver coins at him and her twin was batting them away as though they were inferior.
“You appeared to be having fun with the treasure.” He stated it like it was a fact but she could hear the unasked question.
“You looked like you needed company,” she said with a shrug. Payton grinned mischievously. “And a crown.”
Lightning fast she dropped the crown she had found onto his head. The offending decoration slid until it was lopsided. Jarrett arched his brow at her causing her to laugh.
“You look perfect,” she giggled.
“Somehow I doubt that.”
“Bah.” She waved away his disagreement. They were silent for a moment – their revere interrupted by a sudden crash causing both of them to jerk, reaching for their weapons. Atherly lay sprawled at the bottom of the largest pile of gold.
“Ow,” the mage muttered.
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